Local 401 Oil Sands Members strengthen their voice through new organizing program

Calgary – February 6, 2013 – UFCW Canada Local 401 members from Alberta recently gathered in Calgary for a one week, intensive union organizing and campaign leadership program.

Taking time from their busy jobs in the province’s booming oil sands, the activists drilled down on a wide range of topics including the limits of employment standards and the unionization process. But the program’s main focus was the importance of collective bargaining and the central role it plays in creating stronger communities, and in shrinking the income gap between the rich and the rest of us.

Local 401 is the leading voice for thousands of service and support workers in the Alberta resource industry, and the Fort McMurray oil sands region in particular.

“It was an eye opening experience for me,” says Local 401 Activist Taylor McHugh, who works at the PTI camp in Wapasu, Alta. “It made me realize how truly blessed I am to be part of a union. If I ever have an issue, I will never be alone and there are so many people out there who need this security too!”

There is a second phase to the program that starts in the coming months with the newly trained activists applying their organizing and leadership skills in a two-week hands-on session with one of the Local’s three regional growth teams.

For more information on Local 401 and their outstanding efforts, visit www.gounion.ca.