OMECC 2013

Hi everyone! Tiffany, CUPE Local 960 Vice President here reporting back from the Library Workers' Conference AND OMECC. What a busy week! We were lucky enough to have our entire executive there and let me tell you - our to-do list is now EXTREMELY long!  We live tweeted the entire event and were very prominent with social media. Check out all the OMECC tweets here:

Tweets about "omecc2013"

Tuesday and Wednesday were the days of the Library Workers Conference and we learned so much from Local 4948, Toronto Public Libraries. They have an excellent 'Love a Librarian' campaign and really taught us that the public sector, even beloved library workers, are never safe. We have to stand up for our job security. We heard reports from libraries all over Ontario and some of us are in very similar positions. Our contract is up for renegotiation in 2014 and we've gotten lots of ideas and input from other locals on improving our language!

4948 President, Maureen O'Reilly, also shared an amazing article that she wrote called 'Melvil's Girls: Still Struggling to Survive' that can be read in the CLA Feliciter magazine. Why are library workers still struggling to stand up for themselves? Read the fascinating article and find out more.

We also learned how to lobby municipal candidates and officials and keep track of their voting styles so we know who is in support of us.  We're also working on a mission statement and strategic plan, which we learned how to do at LWC and OMECC.

We took many courses at OMECC as well as listened to local reports and learned how to build coalitions. We have some exciting changes coming to CUPE LOCAL 960. We took courses on Labour History and by learning from our past we can look to the future. Some key things we noted:

Vote as if your job depends on it.  At OMECC they showed the provocative film, 'We Are Wisconsin' directed by Amie Williams.  After the movie, one of the key regular people interviewed was Brian Austin, a Wisconsin police officer. He had wisdom to share with us after going through what happened in Wisconsin. To read a great review of the movie,visit here. 

Build coalitions. Every partner in the community is someone who supports our jobs and what we do for a living. We will be seeing how we can work with local businesses, community partners, and more. We also want to do more for the community in many ways. 

Think outside the box. Our local is already pretty good at doing this but we can always improve! What suggestions do you have?