Comrades & friends,
For those I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting, my name is Roland Schmidt and I was elected as your new 3rd National Vice-President (Organizing) this past May. Before my election, I was serving my 2nd term as the Local President of CUPW 730 (Edmonton and affiliates) in Alberta. Since relocating to Ottawa in June, I’ve dedicated my efforts to stabilizing our organizing department and constructing a comprehensive strategic plan that, with broad member support, will revitalize our union and position us to effectively fight to make our jobs better.
I’m very excited to report that on August 4, the National Executive Board held an emergency meeting and unanimously approved a new proposal for an internal organizing campaign. It is called Building Worker Power and will recruit organizers out of each Region to travel to, and collaborate with, Regional and Local leadership to conduct workfloor meetings and mass recruitment to train thousands of our members in workfloor organizing.