Injured Workers Deserve Better: Toward a Worker-Centered WCB
BC's Workers' Compensation Board was intended to be a worker-centered organization. But after devastating cuts and changes under the BC Liberals, it all too often acts like a for-profit insurance corporation, doing all it can to close injured workers' cases and force them back to work. This session is a unique opportunity to hear first-hand from experts who produced comprehensive reports; an advocate who worked directly with injured workers to tell their stories at public hearings; and the labour representative on the WCB Board. We'll cover just how widespread and damaging problems at WCB are — and the changes needed to ensure injured workers can truly count on it as an ally in their treatment and recovery.
Centering the Worker Experience: Stories From the Front Line
The past two years have affected us all very deeply — and often, very differently. This panel will bring together workers from a diverse range of backgrounds, sectors and regions to tell their stories from this time of pandemic and crisis. From their diverse lived experiences, we'll all gain broader perspectives on what solidarity means in some of the toughest times we've faced.
Worker Voices, Local Issues
Municipal elections may not get the splashy media headlines as provincial and federal campaigns, but their outcomes have every bit as much impact on the lives — and livelihoods — of working people. We'll look at how to make sure workers' voices are front and centre: not just in this fall's elections, but on local councils and school boards in the months and years that follow.
Friday afternoon workshops
Speaking Up On Local Issues
This fall communities across BC will be holding local elections. Local elections are critical organizing opportunities in our communities. They offer workers an opportunity to shape the policies that impact them where they live. This workshop will help you identify key issues, develop strategies to speak up, and ensure workers voices are heard!
Women’s Health & Safety
All workers face health and safety issues at work - injuries, workplace hazards, diseases, and stress. Many of these issues have a gender dimension - they affect women in particular ways. This workshop provides participants with the opportunity to develop their ability to identify, assess and control workplace hazards from a woman’s perspective.
Equitable Organizing: Building Relationships between Labour and Community
In this workshop we will think through equitable organizing and how to better understand barriers we face including those faced by diverse communities. We will think through: the various tools unions currently have; avenues whether traditional or digital for outreach and where can we harness opportunities to build relationship with community while increasing awareness about the labour movement, worker rights and unionizing.
Beyond Buzzwords: Deepening Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Work in Unions
Our relative power and privilege change from one situation to another. In this workshop, you'll practice recognizing where you rank in different contexts — and to use that recognition to learn and start productive conversations. We'll discuss conflict as an opportunity, a necessary mechanism of change, and a milestone for personal and organizational growth. And finally, we will practice embracing conflict as a constructive tool for change within organizations.
The Problem With Precarity
As platform and gig work expands, the public conversation about the impact of precarious work has grown. However, gig work and misclassification are an old game used by employers to lower employment costs, gain competitive advantage, and reduce worker rights. This panel will explore the impact of worker misclassification and policy solutions to fix the problem.