May 23–24: Advanced Organizing and the Law

This course will enrich your knowledge of both internal and external organizing principles, equipping you with the advanced tactics, strategic understanding and legal knowledge that will set your campaigns up for success.

Using an intersectional and inclusive lens, we’ll look at important components of organizing such as strike preparation, logistics and technical tools before delving into a more thorough understanding of both federal and provincial labour relations codes.

That understanding will cover precedent-setting cases, current disputes, raids and busts, rat unions, unfair labour practices and changing workplace structures, as well as how the labour code applies to specific industries.

For each theme, our lawyer-facilitator will walk participants through current and relevant examples, while our experienced organizer-facilitators explain how those cases apply to scenarios you’re likely to encounter. And throughout the course, labour leaders and union organizers will ground the content in first-hand experience and personal insight.

Facilitators

Sano (he/him)
Lead Organizer, IATSE Local 891

Sano has been a labour organizer for over 16 years and has organized in many different jurisdictions and industries within Canada. Focusing on both internal and external strategies, Sano is currently the Lead Organizer for IATSE 891 where the campaigns had huge successes in the past year. His passion for organizing is informed by his experience growing up in poverty as a Japanese Canadian.

Marie Pantelis (she/her)
Organizer, HEU

After Canada wouldn't recognize her nursing credentials when she emigrated from the Philippines in 1978, Marie spent many years as a care aide and a union activist, helping to organize her first workplace with the Hospital Employees’ Union. She became an HEU staff member in 2003, re-organizing many of the workers caught up in Gordon Campbell's wave of health care privatization. Today she is the team lead in her department, and takes pride in the way HEU members stand up for dignity and respect.

David Tarasoff (he/him)
Lawyer, Hastings Labour Law Office

David Tarasoff obtained both a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of British Columbia before embarking on a career in labour law. He has practised union-side labour law since his call to the BC Bar in 1993 and has been a partner in our firm since 2002. He has represented unions before the Labour Relations Board of BC, boards of arbitration and the BC and Federal Courts. He has also appeared before the BC Human Rights Tribunal and has served as spokesperson in collective bargaining.

Agenda

Location