PSAC wins two awards from the Canadian Association of Labour Media

The PSAC has won the Dennis McGann Stroke of Genius award for the most unusual, innovative, novel communications project at the Canadian Association of Labour media (CALM) awards banquet 2013.

This winning online sensitization campaign: Food for thought – Food Safety Protects Canadians was cited by the judges as “An excellent idea to use humour in these very serious times of attacks on workers and their unions in Canada, and cutbacks to the public services they provide Canadians. We need to try to stay on the sunny side as we face such grim, selfish attacks on the public good by private for-profit interests. This project used surprising, fun photos to make the point.”

Food Safety Protects Canadians also won honorable mention for best campaign.

The objectives of this campaign were to demonstrate in an innovative, novel and humorous way the important work our members do on behalf of Canadians.

Photographic montages of our members in action inspecting food in various poses were created. We gave a voice to these members-they narrated their photographs by explaining the impact downsizing was having in their workplace.

The PSAC felt it crucial to demonstrate to the public the impact these cuts to food safety could have on Canadians.

Background:
Over 4,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) work at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They perform a wide variety of jobs, including meat, poultry and produce inspection. They monitor and audit the federally regulated inspection programs of the food industry in Canada and enforce federal laws.

Since 2011 however, the Conservative government has cut $56 million from the budget of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), meaning that there are now fewer food safety inspectors checking Canadians’ food for contamination and other hazards.