St. John’s Young Workers Committee 2016 Report

SJYWC 2016 ANNUAL REPORT

Since the PSAC St. John’s Young Workers Committee (SJYWC) was formed on March 25, 2015 and throughout the past year we have many accomplishments we would like to share with you. 

This year we continued to reach out, network and build our connections with other young workers within PSAC. We have increased our contacts and used social media to spread information to members through. The committee has a very active Facebook and Twitter feeds and have continued to develop a distribution list.  Although expansion will continuously remain a priority, together the committee worked towards our objectives; staying focused we successfully increased our membership and committee attendance.  The SJYWC developed a Trivia Contest offered to PSAC Young Workers in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The trivia was a huge success and helped us reach out and develop our contacts for PSAC Young Workers across the province.

We have continued to be leaders in our own workplaces, reaching out to other young workers, encouraging them join the young workers committee.  We continue to promote the committee and share information and knowledge we have to share.  We encourage our members to get involved, become active and become leaders themselves. There are a number of ways members can get involved, including, attending meetings, helping out with the committee’s events, simply joining our distribution channels (e-mail, facebook, twitter) and more.  

Throughout the year a number of young workers and committee members have had the opportunity to take advantage of various educational opportunities offered though the union. In particular, I would like to highlight two in which the SJYWC played a major role in helping ensure these events were a success. The first is the Social Media Training for Young Workers, held in St. John’s, NL, in July 2016 and the second is the Young Workers Symposium, in Port Blanford, NL, in November, 2016. Both sessions allowed us to meet and build relationships with other young workers within our union and allowed us to develop and build skills & knowledge and strengthen our abilities and confidence to share our experiences. The symposium provided an opportunity to encourage young workers to organize committees in their respective areas, as well as allowing young workers from the Atlantic region to interact with each other.  We would like to thank PSAC Atlantic for helping to make both the Social Media Training and the Symposium resounding successes. Thank you for helping us become leaders in our workplaces and communities and becoming more powerful through education.

This year the SJYWC has been represented at various community events including the St. John’s Pride Parade & Festival and the Labour Day Picnic organized by the St. John’s District Labour Council.     Members of the SJYWC represented PSAC’s Young Workers at the St. John’s National Day of Mourning ceremony.  SJYWC committee members also attended the Newfoundland & Labrador Federation of Labour Convention 2016 and the Young Workers Summit in Ottawa, ON offered by the Canadian Labour Congress.  The committee got involved in promoting anti-bullying by wearing Pink Shirts and submitting our selfies on our social media feeds. We also hosted a team building activity night, at Escape Quest as well as a movie night. The SJYWC also represented Young Workers at both PSAC St. John’s and NL Federation of Labour International Women’s Day Luncheons. One event in particular which was a major accomplishment for the committee was our involvement in the Orientation BBQ on Memorial Campus which was partnered with DCL within the PSAC, TAUMUN and Memorial’s Graduate Student Union. This event was also a success as it helped develop contacts for Young Workers in TAUMUN local.

Some things I have learned since joining the young workers committee include how to chair meetings, develop and interpret by laws, create and follow a budget, delegate tasks and allocate business.  I also have learned how to seek support from PSAC, other committees and locals. Another major benefit of being a part of the young workers committee is that the committee provides you with the opportunity to build relationships with our fellow brothers and sisters.  It allows you to network with other young workers, activists and other union members including PSAC representatives. The committee allows young workers to share and compare our experiences with each other.  This helps us explore the variety of challenges young workers face in their very own workplaces and propose solutions.

As Chair of the SJYWC I would like to thank PSAC Atlantic, and our members in the Atlantic region for helping make this year such a success for our committee.  I am proud to be leading the SJYWC on their journey and it has turned out to be a great decision and a extremely rewarding experience. I am looking forward to more exciting opportunities in 2017 for the SJYWC.

Leanne Moss
Chair
– SJYWC