District 3 staff update

To All USW District 3 Staff

Sisters, brothers & friends,

It’s been just over three months since I was installed as the District 3 Director. One of the immediate challenges has been staffing, in particular to address a number of retirements.

First, I want to thank everyone for their patience and·cooperation as we have worked to make sure that we have a strong, skilled complement of casual and permanent staff representatives working with local union leadership and our members across western and northern Canada.

Some of the assignments have been in place or in the works for a number of weeks and even months, but some are just falling into place now. At a staff meeting last week, it was my great pleasure to announce that I have requested Mike Duhra to be hired as Assistant to the Director in District 3. Mike is a decades long member, who has held almost every position in his workplace and his amalgamated local union, USW 2009. Presently, he is a full-time local union representative and treasurer of his local, servicing over 20 workplaces and managing the local union’s building. Mike speaks three languages and is a well-respected leader in our union and a long-time colleague and friend. There will be a transition period as Mike and his local union work to replace him and we bring him into the District office.

Along with that change, I want to thank Earl Graham for his unequivocal commitment to the future of our District over the past few months. Earl will be staying in the District office as a coordinator, helping Mike transition into his new role and working on various campaigns, projects and assignments across the District. Earl has many years of experience and has committed to working with our new team of staff to move the District forward.

The other staffing changes involve the addition of casual staff representatives and my recommendation to promote three permanent staff to the role of Area Coordinator/ Key Staff. This role involves communication and liaising between the Director and the field staff, working with staff to coordinate workloads, taking the lead with Federations of Labour, political and legislative action in their areas and coordinating important projects and campaigns, all in addition to maintaining a servicing assignment. I’m very pleased and confident to have Dean Lott (B.C.), Darrin Kruger (Alberta and Saskatchewan) and Mike Pulak (Manitoba) take on these new roles.

Finally, I want to welcome the following casual staff representatives: Jonathan Karmazinuk is an experienced representative and member of USW 2009 who will be doing servicing, member outreach and assisting with education out of the District 3 office; Jeremy Wray is the long­serving, full-time president of USW 7916 and will be servicing in Saskatchewan and Manitoba; and Cindy Lee is a long-time union representative and member of USW 2009 who will be servicing out of Langley. We also have temporarily put on two interns to assist for a few months: Michelle Ravary (USW 1944) in Thompson and Robert Gosse (USW 7226) in Alberta.

Again, thank-you for your patience over the past few months. I’m grateful for all of the conversations with staff, local union leaders and members and I’m truly excited that we are positioning District 3 to be successful in the weeks, months and years ahead.

Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions.

Thank-you.

In solidarity,

Scott Lunny
Director

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