ST. JOHN’S – The United Steelworkers (USW) union has brought 450 members, staff and guests to St. John’s as part of the union’s triennial District 6 Conference. USW District 6 includes members in the Atlantic region and Ontario. The conference, with the theme “We’re Ready,” will take place at Delta Hotels by Marriott St. John’s Conference Centre, at 120 New Gower St. and runs from Monday to Thursday.
Delegates to the conference will help set the direction for the district over the coming years, including in the areas of bargaining strong contracts, organizing new workplaces, building power through education, health and safety and political action.
The conference kicks off on Monday morning at 9 a.m. NDT with an Indigenous opening and an address from District 6 Director Myles Sullivan and presentations from a number of guests.
During the conference, members will have the opportunity to visit Bell Island on Tuesday and Wednesday and learn about the union’s important labour history of representing underground mine workers on the island.
Participants will also take part in a series of workshops focused on raising the bar on women’s health and safety, action on ending gender-based violence, political action, finding your voice in the union, building power at work and preventing and dealing with harassment in the workplace.
USW District 6 is the largest district in the union, with 80,000 members across the five provinces. Known as the health and safety union in Canada, over the last two years the union has been pressing Newfoundland and Labrador elected officials for a criminal investigation into the flash fire at the Braya Renewable Fuels refinery in Come By Chance on Sept. 2, 2022 where one worker was killed and seven more were critically injured. Since 2017, the union had been sounding the alarms on the unsafe working conditions at the refinery.
The USW represents 225,000 members in nearly every economic sector across Canada and is the largest private-sector union in North America, with 850,000 members in Canada, the United States and the Caribbean.
Each year, thousands of workers choose to join the USW because of the union’s strong track record in creating healthier, safer and more respectful workplaces and negotiating better working conditions and fairer compensation – including good wages, benefits and pensions.
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