In 2003, Sister Audette became the first full-time President of UFCW Canada Local 1869. She was re-elected as President in 2005 and 2009. In 2016, Local 1869 merged with UFCW Canada Local 832, where Sister Audette now oversees the entire health care sector throughout the province. Audete also sits as a co-chair of the Manitoba Council of Health Care Unions (MCHCU).
For more than two decades, Sheila Watt-Cloutier has worked to protect the health and cultural survival of the Inuit and other Arctic Indigenous peoples. In 2007, the longtime Inuit leader, activist, and environmentalist was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2009, Andrea Horwath became the first-ever woman leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party.
A longtime social housing advocate and labour activist, Horwath began her political career as a three-term Hamilton city councilor (1997 - 2004). She moved to provincial politics in 2004 with a landslide by-election victory that took the riding of Hamilton East away from the incumbent Liberals. Currently she is the MPP for the riding of Hamilton Centre, and the Leader of Ontario's Official Opposition.
With strategic support from the UFCW Canada caucus, Horwath was chosen as the Ontario NDP leader at the party's leadership convention in March 2009.
Huguette Plamondon dedicated over five decades to building the union, improving the lives of working families, and breaking down barriers for women in Canada. She died on September 29, 2010 at the age of 84. Plamondon started out as a secretary in the Montreal office of the United Packinghouse Workers of America (UPWA), a predecessor union of UFCW Canada, in 1945.
Shortly after entering the workforce, Sister Plamondon found herself embroiled in a massive strike that involved Canada’s entire meatpacking industry. Motivated by a strong belief in social justice, Huguette became an ardent supporter of the strike. She led pickets, and became a source of inspiration and encouragement for her sisters and brothers in the labour movement. She was 21 years old.
Because Sister Plamondon possessed a rare combination of intelligence, passion, and eloquence, she rapidly rose through the labour movement’s ranks. And she made history every step of the way.
Huguette was elected president of the Montreal Labour Council in 1955, and in doing so became the first Canadian woman to lead a major labour organization. A year later, Sister Plamondon became the first woman in Canada to achieve a national union executive position by becoming a vice president of the newly-formed Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).
In 1961, Huguette took another place in Canada’s history, nominating Tommy Douglas as the first leader of the New Democratic Party at the NDP’s founding convention. She served UFCW Canada as an International Vice-President and Executive Assistant to the National Director for many years, and was the long-time president of UFCW Canada Local 744P in Quebec.
After three decades of activism, Suzanne Hodge was elected as President of UFCW Canada Local 247 in 2010.
Sister Hodge first became a member of UFCW Canada when she began working as a cashier for Safeway in December 1975. In 1982, she was elected to the UFCW Canada Local 1518 Executive Board and also worked for Local 1518 as temporary staff. In 1991, she joined the UFCW Canada National Office as an International Representative assigned to British Columbia. Three years later, Suzanne joined UFCW Canada Local 777 as a Staff Representative, and a year later became Assistant to the President. UFCW Canada Local 777 and UFCW Canada Local 2000 then merged to become UFCW Canada Local 247, where Sister Hodge was elected Secretary-Treasurer in 2006. Now as President, Sister Hodge leads a Local Union with more than 14,000 members. She also serves as an International Vice-President on the UFCW International Executive Board.
After serving as an Organizer, Director of Education and Research, Executive Assistant to the President, and Executive Vice-President, Pearl Sawyer is elected as President of UFCW Canada Local 1000A in 2011.
In April 2016, Sister Sawyer was elected as Executive Vice-President of UFCW Canada Local 1006A. She also serves as a UFCW International Vice-President; a World Executive Board Member with UNI Global Union; and a UFCW Representative with UNI Commerce Global Steering Committee.
Kathleen Wynne becomes the first female premier of Ontario and the first openly gay premier in Canada.
In January 2013, Louise Lefebvre was elected President of Local 503, becoming the first openly gay leader of a UFCW Local Union. Sister Lefebvre currently sits on various committees, such as the FTQ’s Gay and Lesbian Rights Committee, the UFCW Canada Human Rights, Equity, and Diversity Committee, and on Détail Québec’s Executive Board. Through some of these committees, she has developed many contacts with employers, with other local unions across the country, and with UFCW Canada leaders.
Louise Lefebvre is a woman with a big heart who has proven to have character and integrity, and she has always worked in the best interests of the members. After playing a leading role in the merger of UFCW Locals 500 and 503, Sister Lefebvre now serves as the Regional Development Representative for Local 500's education and training centre, the Centre de formation de l’alimentation et du commerce du Québec (CFACQ).
In 2013, Terry Harris was elected President of UFCW Canada Local 649, which consists of a single bargaining unit at Federated Co-operatives Limited in Saskatoon. Sister Harris started working at Federated in 1999, and over the years served as an elected Shop Steward, Vice-President, and President.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada calls for a national public inquiry into the disproportionate victimization of Indigenous women and girls. The federal government responds by launching a national inquiry in December 2015. Prior to this response, demands for an investigation into the alarming numbers of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Canada were routinely ignored by the government.
A record number of women are elected as Members of Parliament (MPs) in the 2015 Federal Election, with 88 women winning seats in the 338-member House of Commons. This represents a gain of twelve seats over the former record of 76 women elected in the previous Parliament.
The UFCW International Executive Board elects Esther Lopez as the union’s new International Secretary-Treasurer – the first woman ever elected to this position.
Manitoba breaks new ground in Canada by enacting paid leave for domestic violence victims. Under the new law, survivors can take 10 days off as needed in a 52-week period, with 5 of those days paid.
Saskatchewan passes legislation providing protected leave for victims of domestic violence. Introduced in December 2017, the bill allows for a maximum of 10 days of unpaid leave, whether the violence is directed at the employee, their child, or a person for whom the employee is a caregiver.
Ontario and Alberta enact laws providing leave for survivors of domestic violence. Ontario’s law provides 10 days of leave with 5 of those days being paid. Alberta’s law allows for 10 days of unpaid leave. British Columbia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nunavut, the Yukon, and the Northwest Territories have yet to act on the issue, highlighting the need for sustained activism in support of paid leave for victims of domestic violence.
Gender equity becomes a reality at the UFCW Canada National Council Executive Board, as the gender equal council convenes for the first time since a resolution was passed to expand and restructure the union’s governing body in August 2017.
An analysis of 2016 census data conducted by the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) finds that women workers earn an average of $15,900 less per year than their male colleagues. The report’s findings reveal a stark gender wage gap in Canada and demonstrate once again why action on this problem is urgently needed.
In 2021, Bea Bruske was elected President of the Canadian Labour Congress. She is only the second woman to hold the position.
For more than three decades, Bea has served workers and their families as an activist, workers’ advocate, negotiator, community organizer and labour leader. Before her election as President, Bea served as Vice-President of the UFCW Canada National Council. She had previously served as Secretary-Treasurer for UFCW Local 832, where she was responsible for the largest private-sector union local in Manitoba.
Bea’s passion for the rights of working people was ignited in 1987 when she and her UFCW Local 832 co-workers held the line for 125 days to achieve a fair contract at the Westfair grocery chain in Manitoba. Over the next seven years, Bea took on roles as a shop steward, health and safety committee member, and was elected by her fellow members as a vice-president of the local’s executive board.
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