The Agriculture Union emerged from its August Convention with a new National President, an energized leadership and a determination to continue aggressively fighting to protect the workplace rights of our members.
Fabian Murphy was elected National President by delegates to our 17th Triennial National Convention, held in Moncton from August 16 to 18. Rick Cormier was elected to the other full-time, Ottawa-based position of First National Executive Vice-President.
Both Murphy and Cormier offered experienced and seasoned leadership, having each moved up one notch from their previous positions as First and Second National Executive Vice-Presidents. Milton Dyck, Patrick St-Georges and Mélanie Desrosiers round out the National Executive, having been elected to the part-time posts of Second, Third and Fourth National Executive Vice-Presidents.
All Executive members serve on our National Council, along with Regional Vice-Presidents representing defined geographical regions of the country and the National Director for Human Rights. The Council serves as the Agriculture Union’s governing body between triennial conventions.
Council members elected at this month’s Convention, along with the area they represent, are as follows:
Eastern Atlantic Provinces – Jan Pennington;
Western Atlantic Provinces – Tammy Carter;
Eastern Quebec – Jacquelin Carrier;
Western Quebec – Audrey St-Germain;
National Capital Region – Érick Martel;
Southern Ontario – Rob MacDonald;
Manitoba, North-Western Ontario & Nunavut – Jeff Griffith;
Saskatchewan – Karen Zoller;
Southern Alberta – Dorothy McRae;
Northern Alberta & NWT – Randy Olynyk;
Eastern BC – Dean Babuin;
Western BC & Yukon – Terri Lee; and
Human Rights National Director – Marlene O’Neil.
Of course, the Convention was about much more than leadership, as significant as that is. Most delegate time was given over to the important matters of policy, finance, administration and services. Our By-laws and Regulations were updated. And a comprehensive budget governing expenditures over the period 2018-20 was adopted.
Finally, Agriculture Union delegates to the 2018 Triennial Convention of our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, were also selected.