This year the BC Federation of Labour hosted the Western Regional Summer Institute for Union Women, “Equity. Justice. Reconcili-action: Building worker power through Intersectional feminism and activism.” https://conference.bcfed.ca/siuw2019/ It was hosted on July 2-6, 2019at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, BC. Each year in the Western part of the Americas over 300 women, trans, two-spirit, and Intersex people come together to join in solidarity and learn from each other on how to fight for labor rights.
This year our executive director Kristen Diangelo taught a workshop each day of the institute https://conference.bcfed.ca/siuw2019/courses-workshops and spoke at the graduation ceremony, calling for union women to stand in solidarity of sex workers as a labor force by adapting a resolution for the decriminalization of sex work in their union.
This is an event that moves each year. This year it was hosted by the BC Federation of Labour, last year it was the UC Berkeley School of Labor. We believe this coming year it will be in Seattle, WA and will post more information will be posted next year closer to the event. We strongly recommend this institute for sex workers or other workers who are engaged in fighting for labor rights, and/or who want to understand the intersectionality of labor.
Last but definitely not least we want to acknowledge that the 2019 conference was held on unceded Musqueam territory https://aboriginal.ubc.ca/community-youth/musqueam-and-ubc/. An issue that the US has yet to address with our own indigenous population.
