Join Us at the Vancouver Pride Parade!
For the first time since 2019, the Vancouver Pride Parade is BACK for its 44th year! The parade is on Sunday, July 31 from 12:00 to 15:00, and Unifor's BC Regional Council has an entry! If you are able, please come out and march with the Unifor BC Regional Council, the Local 111 Pride Committee, and our rainbow float! You are welcome to bring your kids along, too! Unifor's staging location is ES-6, on Alberni Street between Thurlow and Burrard. Please arrive at noon. It will probably be a hot and sunny day for the 3km march, so please wear light clothing, comfy shoes, a hat, and sunscreen. You should also consider bringing water with you, but we will have some on hand. We look forward to seeing you there! We also need volunteers to help us put the float together on Saturday, July 30. If you are available to help, you can sign up here!
Unifor Pride Bus Ads!
Check it out! The Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee has worked hard over the last several months with Lamar BC to make this special project come to life. Thank you to all our members who approved the funding for this project. As you all know, June is internationally recognized as Pride Month. The Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee wanted to recognize this in a big way this year, after two years of cancelled Pride parades and reduced action and activities due to Covid. We know there is a substantial LGBTQ+ community among our membership, and we want all drivers to be able to feel PROUD of who they are, and what they do! These ads let the world know that Unifor fights for us and our rights. There's a total of 12 buses with Pride ads on them: 6 trolleys at VTC and 6 CNGs at HTC. There are 4 different ad designs: 2 at VTC and 2 at HTC. We encourage you to search for and take photos with the ads and share them with the Pride Committee! We are disappointed that, due to time and budget constraints, not every depot was able to be included in this campaign. In the near future, we hope to do a second campaign which will include buses in all depots! We hope you enjoy this ad campaign, which runs for the month of June 2022. UPDATE: When our bus ad campaign went live on June 1, the public quickly noticed the disclaimers…
Bathroom Survey
The Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee's bathroom survey is now live! As you may be aware, TransLink is already working on plans to change the way bathrooms are designed across the system. They didn't exactly consult their employees on this, so the Pride Committee intends to collect data to present to TransLink to influence their decisions on the process. We encourage you to share your feedback on the sometimes troubling experience of using the bathroom at work. The survey is anonymous, and your personally identifying information will not be shared with TransLink or anyone else outside the Pride Committee.
International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia
Every year on May 17, we celebrate International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia. This is often shorted to IDAHOT or IDAHOBIT. The day was created to mark the World Health Organization's (WHO) important step to declassify homosexuality as a mental disorder on May 17, 1990. More than 30 years later, it is still an important occasion on which we call on local authorities, politicians, decision-markers, and the general public to recognize, support, and advance the rights of queer people around the world. This year, as we have done for many years now, the Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee attended Qmunity's annual IDAHOT Breakfast fundraiser to mark the annual event.
And the winner is…
The Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee would like to thank all members who came out to our second Big Gay BBQ event: 2GAY2BBQ on May 14, 2022, and everyone who purchased a raffle ticket! We drew the winner of our iPad Raffle fundraiser: Michael Pawsey at VTC! Thanks to our members, we raised $1,104.28 for Trans Lifeline and $1,104.28 for Rainbow Refugee. We had more than 100 attendees at the BBQ. Thank you for helping fight back against homophobia and transphobia at our IDAHOT BBQ! If you missed the event, stay tuned for Big Gay BBQ 3: Veggie Burger Drift…
iPad Raffle Fundraiser
Today is the last day to purchase raffle tickets for the Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee's fundraiser! The prize is a 256GB iPad Air (2022 model) valued at almost $1,000. Tickets are $10 each and the winner will be drawn at the Pride Committee's BBQ at Queen's Park tomorrow, Saturday, May 14! The funds raised from ticket sales will be donated to Trans Lifeline and Rainbow Refugee!
Political Philosophy
Unions and Pride have gone hand-in-hand since the UK's National Union of Mineworkers' strike in 1984, when Lesbians & Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) was formed by Mark Ashton. In response to the group's support, the National Union of Mineworkers was the first Union to enshrine LGBTQ+ rights into their Constitution in 1985. By necessity, both Pride and Unionism are political. Unions are involved in politics for three main reasons: 1. Gain recognition of the right of workers to form unions and bargain collectively; 2. Protect the gains they have won through collective bargaining;3. Promote justice and equal economic opportunity for all.Canadian Labour Congress These reasons can be applied in some way or another to why Pride is also political: recognition of the rights of queer people, protection of the gains queer people have won, and promotion of justice and equity for all. So what exactly is political philosophy? "Political philosophy or political theory is the philosophical study of government, addressing questions about the nature, scope, and legitimacy of public agents and institutions and the relationships between them. Its topics include politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of laws by authority: what they are, if they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect, what form it should take, what the law is, and what duties citizens owe to a legitimate government, if any, and when it may be legitimately overthrown, if ever."Wikipedia Corporations that wish to remain politically unaffiliated use…
Pride Committee Website
Welcome to the Unifor Local 111 Pride Committee's brand new website! Here, you can stay up-to-date on the Committee's meetings, events, and projects we are working on. Stay tuned for a special TOP SECRET project launching on June 1, 2022!