As the end of the year approaches and I try to sum up what we at the Local have accomplished, it is hard to do. We have seen a lot of transition this year, with new folks stepping into the Full-Time roles of Vice-President, Health and Safety Coordinator and Unit 1 Chair, as well as the ‘official’ addition of the full time Unit 1 Vice-Chair. We have a number of new folks stepping into roles in our various units as Chairs, Stewards and Health and Safety representatives. This growth is reflected in the number of folks participating in the various education offerings, whether at area schools or at the Family Education Centre. Our Standing Committees are taking off and now that the Chairs of these Committees are on the Executive Board we are building broader representation at that level.
We are also continuing to tweak our long-standing events, like International Women’s Day as well as adding new offerings, like our very popular floral workshops, Forge games and the return of the Blue Jays trip. We really enjoy the opportunity to give back and engage with our members in fun ways. Our Recreation Committee does a lot of work behind the scenes and is always happy to hear any ideas or welcome new members.
As always, we have participated in various community initiatives this year. From the Women’s Committee’s back-pack project to my favourite, the United Way Plane Pull, our 5555 reps are showing up to give back to the communities we are in.
With two large rounds of bargaining completed this year, we are turning our minds to the next. We have two rounds of bargaining in 2026 in Unit 2 and Unit 4. We are continuing our work on cleaning up our archives and records, and modernizing and documenting our practices, policies and bylaws. Our long-standing hope to bring lunch n’ learns back to our membership, but using hybrid and asynchronous models will be a focus early in the new year. Our initial offerings will relate to ‘paid time off’ and our paramedical benefits. We want our membership to be able to more easily access information so they can understand what their rights, responsibilities and entitlements are under their Collective Agreements. We also are trying to develop resources for folks who are considering retirement and hope to leverage the wealth of experience our Retiree Chapter has in doing so.
This is by no means capturing all of the work that has been done at Unifor 5555 this year, and it doesn’t even speak to the day-to-day core focus of representing our member in their everyday work life. What I do hope folks get a flavour of, is how much work and dedication the Local has put in to continue to expand our engagement, accessibility, transparency and availability to our membership. A lot of the work we do is not seen, and so I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our members who have stepped up to be Representatives, Local Leadership or even just helped me stack chairs after a floral event. The successes we have had are due to that teamwork.
I am proud of what we were able to accomplish and 2025 and am looking forward to what we will build next in 2026.
In Solidarity,
Emily Heikoop
President