Retiree Address and Contact Form
Nominations Now Open
Nominations for the RWC are now open. Details for each position can be found below the nomination form.
The Chairperson shall preside at Retired Workers Chapter membership and Executive Board meetings and sign all vouchers authorizing withdrawals from the Retired Workers Chapter funds, organize all events and activities.
The Vice-Chairperson shall assist the Chairperson and assume the duties of the Chairperson in his/her absence
The Secretary shall keep minutes of all Retired Workers Chapter membership and Executive Board meetings, read all documents and conduct the general correspondence pertaining to the Retired Workers Chapter.
Collects voluntary dues, keeps track of Retired Workers Chapter funds, signs vouchers requesting disbursements from the Local Union from the Retired Workers Chapters funds and works closely and in conjunction with the Financial Secretary of the Local Union. S/he shall report monthly to the Retired Workers Chapter membership regarding the status of the Chapter funds.
The Sergeant-at-Arms shall assist the Chairperson in preserving order when called upon to do so
The duties of the Members-at-Large will be to assist the Chapter as needed including planning and managing events, tracking and reaching out to new retirees, and other duties as deemed necessary by the Retired Workers Chapter officers.
The duties of the Members-at-Large will be to assist the Chapter as needed including planning and managing events, tracking and reaching out to new retirees, and to bring to the attention of the RWC issues/events/speakers that are of concern/interest to BIPOC retirees.
The duties of the Members-at-Large will be to assist the Chapter as needed including planning and managing events, tracking and reaching out to new retirees, and to bring to the attention of the RWC issues/events/speakers that are of concern/interest to LGBTQ2SI retirees.
The meetings are held monthly on campus. Delegates are expected to fully participate in the meeting by making a report of what the RWC has been doing and then reporting back to the RWC what the Executive Board is planning.
This meeting is held annually in the Spring in Ingersoll. Delegates are expected to fully participate in the meeting.
Meetings every three months at the Local 707 union hall in Oakville.
Council occurs the week of Labour Day in Port Elgin at the Unifor Family Education Centre. Delegates are expected to march in the Port Elgin Labour Day Parade and then fully participate in the meetings throughout the week.
The convention is held once every two years in the Spring. Delegates are expected to fully participate in the convention.
The Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville CURC Area Council Meetings occur every other month at the Hamilton and District Labour Council office, 41 Adair Avenue, Hamilton. The CURC Convention is held biennially. Delegates are expected to fully participate in the convention and to attend as many of the area council meetings as possible.
The convention is held once every two years in the Fall. Delegates are expected to fully participate in the convention.
Approved ByLaws
Our bylaws have been passed and approved.
Retiree News
- February 3, 2020 3:09 pm
The retirees chapter has jumped right into the swing of things in 2020. Tai-Chi, Yoga, and Gentle Cardio are all back in session. The Walking Club is forging new paths and the Retired Chapter Meeting are all set, and will be posted on the website calendar shortly. Previous Next
- January 31, 2020 12:41 pm
Welcome to Unifor Local 5555’s new website! The new site has been completely redesigned from the ground up to help serve the members and the community at large, Just a quick tour: The Main page now works like a newspaper – get all the latest news from 5555. You will also see in the top menu links to everything on the website. The sidebar also has an events calendar where Local and local events can be seen. Units – Each Unit of Local 5555 now has it’s own dedicated page where you can find Unit specific information and documents as well as the latest news posts. Retirees – without our retirees fighting fo us in the past we wouldn’t be where we are today as a Local so they get their own page 🙂 Standing Committees – Each Standing Committee now has it’s own page as well with descriptions and contact info. Newsletters – Find and read all current and past editions. Contacts – The old website had contact all over the place so it has now been combined into one place to make things easy to find. All in all we’ve gone for a simpler design to make things easier and more logical to find. Enjoy!! Allan Fisher.
2019 Year So Far
2019 is already shaping up to be a great year.
Sessions have included: Preplanning Your Funeral/Final Wishes,
The Benefits of Acupuncture,
Improving Quality of Life for Seniors by a Regional Advisor,
Ontario Ministry of Seniors and Accessibility for Hamilton,
Reduced cost tickets for a limited number of retirees to see Jane Goodall’s lecture ‘Jane at 85: Reasons for Hope’,
The Retired Workers Chapter Annual General Meeting
A movie matinee of the movie ‘Book Club’.
In the works are sessions on:
Canada’s New Food Guide & Healthy Snacking with a Community Food Advisor with the City of Hamilton
Nourishing Your Digestion with a local Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine
A session covering All About Ticks/Lyme Disease with an Inspector from Hamilton Public Health
A session on Emergency Preparedness and Home Fire Safety with the Hamilton Fire Department
Retiree Benefits Review with Jim McAndrew, Health & Safety Coordinator for the Local
Home Sharing Options for Seniors (a la Golden Girls)
and our Annual Potluck Luncheon.
There are a few other workshops in the works as well.
All of the exercise programs continue (Yoga, Tai Chi, and Gentle Cardio, Balance and Strength), plus we have added an outdoor Walking Club.
2018 Year in Review
2018 turned out to be a great year, especially for retirees. The calendar of events, geared to keep our retirees informed and active, included: a loose leaf tea tasting presented by Steeped Tea; a hands-on natural perfume making workshop by Awesym Aromatics; a medication awareness / how to talk to your doctor seminar through Unifor National; a CPP/OAS information session for retirees by a Service Canada Representative; a nutrition presentation / cooking demonstration for seniors by a City of Hamilton Community Food Advisor; a financial assessment of everything retirement by an Investment Advisor with First Ontario Credit Union; a Let’s Take a Walk workshop including a hike by the Hamilton Council on Aging; a bus trip to Port Dover to catch a play at the Lighthouse Festival Theatre with lunch at the Beach House restaurant; a Healthy Brains Mind Buster session; a Wills and Estate Planning and Powers of Attorney session; a workshop entitled ‘Engaging Seniors in Civic Dialogue: from Dialogue to Action’ presented by Ontario Society of Senior Citizens’ Organizations; a Safe Computing seminar; a chocolate making workshop by Chocolate Tales; and the annual potluck luncheon. As well we offered a variety of exercise programs including: Yoga; Tai Chi; and Gentle Cardio, Balance and Strength.
2017 Year in Review
2017 saw the creation of Local 5555’s Retired Workers Chapter. With the passing of our founding bylaws and an online survey to help us determine what our retirees were looking for, we were off to a successful start to a busy year. We hosted seminars and workshops featuring: Kaitlyn McDermott, Volunteer Coordinator, from Volunteer Hamilton along with Mary Long, Senior Manager, Labour Community Service, United Way Halton and Hamilton speaking to us on volunteer opportunities; our Local’s Health and Safety Coordinator, Jim McAndrew, spoke to us about retiree benefits and coverage and how it differs from the coverage we had as active employees; Léony deGraaf Hastings a Certified Financial Planner, Elder Planning Counselor and Retirement and Estate Planning Specialist explained probate, the role of Executor and estate expectations; and Kathryn Kimmins who led us in a session of Laughter Yoga. We participated in Hamilton’s 2nd Annual International Day of Older Persons Celebration Lunch and attended the Hamilton Fall Garden & Mum Show at Gage Park Greenhouse. We supported our brothers and sisters in Unifor Local 112 during the Northstar plant occupation, and walked the picket line with Unifor Local 88 during the CAMI strike, and shared buses with Unifor Local 707 retirees to participate in the CLC convention in Toronto. We undertook lessons in Tai Chi and Yoga, and held a Movie Matinee screening of ‘The Help’. The Local sponsored one of our retirees, Jeanne Norris, to attend Unifor’s week long Retired Workers Council in Port Elgin. A few of us also tagged along on this year’s Recreation Committee’s annual ‘Spirits and Shopping Tour’ in and around Niagara-on-the-Lake. At our final meeting of the year, in December, we held a Pot Luck luncheon
Retired Workers Chapter Executive Board, from left to right: Mike Palme, Sergeant-at-Arms; Rosemary Viola, Chairperson; Liz Denesiuk, Member-at-Large; Dianne Bird, Secretary/Financial Officer; Rose Galano, Member-at-Large; and Kathy Ouellette, Member-at-Large. Missing from the photo was Nancy Clark, Vice-Chairperson.
