CUPE’s new course on the environment is getting its first test-run this week in Parksville, British Columbia.
“We’re learning lots and having great fun,” reported Al Gallupe, who is facilitating the course alongside Bev LaPointe, who also chairs CUPE BC’s environment committee.
“The privatization of our services and resources is drastically changing the way we live and work. This exciting workshop is a must for CUPE workers and activists, as we strategize our offense for public services in the age of global warming,” says LaPointe.
“Our hope is to inspire our members to be leaders in a growing shift of consciousness toward a healthy, clean and green world.
The new environment workshop, called Green Action, consists of a series of learning modules, each one focused on a different environmental challenge. There is an introductory module on what is happening in our environment, one on climate change, one on water, one on how to green our workplaces, one on greening the union, and one on taking action in the community.
“We designed it so that the material can be delivered in short chunks of time. We’ve made it easy for a local union to offer a two or three hour educational on water, or on climate change, for example,” explains Morna Ballantyne, Managing Director of Union Development.
The other feature of this workshop is that it is almost paperless. “Normally for a weeklong workshop, we ship boxes of material from Ottawa to wherever the workshop is held. This time we’ve deliberately kept the paper resources to a minimum. All the background information is provided on a participant CD or can be downloaded from our web site,” says Ballantyne. “We’ve included some great videos, like the Story of Stuff, that are free of charge over the Internet so participants can go home and share the information with others.”
To schedule the new Green Action workshop, contact the Union Development Department or your CUPE education representative.