Bonnie Pearson Interview: Rebuilding in the HEU
In this interview, Bonnie Pearson talks about growing up in Saskatchewan and the early influence of her activist parents. Bonnie details her early union involvement as a national representative with CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) in 1980s; the Devine government and privatization; her move to a job with HEU in Kelowna during a time of re-structuring; and changes within the post-secondary and health care fields over the years.
This interview was conducted by Phil Legg on August 23, 2017 in Burnaby, BC. It is part of our Oral History Collection.
In this interview, Bonnie Pearson talks about growing up in Saskatchewan and the early influence of her activist parents. Bonnie details her early union involvement as a national representative with CUPE in 1980s; the Devine government and privatization; her move to a job with HEU in Kelowna during a time of re-structuring; and changes within the post-secondary and health care fields over the years.
She describes the struggle to gain a provincial agreement for college educators, with the important issues of regularization and allowing part-time workers to participate in the pension plan; issues which are still battlegrounds today. Bonnie also speaks about the challenges of rebuilding within the HEU after the Bill 29 layoffs of 2002, and the consequences of the Supreme Court decision of 2007 which established free collective bargaining as a protected right. She ends with what she perceives to be threats to the labour movement of the future: income inequality and a deepening sense of grievance.