Canadian Teamsters Support Breast Cancer Awareness

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, a prime opportunity for Teamsters to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research. Teamsters in Canada have put their creativity to use, coming up with a variety of activities to support the cause all year long.

“It’s very motivating and empowering to see that Teamsters are in the community, and the members feel proud to see their union as a body that helps,” said Brigitte Sottile, the Education Director for Teamsters Canada and President of the Teamsters Quebec Women’s Committee.

The Teamsters Quebec Women’s Committee has come up with many unique fundraising ideas, which have brought the membership together and raised money for this important cause:

• On October 4, 2009, about 50 Teamsters participated in the Run for the Cure, running or walking a 5-K. In total, the Teamsters raised $9,200 to donate to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. With the money, the Foundation will support programs for research, education, prevention, diagnosis, treatment and post-care of breast cancer.

• The Teamsters Quebec Women’s Committee also places boxes throughout the year in different local unions, and when staff and members pass by, they contribute money to the boxes. They also collected money in boxes at the Teamsters Canada Convention in June. 

• In August, the women’s committee started selling lunch boxes and purse holders that have the Teamsters logo and a pink ribbon, the symbol for breast cancer. The items, purchased by Teamster members, their wives, children and friends, were so popular that they ran out!

• Two business agents with Local 1999 in Montreal, the largest local union in Canada, volunteered to have their heads shaved at an annual apple picking event. About 600 shop stewards attended the event with their families. Through this event, Teamsters raised $2,500. 

• Local 1999 staff are not allowed to wear jeans to work, so one Friday, as part of a breast cancer fundraiser, they bought the right to wear jeans for $20. 

• The Teamsters Quebec Women’s Committee recently had all the Teamster locals in Quebec donate port, cognac, wine and champagne. They bundled the bottles together for a raffle, charging $20 per ticket. Through a drawing, two Teamsters won the prizes. 

• The Teamsters Quebec Women’s Committee will soon have two business agents who are talented painters create two pieces of art that will be sold at silent auction, to raise even more money for breast cancer research.

Teamsters in Canada are no doubt helping make a difference. In fact, a major breakthrough in breast cancer research recently occurred in Vancouver, British Columbia, and it helps reveal how the cancer begins and spreads.

In addition to supporting breast cancer research, the Canadian Teamster women are helping the community in this tough economy through raising funds for a shelter. The shelter houses mothers and children who are victims of domestic violence. Last year, the women’s committee gave $10,000 to this cause. This year, they are raising money and also donating of their time to help renovate the shelter. They will be painting and fixing up the shelter, and they ask for donations of furniture, posters, lamps, or any items that Teamsters can give. 

The committee will hold a three-hour conference on November 14, for shop stewards and members on violence in the workplace, in commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the Montreal Massacre. In 1989, 14 women were shot and killed by man at their university because the killer said he was “fighting feminism”. The women were in the primarily male-dominated engineering department. All women Teamsters in Quebec are invited to attend this conference.

The Teamsters Quebec Women’s Committee will also hold a conference in March in honor of International Women’s Day on March 8.

To find out more about Breast Cancer Awareness Month and what Teamsters are doing to commemorate it, go to www.teamster.org, and contact Teamsters Canada if you would like to help the women’s committee’s efforts.