The Ottawa NPF picket line was joined by Bonnie Robichaud today, a lifetime PSAC member and trailblazer whose union activism resulted in new legal protections against workplace harassment and discrimination in Canada.
Robichaud was a working-class mother in 1987, employed as a cleaner at the Department of National Defence. For years, she suffered sexual harassment at work, and went on to lead a movement that won a landmark Supreme Court precedent, changing the lives of countless women who have faced harassment and discrimination at work. For the first time, employers across Canada were declared responsible for maintaining a safe, respectful and harassment-free workplace.
Robichaud knows what it’s like to be in a long drawn-out fight and shared words of encouragement for the striking Non-Public Funds workers.
“You will get that contract. This is a brief moment in your long journey in your union. You’re not standing here alone, you’ve got each other,” said Robichaud. “They exhaust you on purpose. They try to break you. Just keep showing up.”
Robichaud joined the picketers in a march around CFMWS.
