Women’s Committee

As the largest union of women workers in British Columbia, HEU has a long history of fighting for the rights of women in both the workplace and community.

The HEU Women’s Committee works with grassroots women’s groups, community coalitions and other trade union committees dedicated to the social and economic advancement of women’s rights.

Projects and initiatives

Every year on March 8 - International Women’s Day - HEU celebrates the achievements of women, and promotes women’s social and economic equality. Locals unions are encouraged to commemorate the day with information and events that recognize women’s struggle for equal rights and opportunities.

UN’s Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women

Canada is a signatory to the United Nations’ Convention to End All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Canada submits periodic reports to the UN CEDAW about its initiatives toward ending discrimination against women, and it relies on reports from the provinces and territories in order to give the most complete picture possible of the country’s progress.

The last time Canada filed a report was in January 2003.

By that time, Premier Gordon Campbell and his government had already implemented a significant number of policy changes and program cuts that disproportionately and negatively impacted women and girls in British Columbia. But these were not reflected in the Canadian report.

In order to ensure that the UN CEDAW would learn of the changes in BC, a group of organizations in the province known for their work to end discrimination against women and promote women’s equality gathered together as the BC CEDAW Group and produced a parallel document entitled British Columbia Moves Backward on Women’s Equality. The Hospital Employees’ Union was among those organizations.

As a result of this work, the UN CEDAW – in its response to Canada’s report – made special mention of the adverse effects caused by the BC government’s cutbacks and policy changes. This was the first time that the UN CEDAW had singled out a particular province for criticism.

Read the BC CEDAW Report – British Columbia Moves Backward on Women’s Equality – and the corresponding UN CEDAW response in which articles 35 and 36 directly condemn the BC government’s actions. (*Please note the BC CEDAW Report takes a few minutes to download).