CWA Human Rights Conference 2024 Report

Attending my first ever CWA Human Rights Conference was such an enriching event!

The speakers, the workshops and the amazing community left me with my heart feeling full. The theme of "No Vote Is A Vote" was woven throughout the entire conference and we were reminded more than ever that this is an integral part of supporting our Human Rights endeavors. 

This conference was the largest ever attended with over 500 registrants from all over the country from various industries and unions, including AFA-CWA. We showed up and showed out there!

The opening ceremony on Day 1 included a deep dive into Project 2025, and a stirring speech by members of the CWA Human Rights Committee who worked hard to plan the event. It genuinely set the tone for the rest of the days we would be there. I attended 2 workshops on Day 2, "How To Not Work Until You Die" and "Addressing Systemic Racism as a Workplace Health and Safety Issue". Both workshops were very informative and provided a lot of valuable information, however the titles of the workshops and the content was slightly misleading. 

One Day 3, myself, Guy Bosworth and Tara Cattell represented the AFA-CWA International Human Rights and Equity Committee and presented a workshop entitled “Sex and Gender Identity in the Workplace and in our Unions.” The workshop had over 100 attendees across both sessions and included additional collaboration from our AFA-CWA union siblings. The reactions to our workshop from the audience were overwhelmingly positive and we received thanks from attendees from presenting this very important subject, including parents of trans children who have been supporting their children.

We shared resources with our attendees and this encouraged us to continue workshops and trainings to continually educate our unions siblings on these important issues. You can find these resources HERE

One Day 4, the final day of the conference, there was an Activist Mall where we were able to interact with and educate ourselves on various causes. 

I was able to learn more about and join the Minority Caucus and attend the Minority Caucus dinner and commune with people there. We were to watch CWA President Claude Cummings be honoured for his amazing work, and I was also able to watch the moving presentation of the Minority Leadership Institute renaming in honor of the amazing Dennis Serrette. Previous graduates of the institute wore special shirts to honor this moment and his son gave a wonderful speech about his father.

It was also very important for me to see that they had a gender neutral restroom available on the conference floor so that our trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming colleagues were able to use the restroom comfortably. The use of printed people's pronouns on people's name tags was also wonderful. However, I will note that several speakers still used gendered language in their speeches and workshops and I hope this is something they will correct in the future.

All in all, my experience in attending the conference for the first time was not just exciting and somewhat daunting, but also educational. I hope the event continues to grow and that I am able to attend the next one in 2 years. 

In Solidarity,

Jhenelle Jacas (she/her)