Turning apathy around at Menno Home

hope. They tried again with a third election. But this time, they took a more people-powered approach.

“We went to each floor, each unit, each member and said, ‘Who do you want to nominate? Who do you think would be fantastic at this?’,” enthused St. Pierre. “And members came up with dozens of names.”

They went back to the nominees and told them how many of their co-workers said they would be great on the executive and should run for a local position. And then, St. Pierre asked them if they would accept.

“Most people said yes,” says St. Pierre. “And, of course, so many members showed up to vote – because they had all nominated people they believed in, people they wanted to see succeed.”

With that election, the Menno local never looked back.

“We continue to work to ensure the grassroots know exactly what’s going on, how the local functions, and most importantly that they don’t need a ton of experience to get involved,” says St. Pierre.

AFTER spending nearly two years in a drive to unionize her assisted living facility in Abbotsford, HEU member Shivonne St. Pierre believed the spark of activism would keep growing among members.

But seven months after Menno Home certified, something happened during the second election for the local’s executive. Something so disastrous that St. Pierre, then the local vicechairperson, was worried about the future of the local.

Leading up to that election, St. Pierre and other activists spoke to more than two dozen members who ran for a position the previous time. All committed to standing for office. Come election day, no one put their name forward.

“None of the people who had said to me that they would run, did – and they didn’t lie to me,” explained St. Pierre. “They just lost confidence between the time I talked to them and the election – and that was such a huge mistake.”

Instead of getting down on herself about the loss, St. Pierre recalled the words of renowned feminist and intellectual dissident bell hooks.

“She wrote that it’s okay to name the problems in society and to complain about them. But when that’s only what we do, we actually remove hope because what we are doing then is just cynicism.”

St. Pierre and her fellow activists pursued