Please attend virtual Day of Mourning Ceremony on April 28
No matter where you work – maybe in an office or in a provincial park – workplace safety should be important to you.
It certainly is to the two AUPE members who have won this year’s Rolyn Sumlak Award, both of whom have a long track record of advocating for worker safety.
The winners are Christine Scotland (Local 005/Chapter 001), who works at Peter Lougheed Provincial Park, and Coralie Podealuk (Local 002/Chapter 002), who works with Community and Social Services at the Meadowlark Office in Edmonton.
The award was created by Local 012 in honour of one of their members, Rolyn Sumlak, who was killed on the job while working for the Government of Alberta. This year is the 30th year that the award has been presented to AUPE members for their dedication to occupational health and safety.
Scotland has been a representative on the Kananaskis Regional OHS Committee and served as a joint worksite health and safety representative. She has also taken several AUPE education courses to help her perform those duties.
She was an integral part in getting the Kananaskis region prepared for the first Certification of Recognition (COR) audit and subsequent audits. Her work developing the current Facility Emergency Response Plan for the Peter Lougheed Administration building was so successful that is has become the standard used by all facilities in Kananaskis.
As her nominator Dorinda Ainscough said: “To be quite honest, without Christine, I don’t think that the Kananaskis Region would’ve done so well in the audits we have had. Her extraordinary efforts were acknowledged by one of our previous Regional Directors at a Kananaskis staff gathering.”
Scotland has been with Alberta Parks for 40 years and became a permanent Conservation Officer in the 1980s. She was one of the first three women to hold that position. She has been an active member of Local 005/Chapter 001, serving as Secretary-Treasurer, Level 1 Steward and as an AUPE convention delegate.
Podealuk has been involved with worksite committees for decades in Community and Social Services, including serving two terms on the Local 002 OHS sub-committee, with one term as the vice-chair.
She has participated at three AUPE OHS conferences and taken several AUPE education courses. She has been a long-term active member within the Chapter and the Local and has been a council representative for more than a decade.
Podealuk was instrumental in Alberta Employment and Immigration, Edmonton Region, achieving its Certificate of Recognition (COR).
For her work in this area, she received the Trailblazer Award from the Government of Alberta (GOA). She also received the Edmonton Region Recognition Award in 2006, when the region obtained its first COR, and received AUPE recognition in 2005 for the Baseline COR.
Nominator Natasha Foran-Botsford said she is one of many who has been inspired and mobilized by Podealuk, particularly in her efforts to stand up to a bully manager to protect fellow AUPE members.
“This OHS champion has survived two of the worst employers known to GOA (Klein and Kenney), recruited tens to even hundreds of folks to become engaged if not mobilized in AUPE at the site, Chapter and Local levels.”
Scotland and Podealuk will take part in AUPE’s annual Day of Mourning ceremony on April 28. Please do all you can to attend this important online Zoom event to recognize these worthy award winners, to mourn for workers lost or inured at work and to fight to make workplaces safer.
- What: AUPE Day of Mourning Ceremony, for workers killed, injured or made ill by their job
- When: Thursday, April 28, starting at 2 p.m. (Mountain time)
- How: Please click the link below to join the webinar.
https://aupe-org.zoom.us/j/84826001152
Or dial and join by audio only:
1 587 328 1099 (long distance charges may apply)
1 855 703 8985 (toll free)