Click here for high resolution photo of Julie Cromarty

EDMONTON – Alberta Union of Provincial Employees activist and organizer Julie Cromarty has been named the first recipient of the union’s new DOVE Award.

The award – the initials stand for Day of Validation and Equity – was approved at AUPE’s last annual convention in October and will be given each International Women’s Day to a female member who has contributed to the betterment of women within the union.

Cromarty joined AUPE in the fall of 1996 when staff at the Good Samaritan continuing care centre in Stony Plain voted to become members of the union.

"She is an activist who played a key role in organizing Good Sam Stony Plain employees, and she has tirelessly contributed to organizing Good Sam sites since then," said AUPE Vice-President Lynne Gingras, who presented the award to Cromarty at 11 a.m. today at AUPE Headquarters in Edmonton.

"There were about 200 Good Sam employees in AUPE after our first organizing effort there," said AUPE President Dan MacLennan. "Thanks to Julie’s efforts, our members from Good Sam operations now number about 700."

Since then, in addition to her organizing activities, Cromarty has been extremely active in numerous union roles. She has served at various times as a union steward, negotiating committee representative, chapter chair, chapter council representative and an AUPE legislative committee member.

She is currently chair of AUPE Local 58 and the local’s representative on the Provincial Executive, AUPE’s governing body.

"Julie is a model union member," said MacLennan. "She is an enthusiastic activist, tireless in her efforts to organize new members as well as to effectively represent people who are now members of AUPE."

Born in Scotland, Cromarty immigrated to Canada in 1967 and grew up in Kitimat, B.C. In 1986, she became an employee at the Good Samaritan continuing care centre where she played a key role in organizing the facility in November 1996. Outside of work, Cromarty has been active with minor hockey in Stony Plain.

Cromarty was nominated by Local 58 member Darcy Shenfield, who described her as a pillar of strength to Good Sam employees. It is thanks to Cromarty, she said, that members have the "security and rights in the workplace that we now enjoy.

"Julie gives so freely of her time to the members," Shenfield wrote. "I really do not know where we would be now if it wasn’t for Julie."

When AUPE convention delegates approved the award in October, their goal was to "take a step toward the goal of recognizing in a formal way the vital contribution women make to our union," Gingras said.

"Women play a key role in AUPE and in the union movement," MacLennan agreed. "We are all exceedingly conscious of that reality, and grateful for it. The DOVE award is a way of putting the feelings of gratitude we all feel, women and men alike, in concrete form."

A winner was chosen by the AUPE Women’s Committee from numerous nominations received from members since the creation of the award at convention.

"We had several really excellent nominations and it was very difficult to make a choice," Gingras said. "The quality of nominees was so good that in a way it’s a shame there could only be one winner."

For more information, contact:
Lynne Gingras, Vice-President, AUPE, 780-930- 3372 or 780-446-7033 (cellular phone)
Dan MacLennan, President, AUPE, 780-930-3301 or 780-910-8392 (cellular phone)
David Climenhaga, Communications Director, AUPE, 780-930-3311 or 780-717-2943 (cellular phone)

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