VANCOUVER—CUPE BC officially kicked off its preparatory work for the next local government elections earlier this week with its first-ever virtual townhall meeting with CUPE Local presidents across the province.
Hosted by CUPE BC President Mark Hancock and Secretary-Treasurer Paul Faoro, the townhall meeting attracted more than 140 local presidents and featured discussions on political action, CUPE BC’s 2014 convention, and preparations for the November local government elections.
“It’s almost impossible to get all Local presidents together at the same time, so we found a cost-effective way to get us to get together in the same ‘virtual room’ to discuss the issues facing CUPE BC and CUPE locals all across the province,” said Hancock.
The townhall meeting also included real-time polling of the local presidents on a number of issues, including how active their local intends to be in the upcoming election campaigns.
“We heard almost unanimously that local presidents are enthusiastic about the use of this technology to communicate, and we’ll definitely be doing this again,” said Faoro. “Our members live and work in just about every community in BC, so it’s great to see that so many locals plan to engage their members about the importance of electing progressive candidates across the province.”
