USJE is pleased to congratulate Jackie Oswald, Regional Vice-President (RVP) for Saskatchewan and Manitoba (RCMP-Justice-PPSC), for receiving the Sheilagh Hanson Building Futures Award at the end of June in recognition of her mentoring work.
The Prairies Regional Council (PRC) Communications Committee presented Jackie with the award, which is one of the PSAC Prairie Voice Awards, at the PSAC Prairies Regional Convention.
The award is given to a PSAC member in recognition of their work mentoring in the workplace or union, and someone the Communications Committee describes as having “a kind heart that recognises the value of mentorship and invests time in the success of others.”
Kristy McDougall from Local 40059 wrote in her nomination of Jackie that she empowered members with passion, kindness and humour.
“If you call Jackie with a question, she’s going to push you to look in policy and the Collective Agreement, she’s going to discuss and debate with you, and she’s going to ensure you walk away with knowledge,” Kirsty wrote. “Jackie’s goal is to develop future Union leaders and with that comes teaching us where to find answers, who to go to, etc. not just providing a cookie-cutter answer and moving on.”
Jackie has worked all of her career to build up members, particularly women, spending time talking with them and encouraging them to maximize their education in the workplace and the Union.
“My mantra is don’t hold on to information. You are only as good as your weakest link. Everybody should know everything. If you are not bringing everyone up, then are you bringing them down,” she said.
Jackie, USJE’s longest serving RVP, has been involved in USJE since 1993, not long after starting with the RCMP as a Detachment Service Assistant in Lanigen, Saskatchewan. But union activism got into her blood long before then. Her father, a bus driver, started a CUPE Local at his workplace in southern Saskatchewan in 1970 to protest unfair treatment. Jackie remembers sitting at the kitchen table making signs for the picket lines, and she recounts with passion how her father was fired twice for his union involvement.
The PRC Communications Committee added Sheilagh Hanson’s name to the award last December, saying that Sheilagh embodied the qualities the award recognized: “Someone who teaches, encourages, and guides others in their development and involvement.” It is clear that Jackie Oswald has done just this over her storied career with USJE.