UCTE represents workers at NAV CANADA who do scheduling, infrastructure and facilities work, learning development, specialists, and administration. Anita Sayaphet does quality assurance work on NAV CANADA’s Air Traffic Services training. She works in Edmonton and serves as President of Local 30313.
Before coming to NAV CANADA, Anita was a social worker. The background in caring work has more to do with her union role than you might expect.
Our collective strength grows partly from coming together in mutual support. Anita has only been at NAV CANADA for a couple of years but is already on the local executive and the Health and Safety committee. She also volunteers on NAV CANADA’s National Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging committee, which she sees as fundamentally connected with her union role.
Her experience helping clients as a social worker drew her to engage with her co-workers in difficulty.
“I want to transfer those skills,” she says. “Members can come to me and share their grievances, and I can support them and advise them. It’s really important in the workplace that you have somebody on your side who will be with you while you go through this struggle.”
Anita recently became Local President. On the local executive she intends to reach out and make more members aware of the supports that are available and the agency that they can have over their work life.
Through the union, workers can protect our rights and dignity during tough times. Anita acknowledges that there’s vulnerability in that too. Some members feel they’re taking a risk in just bringing forward their grievance and she sees the courage that it can take.
She is also motivated to raise awareness among members of the role they could take in shaping their own experience. “Everybody wants a safe and equitable workplace, a place to thrive and share their skills. . . . I don’t know if everyone realizes that they can design their own world within the ecosystem that they’re in.”
Anita herself feels that changing fields was a healthy move. “I have more control over my circumstance now, as part of a system that is more structured to make long term change.”
With her focus on empowering members and fostering a sense of belonging, Anita is helping build long-term strength and solidarity within UCTE.
