Friday February 19 2021
It gives me great pleasure to announce the decision of the National Executive Board with respect to the selection of the Chief Negotiators for the 2021-2022 collective bargaining. Nancy Beauchamp will be Chief Negotiator for the CUPW RSMC bargaining unit and Lana Smidt will be Chief Negotiator for the Urban bargaining unit.
Lana Smidt
Sister Lana Smidt is currently the National Director for the Prairie Region. During her career at Canada Post, she has worked as a postal clerk, mail service courier, letter carrier assistant and letter carrier. In 1995, Lana began her union involvement by becoming a shop steward and Chair of the Saskatoon Local Women’s Committee. She served as Recording Secretary from 1996 until 2006 when she was elected as Local Secretary-Treasurer. In 2009, she was elected as Saskatoon Local President. In 2011, Lana was elected as a Union Representative for the Prairie Region and moved to Winnipeg to take up her position. In 2015, she was the first woman to be elected as the Prairie Regional Grievance Officer. In 2019, she was elected to her current position of National Director, Prairie Region.
In addition to having served as President of a local and having lengthy grievance arbitration experience, Lana also has extensive negotiations experience. She served on union negotiating committees for the T-Force private sector bargaining unit in 2009, 2011, 2018 and 2019.
Nancy Beauchamp
Sister Nancy Beauchamp is currently the National Director for the Metro Montreal Region. She began her career at Canada Post in 1995 as a rural route mail courier. In 2002, Nancy began her union activity by becoming an organizer in the RSMC sign-up campaign.
In 2004, she served as 1st Vice-President of the Hautes-Laurentides Local in addition to working as an organizer on several union organizing campaigns between 2004 and 2007. After transferring to Montreal in 2007, she became Chair of the Montreal Local Women’s Committee. In 2008, she was elected to the position of Alternate Union Representative for the Metro Montreal Region and then served as Union Representative for the Region from 2010 to 2019. In 2019, she was elected as National Director, the first woman and the first RSMC to hold this position.
In addition to her organizing and grievance arbitration experience, Nancy also has extensive negotiations experience serving on national negotiating committees in 2008, 2012 and 2016. In 2018, she was the first RSMC to serve as Chief Negotiator for the RSMC bargaining unit. Nancy also served on the RSMC Pay Equity Committee from 2016 to 2018.
Proven, Experienced, and Dedicated Leaders
As you can see, both of these Sisters have a wealth of negotiations experience and have served in numerous leadership positions at the local, regional and national levels. In the past they have both broken through gender barriers to take on important union positions to serve the membership. Now they have stepped up to take on a tremendous responsibility as Chief Negotiators. They both deserve our thanks and full support during the entire process of negotiations.
In solidarity,