United in Struggle: 2025 Young Workers Conference
More than 150 delegates and guests gathered at the Maritime Labour Centre in Vancouver, B.C., from September 10 to 12, for the sixth ILWU Young Workers Conference, which aimed to empower workers, foster leader[1]ship, and strengthen solidarity within the union.
The three-day event emphasized the importance of active participation, strategic organizing, understanding current fights in the context of past struggles, the ILWU’s values and traditions, and a commitment to fighting for the rights of all workers.
ILWU Canada’s Second Vice President, Dan Kask, welcomed everyone and encouraged the delegates to make the most of the three-day event. “You’re going to get out of this what you put into this; put in the effort. This room is filled with people who have attended this conference and are now in every level of leadership within the ILWU. This is the beginning of leadership, activism, and organizing training within the ILWU,” Kask said.
Throughout the three days, delegates heard from ILWU leaders, young activists, organizers, labor historians and economists, and key labor leaders from British Columbia and across the globe.
Welcome blessing
The conference was officially opened with a traditional welcome by Sam George, Sr. and his son, Sam George, Jr. Sam George, Sr. is a respected elder of the Squamish Nation, an original descendant of the Bow and Arrow Gang, and the eldest grandson of Chief Dan George and Amy George. He was a member of Local 500 for 43 years and has been retired for 19 years.
They performed a traditional blessing to officially open the conference, marking the start of the day with a prayer to the Creator, Mother Earth, and ancestors, asking for protection and love for everyone in the territory. Sam George, Jr. explained that their opening ritual is to ‘open a door’ for ancestors to join the gathering, providing guidance and support.
International Indigenous solidarity
The welcome was followed by Local 500 member Joulene Parent and Local 333 member Christina Verde. They discussed Indigenous solidarity and highlighted the connection between the labor movement and Indigenous rights. Verde explained how Indigenous people laid the groundwork for the values that the ILWU fights for: fairness, dignity, and collective strength.
ILWU Canada President Rob Ashton
ILWU Canada President Rob Ashton spoke on the conference theme, “United and Struggle.” He emphasized the important lessons of organizing, overcoming internal divisions, fostering constructive dialogue with those you disagree with, and the collective action of the working class against the ruling class.
“You’ll learn how to debate and discuss issues, without bringing people down but lifting them up, so their voices are also heard, even if they’re of an opposing opinion,” Ashton said.
He ended his speech with a call to action, urging delegates to become unifiers who can organize the working class to fight “the only war worth fighting” — the fight for the working class.
“The employing class and the ruling class like to divide and separate,” Ashton said. “It is your responsibility as organizers to bring people together and to find the common thread that binds everyone. The only division that should ever matter is working class versus ruling class.”
Crisis, inflation, and profits
Union economist Jim Stanford from the labor think tank, the Centre for Future Work, debunked the misconception that workers’ wages were the cause of the post-pandemic inflation surge.
“The storyline that we got from our central bank that looks after interest rates and oversees the banking system was that the reason inflation took off was because workers had too much money to spend,” Stanford said. “They said high prices resulted from too much spending power. Where does worker spending power come from? It comes from wages.”
Stanford compared data on employer profits, labor costs, and inflation rates to demonstrate that it was employer profit, not labor costs, that directly correlated with rising inflation. “There’s no correlation at all between wages and the rise and the fall of inflation,” he said. “You can’t explain what happened by talking about workers’ wages.”
He concluded that deliberate price increases by corporations — especially in key sectors such as global shipping, energy, and food — rather than rising wages, drove the post-pandemic surge in inflation. He explained that companies took advantage of the crisis to raise prices to increase their profits
Lessons from the 1912 Vancouver Free Speech Fight
Mark Leier, a history professor at Simon Fraser University, explained how social movements can build solidarity. He said solidarity is a practice that must be intentionally developed across political and organizational differences.
“Solidarity is not a point that you reach. It’s a discipline, a habit, that has to be consciously built, rebuilt, and refigured to reflect changing conditions and needs,” Leier said.
He examined the 1912 Vancouver Free Speech fight by the I.W.W. to illustrate how combining the complementary tactics of direct action, legal defense, political pressure, and inclusive self-organization can help labor movements achieve victory against repression.
The session included a small group exercise that emphasized the importance of understanding historical divisions and coordinating diverse roles of helpers, advocates, organizers, and rebels to strengthen collective power.
Pensioner perspective
A panel of ILWU Canada pensioners provided an important perspective on ILWU history. The group included Ron Noullet, Herb Howe, and Peter Lahay. The panel discussed the importance of learning from past struggles, building community leadership, and addressing systemic inequities. Each reflected on their biggest struggles and the lessons they learned from them, and their experiences of rank-and-file power in the workplace.
Unions and worker power
Local 23’s Zack Pattin led a session that included both large and small group discussions, focusing on the adversarial relationship between workers and employers, and exploring the sources of workers’ power and how they can exercise it. Pattin concluded with a history of the ILWU in the 1930s and 1940s. He highlighted the importance of coast-wise unity during the 1934 West Coast Strike and the significance of the “March Inland”- the successful effort to organize thousands of warehouse workers between 1934 and 1938 that was aimed at preventing strikebreaking and expanding the sites of struggle.
The first day concluded with a brief address by Jason Woods, President of Local 400, the Marine Division of ILWU Canada. Woods spoke about the importance of educational programs, such as the Young Workers Conference and LEAD, as successful pipelines for leadership development. He noted that two vice presidents for Local 400 have come out of the Young Workers program. Woods also spoke about the successful organizing efforts in Local 400, which have doubled the local’s membership in recent years.
Focus on organizing
Day two was filled with educational workshops focused on internal and external organizing. Delegates heard from several speakers, including ILWU International Secretary-Treasurer Ed Ferris, ILWU Canada First Vice President Tom Doran, ILWU Canada Third Vice President Jessica Isbister, and B.C. Federation of Labour’s President Sussanne Skidmore and Secretary[1]Treasurer Hermender Singh Kailley. ILWU Canada First Vice President Tom Doran opened the second day.
His address highlighted key moments of struggle for Canadian dockworkers, starting with the Battle of Ballantyne, when striking longshore workers were attacked by police in Vancouver, British Columbia, on June 18, 1935.
He then placed the current labor struggle in the context of the decades[1]long attacks on union rights and workers’ rights that began in 1973. “Employers and the capitalist class have sought to undo decades of victories by the working class” through the application of free market fundamentalism that “ushered in a half-century assault on trade unions,” Doran said. This has resulted in the weakening of unions and the “rise of the billionaire class across the globe and the impoverishment of the vast majority of the people in the world.”
He urged delegates to recognize the importance of solidarity and understand that workers are the producers of all wealth. He also cautioned delegates to think critically about the information they are consuming.
Young workers speak
Doran was followed by a panel discussion from the outgoing Young Workers Committee, who spoke on their experiences over the past two years. They encouraged delegates to stay engaged in their locals and to actively pursue educational opportunities. Local 23’s Brian Skiffington, Local 19’s DJ Marin, and Local 10’s Beau Logo facilitated a group discussion on practical tips on starting and sustaining a Young Workers’ Committee. The three shared their experiences starting one in their own locals and discussed the successes and obstacles they had to navigate, including the need to challenge local union cultures that discouraged participation by younger workers. Skiffington emphasized the importance of ensuring young workers have a voice and a path to participate early in their careers, before they develop habits of not participating in union activities due to years of exclusion.
B.C. Federation of Labour B.C. Federation of Labour President Sussanne Skidmore and Secretary[1]Treasurer Hermender Singh Kailley recognized the young worker delegates for already being leaders vital to the strength of the labor movement.
“I’m proud to be here with all of you, because this room is filled with power. Not power that will show up ten years from now. Not power that’s on its way. You’re not just the future of the labor movement; you are the movement. This event isn’t just a young workers’ conference; it’s a war room for the working-class,” Kailley said.
Skidmore added, “This movement is only as strong as the people who step up. The fact that you’re here means that you saw a chance to lead and you took it. And that’s really where the change starts. I’m here because one day I showed up. I kept showing up and doing the work. And the most powerful thing any of us can do is raise our hand and then inspire others to do the same. Because a strong union is one where every member has a voice.”
Beating Apathy
Local 23’s Zack Pattin and ILWU Canada Organizer Genevieve Lorenzo led an interactive workshop that challenged the notion that apathy is the primary obstacle to organizing a workplace.
“If you are looking at the problems in your union and you are going on the assumption that people don’t care about anything, then you have already lost. You can’t organize yourself or your union out of that situation,” Pattin said.
The fundamental lesson of the workshop was that apathy isn’t real. Everybody cares about something, and it’s the organizer’s job to ask the right questions and identify the issues that matter to people.
Spotlight on safety
ILWU Canada’s Third Vice President and Safety Chair, Jessica Isbister, spoke on the important topic of workplace safety. She shared a critical incident more than 20 years ago from her own career, where a co-worker suffered a life-changing injury in a ship’s hold. She emphasized that workers in Canada have the right to refuse dangerous work and the importance of workers knowing, practicing, and being prepared to exercise that right, despite pressures from their employer. She said that safety awareness and rehearsing refusal are essential to act decisively when unsafe working conditions arise.
Empathy & hope
ILWU International Secretary[1]Treasurer Ed Ferris addressed the delegates, stating that leadership is rooted in humility, service, and active listening. Ferris said that effective leaders should embrace discomfort, avoid ego, and maintain empathy and hope in challenging times. “Leadership is about service. It’s not about titles,” Ferris said. He recounted his own experience as a younger worker in Local 10, where he learned an important lesson from one of his mentors, Melvin Mackay, who taught him to turn complaints into constructive action.
Supply chain organizing
ILWU International Assistant Organizing Director Jon Brier presented on supply chain organizing and harnessing the “heat”— the energy and passion among fellow workers about an issue—and identifying the “hammer”—the points of leverage and pressure to apply to decision-makers and the tactics and actions that will be used to reach an organizing goal.
The session began with a demonstration of a “human supply chain,” which highlighted the complexity and fragility of supply chains and showed how workers acting in solidarity can strategically disrupt the entire system to create leverage for workers to win their fights.
Brier’s presentation included an analysis of the recent organizing victory by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) vehicle processing workers in the Port of Tacoma. The session was followed by a panel discussion with three WWL workers who recounted their inspiring experiences of struggling to form a union and join Local 23.
Safety and solidarity
The third and final day of the conference was packed with information on organizing worker solidarity and safety in the workplace, including a talk on workplace health and safety by Brian Campbell of the BC Federation of Labour Occupational Health and Safety Centre.
Union democracy
The final day began with a solidarity message from Paul Finch, President of the British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), which represents approximately 95,000 public and private sector workers. Finch informed delegates about the ongoing strike by BCGEU Public Sector workers, who are fighting for a fair wage increase. Approximately 15,000 of the BCGEU’s 35,000 B.C. public sector workers are participating in work actions. As the Dispatcher was going to press, the strike had been ongoing for more than six weeks, making it the longest strike by public workers in B.C. history.
Along with updating delegates on the strike’s progress, Finch highlighted the importance of unions as engines of democracy for the working class. “The number one reason unions exist is to have a democratic organization for working people,” Finch said. “We have inherited a democratic movement for working people that is not just to safeguard our wages but to allow us to come together and make collective, democratic decisions.” He emphasized that only through struggle can workers maintain worker-led democratic institutions.
Finch was followed by a session led by the East Van Workers Assembly, focusing on understanding how solidarity can be a powerful tool for the labor movement and exploring ways to better organize and express it.
“Every worker deserves a union”
Columbia River Lead Organizer Ryan Takas discussed the importance of organizing workplaces that have not traditionally been the targets of union campaigns, such as retail, preschool teachers, and restaurants. “Every worker deserves a union,” Takas emphasized.
To illustrate the effectiveness of this approach, Takas used the example of Local 5, which was born from an organizing campaign by workers in a non-traditional sector 25 years ago – bookstore workers at Powell’s in Portland. Local 5 continues to organize workers in non-traditional sectors such as preschool teachers, pet care workers, and nonprofit workers. They are now one of the fastest-growing locals in the ILWU.
The final panel discussion, titled “Organizing New Territories,” focused on tailoring organizing strategies to diverse sectors. Panelists included Sam Connolly, from CUPE Local 2278, which represents academic workers; Felix Trudeau, a former Amazon worker and president of the Laval Amazon Workers Union; Reagan, one of the founding leaders of Equity Strippers NOHO, and Eddy Pedreira, President of the Canadian Animation Guild-IATSE Local 938.
Global solidarity
A panel on international solidarity featured International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) delegates, including Luis de Lima, ITF Regional Coordinator for Latin America and the Caribbean; Colombian docker Oliver Orobio Diaz; Miracle-Ann King from the Barbados Workers Union and ITF Youth Committee Representative; Brazilian docker Laiara Martins; Dannan Edwards O’Neill from the Maritime Union of Australia; and ITF Western Canada Inspector Nathan Smith. Panelists discussed ITF campaigns to secure the rights of dock workers and protect seafarers worldwide. New Young Workers Committee This year, the Young Workers Committee for the next two years was selected by caucuses held on the final afternoon.
The Young Workers Committee
This year, the Young Workers Committee for the next two years was selected by caucuses held on the final afternoon. The Young Workers Committee from 2025-2027 will be:
Local 333 – Matt Campbell • Local 400 – Marcus Shepert • Local 500 – Gary Bains • Local 500 – Sanja Radulovich • Local 502 – Caitlyn Hoolsema • Local 502 – Trevor Honey • Local 505 – Kieran Payne • Local 508 – Ryan Lavallee • Local 514 – Justin Rovtar • Local 517 – Katie Lofto • Local 522 – Adrian Chan • Local 523 – Charles Ryan • Local 56, International Rep – Alexxa Esparza
Young workers’ movement
At the end of the conference, Dan Kask reflected on the growing support and activism of young workers in the ILWU and its importance for the long[1]term vitality of the union.
“This year’s conference was really successful,” said Dan Kask. “Over the past 12 years, the Young Workers initiative has transformed from a conference to a full-fledged movement, cultivating leaders who are now integrated into all levels of the ILWU leadership across the states and Canada. These leaders view the Young Workers Conference as their foundational starting point.”