Over the past several years, our industry has experienced growth, and faced challenges and threats that have the potential to impact our careers as seamen. The SIU of Canada’s role in protecting the jobs of Canadian sailors has become ever more prominent.
Recently, President Given, along with other members of the SIU, have been pushing the boundaries, fighting for strongly enforced Cabotage Laws and labour rights across the globe. As part of our increased effort to ensure the voices of Canadian seafarers are heard, we have launched new ways to communicate with both our members, and our external stakeholders, in Canada and abroad.
In recent weeks the SIU of Canada has launched a new website and refreshed our social media presence, as well as publishing our first of many quarterly e-newsletter, The Sailor. We also developed a short video clearly explaining why we fight so hard for Cabotage Law.
As many of you will know, we recently re-launched our Facebook page to regularly announce union updates, share news and promote engagement amongst our members, their families, and others interested in the marine industry. We’ve also been sharing regular updates on Twitter and launched a YouTube channel. Our community is strong and growing thanks to our supporters.
Earlier this month, we unveiled our new website. The new seafarers.ca features photos of our members hard at work, along with recent news and updates from the President, career opportunities and member resources. We’ve also launched a new series called Seafarer Stories, highlighting individual SIU members as they share stories about their career and themselves. You can read our first story on member Greg Wells here.
One of the biggest changes to how we’re communicating with members is a new email version of The Sailor. For many years, The Sailor has been a beloved newspaper for our members. We wanted to preserve this tradition, but in a new, updated format. The email newsletter will appear in members’ inboxes quarterly, and will include news updates, member photos and seafarer stories. You can sign up for The Sailor here.
Through this renewed commitment to communication, we are better able connect directly with our members, prospective recruits, the government and international Seafarers’ organizations to talk about our industry. There are also more avenues for you to connect with us than ever before, and we are always happy to hear from you.
We’re not reinventing the wheel, we’re simply doing what needs to be done to provide up-to-date, world class representation for our members.
