Ashley Duncan and Lee Loftus attended this years Women Build Nations Conference in Seattle, Washington.
Women Build Nations is the annual North American Women’s Conference. It was widely attended by people from all over, including Ireland! The WBN Conference not only holds multiple workshops, speakers and courses through-out the 3 days, but has plenty of solidarity building events, like a rally through the streets of Seattle with each trade waving their union banners.
“I’ve gone for the last few years, and it’s been awesome watching it build.” says Duncan. “The first year I went there were 6 insulators, this year there were 96 of us! It’s so exciting to meet your fellow Sisters and build friendships with people from all over Canada and the USA.”
Loftus echoes her statement. “Being in the room with close to 2300 women tradespeople is unbelievable. These union members ooze of pride and commitment to each other. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this in the labour movement. I’m so proud to see our International get behind this movement and help drive it!”
“I hope that next year we can build up the numbers from our own Local. Our International sent out letters to all Local 118 female members, as well as the female members from all other locals through out North America, and has been very supportive. I’m hoping we can start building the hype around it now, so next year we can send a small army.” says Duncan.
Next years Women Build Nations event will be held in Minneapolis, Minnesota from October 4th to 6th, 2019.