The six Canadians participating in the Harvard program gave a 90-minute seminar on challenges faced by unions in this country. Carmel Smyth (standing at front of class) says her group wore and handed out red Olympic mittens, a touch their classmates loved given it was the coldest, snowiest winter Boston had experienced in years.

16 February 2011

	Carmel poses with a statue of the famed university's first benefactor, John Harvard.

Harvard studies
prime Smyth
for new role
as CMG president

Canadian Media Guild | CWA Canada Local 30213

Carmel Smyth's clinching of the Irving Leuchter Memorial Scholarship couldn't have been more timely. When she heads back to Toronto on Friday after completing the six-week trade union program at Harvard University, she steps into the national presidency of the Canadian Media Guild.

She was elected to the position in December, with the term beginning Jan. 1. Her predecessor, Lise Lareau, who ran for and won the vice-presidency, carried on until Smyth could assume her duties.

The 20-year veteran of the CBC, who has worked as a producer, anchor, reporter and writer in cities ranging from Vancouver to St. John's, has been a union activist for the past decade. She's no stranger to leadership, having served one year as president, and two terms as vice-president, of the Guild location unit at CBC in Toronto, which is the CMG's largest workplace with more than 2,000 members.

Honing those leadership skills is the objective of the $10,500 scholarship, which is funded by The Newspaper Guild and many of its Locals. The Harvard program provides training related to the executive and administrative responsibilities of union officers.

Although she's just put in another long day of study, Smyth sounds super-charged when reached by phone in Boston. At the start of the residential seminar in early January, she says, it was overwhelming to see the stack of about 20 textbooks and the plethora of handouts students were given. "This used to be a one-year course (years ago). It has been boiled down to six weeks so it's pretty intense," she says.

In a wide-ranging discussion, she acknowledges that unions the world over are generally seen in a negative light and many face declining membership because of outsourcing, layoffs and buyouts, particularly in North America. She speaks fervently about the need to turn that around and return unions to robust health. Her prescriptions include change, engaging youth and community involvement.

Labour organizations, she says, "have to work together to change the public's perception that unions are bad. We are a force for social justice, for bringing about positive change, and we have to get that message out there."

Young people especially need to understand that improvements in pay and working conditions brought about by organized labour benefit everybody, not just union members, Smyth says.

"University graduates are looking for a cause to be involved in. They are leaving school burdened by big debt and they need good paying jobs" that organized labour can bring about.

Unions themselves have to make a lot of changes, says Smyth. "We have to get rid of the jargon such as 'brothers' and 'sisters' and call stewards something else, maybe volunteers. We need to become more tech savvy and reach out to the younger generation through things like blogs, social media and interactive websites."

She wants to see young members of the CMG become more engaged in activism because it will energize the union.

"We have to attract more workers," says Smyth, who wants the Guild to become more involved in community events and journalism schools.

She's already had experience in that quarter, having assisted CMG's regions and branches in creating a strategy to promote diversity and equity in the membership. She also started Toronto's first CBC/CMG black history, aboriginal day and Pride events.

Smyth says she's looking forward to working with CWA Canada's newly appointed organizing director, Dave Bosveld. She led a successful organizing campaign at Toronto 1 television station, signing up dozens of staff.

It's critical, she says, that the union increases its membership. "If we don't expand, we risk losing power that we can wield politically and the ability to influence public policy."

Carmel Smyth (second from left) was one of six Canadian labour delegates taking the course at Harvard University.