The second day of the 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Manitoba Nurses' Union reconvened at 9:00am.

CFNU President Linda Silas

CFNU President Linda Silas addressed delegates by noting that the CFNU was working hard to bring health care issues to the front of government agendas. She talked about how the CFNU has provided information on memory card to each MP, and is lobbying government on issues such as health human resources and a national pharmacare program.

Silas talked about the impending Federal election and the CFNU and CLC's campaign, and how important it was for labour to be the social conscience of government.

Silas reminded nurses that they must advocate for medicare because we have credibility. "Overtime and absenteeism cost over $1 billion per year and managers don't know what to do," Silas said. She pointed out that leadership is action, not position. Silas left delegates with a question to ponder: That the problem isn't that our reach isn't too high and we missed it, it is that our aim is too low and we reach it.

Constitutional Amendments Passed

10.01 Elections shall be held annually at or prior to the Annual General Meeting of the Local/Worksite to fill all vacancies in the following positions:

a) Officers of the Local;

b) Membership of Standing Committees;

c) Union Representatives as applicable.

10.04 The Local/Worksite may have a voting day of adequate hours to allow all members the opportunity to vote. The time and date of this vote would be determined by the Local/Worksite Executive Committee. If all day voting occurs, there would be no option for proxy voting.

If the above is not adopted by the Local/Worksite, the following would occur:

A member who is unable to attend the Annual Meeting ONLY by reason of being on duty may appoint another member as her/his proxy, provided that no member shall hold more than two (2) proxies. The proxy must be completed and originally signed by the member who is working, indicating which member he/she is assigning the proxy to.

Gail Fones

A former President of the College of Registered Nurses of Manitoba, Ms. Fones has devoted the last few years of her 46 year nursing career to working with the people of Uganda to prevent malaria.

She spoke about the tragedy of malaria - the leading cause of illness and death in Uganda. There are an estimated 500,000 clinical attacks of malaria annually and, as a result, a mother loses a child every 30 seconds to malaria. Diagnosis and treatment can consume 40% of a family's income. It is a direct cause of 30% of all recorded maternal deaths and the most preventable of the catastrophic diseases that affect children.

Buy A Net works with communities to provide support and by leadership relationship building, respect for client choice and empowerment. In a country where most people make a dollar a day, an insecticide treated bed net is beyond their means. The nets cost $6 and statistics show that 80-90% of malaria is prevented with

the provision of these nets.

The MNU passed a motion donating $2,500 to Buy a Net, and delegates showed an outpouring of support with local and individual donations of over $10,000 at the meeting.

Liz Evans

Liz Evans runs Vancouver's supervised drug injection site. She is currently fighting to keep the site open by lobbying the Government of Canada to extend the exemption from narcotics laws which allows the site to operate.

North America's first supervised injection site, Insite has become a beacon, raised the bar for health services delivery to marginalized populations.

In 1998 Vancouver has the highest conversion rate to HIV in the Western World. Since the supervised injections there has been a 45% decrease in open drug use. The site has attracted and retained high risk populations and has not resulted in any new drug involvement nor new drug-related crime. Insite is a critical referral point to health care system with over 6,500 referrals. It has provided one million injections since it opened. Evans see the fact that not one of over 1,000 overdoses has resulted in death. Insite is also endorsed by ever single public health officer across the country.

Maureen Hancharyk committed that the MNU would write a strongly worded letter to the Prime Minister in support of supervised injection.

The following Resolutions had been passed at press time

Resolution #4

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, any future donations to charitable organizations other than what is budgeted for, in excess of $25,000 in any fiscal year be brought back to membership..

Resolution #5

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT, the MNU pay the Central Table PCBC members the same honorarium as the Board members commencing May 2008.

Re: Resolution #7

Motion: To refer the subject of travel time back to the finance committee to gather the facts related to the cost associated with paying travel time to Presidents on Presidents' Days, Board, Voting Delegates and PCBC and that this information is communicated back to the grass root member so that they can make an informed decision and then this resolution can then be voted on at the 2009 AGM.

Yellow Ribbon Awards

The Yellow Ribbon Award was presented to:

• Susanne Burdett

• Donna McKenzie

• Cherryl Lenton