Posted: Friday, 25 June 2010

Says deceased former CLC President was a pioneer 

OTTAWA – The President of the Canadian Labour Congress has praised the late Shirley Carr as a pioneer in the labour movement and a fearless campaigner against apartheid in South Africa.

“We are all saddened to learn of the death of Sister Shirley Carr,” Georgetti says. “She was the first woman in the world ever to be elected as leader of a national labour body, and she was a pioneer in many ways.” Carr served between 1974 and 1992 as Executive Vice-President and later President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

“Shirley moved women’s rights to the top of the labour agenda and she was a determined opponent of apartheid,” Georgetti says. In 1992 she was awarded Venezuela’s prestigious Order of Diego de Losada, First Class, for her work against apartheid and in defending trade union rights around the world.

Carr came from a family of Nova Scotians and Georgetti describes her as “fiercely proud of her roots.” She first became active in the labour movement in 1960 in the Canadian Union of Public Employees and served in various capacities at the local, provincial, regional and national levels.

Carr was active at the international level as well, serving as a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization from 1980 to June, 1985 where she was Chairperson for the Workers’ Group of the Governing Body Committee on Discrimination and the International Labour Conference Committee on apartheid. She also served as Vice-President of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, and Chairperson of the Commonwealth Trade Union Council.

Carr was awarded Honorary Doctorates of Law from several universities and in 1980 she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial Federations of Labour and 130 district Labour Councils. Website: www.canadianlabour.ca

Contact: Dennis Gruending, CLC Communications, 613-878-6040.

Email: dgruending@clc-ctc.ca