Society welcomes new Staff Director

The Society announced Derek Blackadder will be the next staff director, serving as the most senior staff person for the union and managing all other staff.

Blackadder comes to The Society with decades of experience as an elected representative, union employee and, most recently, union management.

While serving for two decades as a National Representative for CUPE, Blackadder has completed acting regional directorships in Ontario and the Maritimes. Blackadder also serves as the Canadian correspondent for the international labour news website LabourStart, and can be found tweeting about all things labour at @dblackadder.

Blackadder succeeds Nancy Furlong, who joined The Society from the Alberta Federation of Labour in 2013. Furlong is returning to Alberta. Society president Scott Travers, in a statement, said that he wanted to “acknowledge the tremendous amount of work Nancy has done for us over the past two years and ask you to join me in wishing Nancy well in her work in Alberta.”