My union values social justice
Name: Ivonne Santizo
Occupation: Lab assistant at Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH) in Victoria
Union: HEU
Hospital Employees’ Union member Ivonne Santizo works as a lab assistant at Royal Jubilee Hospital (RJH) in Victoria.
“An important part of being in a union is being treated fairly and with respect,” says Ivonne. “It makes a big difference to come to a job where you are treated fairly, where your rights as a human being are respected.”
Born in Guatemala, she immigrated to B.C. in 1984. Ivonne couldn’t speak English when she came to Canada as a teenager. She self-taught herself English by watching TV – mostly soap operas.
Today Ivonne is bilingual – fluent in both Spanish and English.
And Ivonne loves to help people. “I can explain their rights to people who don’t know them, be a voice to speak for them and defend them,” says Ivonne. “The right to union representation is really important. My union gives job security and support to workers who need help.”
“My courage and strength I owe to my father,” says Ivonne. “He taught me to believe that if you work really hard and believe in a cause, you will make a difference, and that is what the union is all about. My passion for fairness and helping people comes from my mother who taught me to be kind, to help people without expecting anything in return and to treat others as you’d like to be treated.”
Ivonne graduated from grade 12 in Nanaimo, followed by working for two years in non-union jobs. Hard-working single mom Ivonne then moved her son and daughter to New Jersey, USA where she trained and worked for five years as a medical lab assistant. Missing extended family, Ivonne and her kids returned to Victoria in 2006 and she started working at RJH in 2007.
Ivonne’s job as a lab assistant at RJH includes drawing blood, preparing blood for testing and accessioning (receiving, sorting and processing lab specimens). But she says the highlight of her job is getting to know people and listening to their stories.
Ivonne participates on her union local executive because she believes that working people need to be treated with respect, that working together is the main key to change and that unity gives strength to HEU’s membership. She is the local secretary-treasurer, a shop steward and serves on the joint occupational health and safety committee and the workplace safety committee.
Ivonne’s two children are now on their own, so Ivonne now devotes more energy to her beloved dog and to union activities. She has taken table officers’ training, been a BC Fed convention delegate and twice been an HEU convention delegate. During HEU’s November 2014 convention, Ivonne was awarded HEU’s Social Justice Award which honors her contribution to the struggle for social justice.