2002 Awards of Excellence for Municipal Workplace Literacy Achievement

Three 2002 National Award of Excellence for Municipal Workplace Literacy Achievements in the category of Learner Achievement were presented to:

• ED THOMAS, CUPE LOCAL 5167, CITY OF HAMILTON, ONTARIO
  Ed Thomas was nominated for the learner achievement award by CUPE Local 5167 in the City of Hamilton. He is a tractor operator in the Parks Department.

  
  Accepting the award for Learner Achievement was Mr. Ed Thomas of the City of Hamilton, ON.

  Ed left public school at the age of 15 after numerous negative experiences in the system. He bounced around from job to job for three years before settling into full employment with the City of Hamilton in 1977. Determined to get his Grade 12, he eventually returned to the school system. In 1988 he enrolled in the Literacy in the Workplace Program to work on his vocabulary and spelling. The program was a ‘springboard’ for Ed. He has written three books on union issues with eight more in the planning stages. He has represented CUPE National with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions at the United Nations. Ed received the Canada Post Literacy Award in 2001. He is a longtime advocate for literacy training within his union and his workplace. 

• OMER NOËL, CUPE LOCAL 51, CITY OF MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
  
  Omer Noël was nominated for the award by the City of Moncton Workplace Education Program. He has shown an extreme determination to learn and has overcome the effects of many obstacles, such as numerous placements in foster care and the inability to attend school on a regular basis.Omer has worked for the City of Moncton for 25 years, as a casual labourer, on garbage collection, and more recently as a truck and snowplow driver. He started attending the Workplace Education Program in September 2000. Initial evaluation showed he knew most of the letters of the alphabet, but had problems with alphabetic order.  Learning to read and write was complicated for Omer because he came from a French background and had a limited English vocabulary. 
  
  Now he can look at a menu in a restaurant, choose what he wants to eat, read a newspaper article and short novels, and fill in his work related forms correctly.

• DAN BANNISTER, CUPE LOCAL 51, CITY OF MONCTON, NEW BRUNSWICK
  
  Dan Bannister was nominated for the award by the City of Moncton Workplace Education Program. Dan started the Workplace Education Program in September 2000 with the goal to get his G.E.D. His initial testing found he was reading at a grade 8 level and had math skills that were extremely weak. It took him 8 months to get to the level required for GED testing, and he passed the exams on his first try!
  
  In 2001, Dan took five computer courses through the Workplace Education Program, and began conversational French courses. He has certainly adopted a personal philosophy of continuous learning. Dan has been a truck driver for the City of Moncton for more than 25 years. In his own words, Dan describes how the changing workplace has affected him: “When I started with the City and got on with a permanent position, education was not a factor. Over the years I’ve seen job bulletins for position that I would like to have, but that required at least a grade twelve. Hopefully, now the city will realize what I have accomplished and with my years experience will allow me to climb the ladder to a more challenging position. I have worked over twenty-seven years at a good job, with a grade eight education. Now with my G.E.D. and computer training it is time to move on.”