Darlene Dziewit has contributed 40 years of exceptional service to working persons, to union members and to women. She became a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) Local 831 in 1970. In 1977, she became the first woman the union hired on a full-time basis, going on to serve as a negotiator from 1987 to 2004. She was a member of the UFCW Canadian Council Women’s Advisory Committee and she is a founding member of the UFCW’s Women’s Network, later serving as its international chairperson. She also served on the National Political Action Committee for the UFCW and the Canadian Labour Congress. As president of the Manitoba Federation of Labour from 2004 to 2009, she was known as a consensus builder and was instrumental in many positive changes made to the Employment Standards Code such as family and bereavement leave. Ms Dziewit has been a member of the University of Manitoba’s board of governors and the United Way of Winnipeg’s campaign cabinet and is presently chair of the Manitoba Gaming Control Commission.
