Alika Hendricks
FAQ & "ALL CANDIDATES" QUESTIONS
FAQ:
Full FAQ Interview by Kendall Yamagishi
Q1 of 8: What are the roles within a local? How do you envision the role of the Local Vice President?
Q2 of 8: Why are you qualified to be the Local Vice President?
Q3 of 8: What is unique about your leadership style? And why is that an asset here?
Q4 of 8: If you were Local Vice President, would you take the local in a new direction? If so, how?
"All Candidates" Questions:
Full "All Candidates" Questions Interview by Kendall Yamagishi
Q5 of 8: Motivating our members to get more involved with our union is critically important to our success. Some examples of member involvement include: attending meetings, participating in rallies, signing petitions and serving as a delegate or committee rep. If you were elected Local Vice President what would you do to increase member involvement and promote active participation?
Q6 of 8: How will you ensure equity issues are adequately considered within our Local? How will you confront issues of racism in our Local and broader union?
Q7 of 8: Discuss your experience representing member concerns to management, your level of comfort representing members in the grievance process and how you would effectively represent members while sustaining a productive working relationship with management.
ALIKA'S RESPONSES:
FAQ:
Full FAQ Interview by Kendall Yamagishi
Q1 of 8: What are the roles within a local? How do you envision the role of the Local Vice President?
"There are 3 elected roles within our local: Local Vice-President, Unit Directors and Delegates. A separate election will be held for each of the roles. This is important because the structure of our union and how it works, has been unclear for most members. So here it goes:
The first point of contact for members who want help will be Delegates. There will be around 12 Delegates across the province, each representing about 30 people. These Delegates will be the front lines of helping all members with their issues -- including addressing issues with management.
Then there will be 2 Unit Directors, one for the GTA and one unit director representing all of the other regions -- central, east, north and southwest. Unit Directors will deal with grievances and contraventions of the collective agreement that have been escalated from the delegate level. They are the leads on serious representational issues.
Next, there is the Local Vice-President (LVP). To me, this person is the coordinator, facilitator and lead negotiator. Accountability in this role is key. The Local Vice President manages and directs the overall affairs of the local, is the official point of contact with Legal Aid and the Society executive at the union head office. They are the official voice of our local, and they work with the unit directors and delegates to serve the membership. In my view though, the best case scenario is one where the Local Vice President equips the other elected representatives to share in the governance and policy-level decision making of our union."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
Q2 of 8: Why are you qualified to be the Local Vice President?
"I am qualified to be the Local Vice President of our LAO Lawyers union because I understand how to build and lead an organization. It is done by building a strong team of leaders and together implementing a vision that the team is committed to. I have 10 years of experience as the Chair of the Board of Directors of a youth leadership organization. As board chair I gained hands-on experience with strategic planning, team building, chairing board meetings and tackling the complex issues that arise when leading any organization. I have also been an active member of the Interim Local Committee which has led our union for the past 2 years and earned the respect of my fellow elected representatives in that role, who are receptive to my style of leadership.
Currently, our LAO Lawyers local is governed by our Interim Local Committee with the support of our Labour Relations Staff Officer from the Society. All of the difficult policy-level decisions related to our union for the past 2 years have been made by that body. As a member of the Interim Local Committee, I have played a role, alongside our other elected colleagues, in the governance and decision making that has brought us to where we are now. Each of us have taken on various roles, as needed. I co-drafted submissions to the Law Society on access to justice and drafted preliminary submissions to the Law Society on conflicts of interest. I was on the bargaining team. On a rotational basis, I represented our local at Society executive board meetings and chaired our Interim Local Committee meetings. I also took on a limited number of member representation files, with the assistance of our Labour Relations Staff Officer, while the majority of representational issues were dealt with by a designated member of the Interim Local Committee. In short, I have already done much of the job of the Local Vice President in my tenure as a member of the Interim Local Committee.
But even more important than that, I believe our Local Vice President needs to be an effective advocate-- someone who listens first, and speaks with authority when needed. Especially in these challenging times of funding cuts to Legal Aid, there are going to be lots of difficult conversations...and that is where I excel."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
Q3 of 8: What is unique about your leadership style? And why is that an asset here?
"I believe in building people up. I am not looking to make myself indispensable. I want the team of elected leaders to all have the opportunity to develop their skills and to take on responsibility. I want a team of leaders who are invested in the work of building our union because their contributions will be encouraged and valued.
I embrace a democratic leadership style. I believe the best problem solving, and therefore, the best decisions come from having a variety of perspectives around the table. We need strong problem solving to generate the creative solutions that will help us navigate the financial pressures facing LAO right now, in order to save jobs."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
Q4 of 8: If you were Local Vice President, would you take the local in a new direction? If so, how?
"Yes, I believe our union needs to do a better job of getting members involved and drawing on the many talents of our highly skilled membership. As Local Vice President, I would actively solicit member input and facilitate discussion on the issues that matter most to us, like ensuring Legal Aid's future sustainability. I would implement strategic member communication systems, including one-on-one member outreach and would leverage technology to ensure regular two-way communication. I would also implement a flatter governance structure for our local, with authority coming up from the members through the various elected representatives, including our Unit Directors and delegates, who will be spread across the province."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
"All Candidates" Questions:
Full "All Candidates" Questions Interview by Kendall Yamagishi
Q5 of 8: Motivating our members to get more involved with our union is critically important to our success. Some examples of member involvement include: attending meetings, participating in rallies, signing petitions and serving as a delegate or committee rep. If you were elected Local Vice President what would you do to increase member involvement and promote active participation?
"To start, I will build a member outreach team. With the support of that team, I will implement a strategic member outreach system. This system will pay particular attention to engaging members in the Northern, Southwest, Central and Eastern regions because it is essential for these regions to have strong representation in the governance structure of our local. In addition to one-on-one member outreach and adopting technology to facilitate two-way member communications, I will employ targeted recruiting, reaching out to members who have been engaged with the union in the past to identify and encourage potential candidates for leadership. Finally, I will hold regular virtual information sessions to keep members across the province up to date, and to field member questions in an interactive format."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
Q6 of 8: How will you ensure equity issues are adequately considered within our Local? How will you confront issues of racism in our Local and broader union?
"I will be looking at best practices in similarly situated workplaces to effectively advance equity issues within our local at LAO and within the Society of United Professionals. Both organizations have room to grow, learn and build capacity in this area. Practical steps need to be taken to identify barriers to equity and to dismantle them. I recently attended a training on building labour capacity to fight racism and xenophobia put on by the Migrant Rights Network. This is just one example of the resources that exist within the wider labour movement, and upon which I will continue to draw.
At LAO, practical policies need to be implemented which recognize that client service is enhanced where staff member diversity is fostered. The other bargaining team members and I spent a great deal of time on this issue at the bargaining table. We were pleased to see LAO listening to those concerns and hiring on a Diversity Officer shortly after the conclusion of negotiations. This was not actually one of our recommendations, but it demonstrated LAO's recognition of the need to bolster it's capacity to address these issues. The equity language in our Collective Agreement is found at Appendix 5. It is the foothold that we can use to push LAO to take an honest look at its hiring, retention and other employment practices, particularly in relation to Indigenous and racialized communities."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
Q7 of 8: Discuss your experience representing member concerns to management, your level of comfort representing members in the grievance process and how you would effectively represent members while sustaining a productive working relationship with management.
"Throughout the process of bargaining our collective agreement, I had many opportunities to raise member concerns with LAO management. The bargaining mandate was largely informed by member concerns, which we then reformulated into bargaining proposals. With management on the opposite side of the table, I always listened attentively and asked questions to understand their underlying motivations. I learned that LAO management often operates out of fear-- fear of stakeholder reactions, fear of the unknown. Understanding where they were coming from helped in crafting the appropriate responses. Productive negotiation is always strategic. There are times for being forceful, and times when a softer touch is needed. I am confident that I can draw on the skills I developed in bargaining and in subsequent joint committee functions, to continue to have a productive working relationship with management even in the grievance process. Our Labour Relations Staff Officer, who has decades of union experience, has been, and will continue to be, a key resource for me, our members, and the other elected representatives in the grievance process."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
Q8 of 8: You have both posted endorsements from members. How can you be sure that those who endorsed you had an opportunity to review the other candidate’s platform (and that the endorsements don't happen to reflect the number of members one candidate happens to have interacted with?
"I specifically sought endorsements from elected members of our Interim Local Committee because they are familiar with me and my style of leadership, as well as that of the other candidate in this race. I was honoured that these Interim Local Committee members, with whom I have had the pleasure of working behind the scenes at countless meetings, events and initiatives over the past two years, were so enthusiastic and supportive of my campaign.
I invite members to contact the people who endorsed me. Each of them have provided their contact information and are happy to take questions from members about why they plan to vote for me. Please go to www.AlikaHendricks.ca/endorsements for their contact information."
- Alika Hendricks
LAO Lawyers Local Vice-President Candidate
Elected Representative, Interim Local Committee
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