Thank you, Madam Chair and members of the committee.
Again, I apologize for Mr. Smith's absence. He is ill and unable to make it today. Ms. Marynuik and I will continue on behalf of the BCMEA.
I am the vice-president of marketing and information services for the BCMEA. I've been involved with the waterfront for 33-plus years, so I certainly am familiar with how the waterfront works, inside and out.
I'll tell you a little bit about the BCMEA. We represent some 66 member companies, about half of which are direct employers of ILWU longshore labour in the Asia-Pacific gateway. When I say Asia-Pacific gateway, I mean from Prince Rupert south to the Fraser River, including Vancouver Island.
As for our customer member profiles, we have in our membership stevedoring companies, container, bulk, break-bulk, and cruise ship terminal operators, and global shipping companies and their local vessel husbandry agencies. Our members call at and/or operate just about all of the terminal facilities in the Asia-Pacific gateway.
BCMEA represents its customer members in the functional areas of collective agreement negotiations--we're just in the process of negotiating a new agreement with the ILWU--labour relations and human resources facilitation, government advocacy, recruitment, occupational training, safety training, and dispatch of the ILWU workforce labour pool.
That's a little bit about us. I'm now going to turn the presentation over to Eleanor Marynuik, our vice-president of human resources. What Eleanor will do for you this afternoon is give you some personal insight with respect to her experiences as a woman on the waterfront.