Saturday at noon, the Canadian Freelance Union (CFU) held their inaugural meeting with members across the country attending in person, or via webcast. Michael O’Reilly, president of the CFU says the meeting included a formal call for nominations to the board and putting the groups bylaws up for discussion. “We’re putting the bylaws up on the website and members can vote on them until Friday,” he says. “There were no major issues that came up so I’m confident that things will proceed as planned.”

As of Friday, O’Reilly says the CFU (CEP Local 2040) will be a functioning union as a member of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Future plans for the group include expanding services and getting better compensation for their members. “In the early stages we’ll focus on recruitment and retention of members,” he says. “Going forward we’ll be knocking on the doors of large publishing houses to try and improve the contracts for rates and rights of our members. That is ultimately what this is all about.”

The CFU board of directors is as follows:

President - Michael O'Reilly
Vice President - Marco Procaccini
BC-Yukon RR - Colleen Fuller
Prairie, Nunavut & NWT RR - Penney Kome
Ontario - Sharon Lindenburger
Quebec - Daniel Marchand
Atlantic - George Butters