User:Mrs Isabelle Miller

Isabelle Miller: Labour Leader and Social Justice Activist

Isabelle Miller

Isabelle Miller (born Yvonne-Isabelle Marie Miller; October 13, 1974, at Royal Victoria Hospital in Montreal, Quebec, Canada) has been a social justice activist for decades. Her passion for fighting against injustice coupled with her strong personality proved quite useful during the early years when she was actively involved with her student unions in high school, CEGEP, and university. Miller is best known for her work as a labour leader in her native country of Canada.

Early Life & Family

Parents & Siblings

Miller is the middle child of twelve. Her father, Granville Errington Miller, was born in Jamaica on February 28, 1924. He was a revered educator and mathematician. His eldest son was born in Jamaica (in 1940) prior to moving to Canada in the 1950s. He married Janet Fowler (deceased) and they had three daughters; Sharon Miller (1963) (married name; Sharon Coste-Poras), Carole Miller (1964) (deceased), and Angela Miller (1967). Once divorced, Granville remarried in 1974 to Francine Houle, and they had two children; Yvonne Isabelle Miller and Granville II Eric Miller (1979). He died August 9, 1985 from a heart attack.

Dr. Francine Houle later remarried and had 5 step children; Danielle Bolap (1976), Henri Bolap (1977), Sonia Bolap (1979), Arnaud Brice Bolap (1981), and Alix Bolap (1983). She then gave birth to Miller's youngest sibling, Francis Bolap (1989) before eventually divorcing in the late 1990s. Dr. Houle was equally dedicated to higher education as well as work in communications.

Parental Influences

Her most defining and influential characteristics stem from her family life. Miller credits her father, who died when she was 10 years old, as well as her mother, with many of the life lessons that continue to serve her into adulthood. 

As the middle child of twelve children, finding her voice amidst the cacophony of an extended family was not always easy. Miller humours, “If you wanted to be heard, you needed to speak up.”  Her passion for fighting against injustice coupled with her strong personality proved quite useful during the years when she was actively involved with her high school, CEGEP, and university student unions.  Miller’s father taught Mathematics at Concordia University and was Director of Curriculum at the (Montreal) South Shore Regional School Board. He led by example and instilled in his children the importance of education, social responsibility and community, having immigrated to Canada from Jamaica in the 1950s. Her mother also valued higher education and went on to earn two Masters Degrees as well as a PhD. Following in their footsteps, Miller was accepted into the Specialized Mathematics undergraduate program, and later switched to Marketing at Concordia University’s prestigious John Molson School of Business.

Early Interests

As a child and during her teenage years, Isabelle Miller balanced her considerable skills in mathematics with a passion for the performing arts. She studied piano for 11 years, ballet for 5 years, as well as transverse flute, contemporary dance, and theater. Miller starred in a leading role in The Taming of the Shrew during her graduating year of high school in 1991. Her experience in the arts allowed her to develop an ability to maneuver large crowds.

Her family often traveled together, which led to an early appreciation for various cultures, countries, and their customs.

Married Life

In the summer of 1996, Miller met Liam Tremayne Joseph (born April 12, 1973 in Trinidad & Tobago). They became fast friends, and began a relationship in October of 1997. They married on May 14, 2005 in Brossard, Quebec, and have two children; Sienna Anaïs Miller-Joseph (2007) and Darius Forbes Miller-Joseph (2010). They have been joined at the hip ever since. The pair share a strong sense of family values that they continue to instill in their children. Miller often remarks, “It is important to me that my family, my children, can be proud of the work that I do to help others.” She is very grateful for her family’s love and support, despite her challenging schedule that has seen her away from home very often.

Career

Isabelle Miller: Speaking at CBTU Region 1 Conference

The Communication Industry

Isabelle Miller performed various part time phone sales and support jobs as a young adult while in CEGEP and University. Eventually, she began working for a cellular phone company called ClearNET in February 14, 2000 performing Client Service Representative tasks. ClearNET was purchased by TELUS Communications in 2001, at the same time period as Miller changed departments and worked as a Strategic Accounts representative, later renamed Corporate Client Support Representative WES. For the few years, the unions representing the employees of the subsidiaries purchased by TELUS endured a lengthy legal battle over the rights to qualify certain jobs as unionized. It was eventually recognized that the employees in Miller's role would be deemed unionized, and were to be supported by the Telecommunications Workers Union (TWU).

Becoming a Labour Leader & Mentor

In September of 2005, Isabelle Miller was elected as a founding member of the TWU Local 602 executive. The TWU had been in existence since 1944 in British Columbia under a different name before expanding to Alberta in the late 1990s; however, the expansion into creating Locals in Ontario and Quebec only took place in late 2005 with the certification of the additional TELUS employees. In March of 2006, at a national TWU convention in Vancouver, British Columbia, full time union Officer roles were created on the Executive Council to ensure representation across the country. Isabelle Miller became the first person ever elected to the role of Business Agent for the Quebec-Maritimes region. At the same convention, Miller, Tricia Watt, and Mimi Williams all became the first black people ever elected to the Executive Council; a win for diversity.

Within weeks of her election as Quebec’s first Business Agent in 2006, Miller joined the bargaining team to negotiate terms for Appendix F—Rimouski of the TWU-Telus Collective Agreement. The negotiations were extremely successful and saw significant wage and performance bonus increases for the workers. The terms were ratified and accepted by nearly all members of the affected Local. Within the following two years, Miller joined the bargaining teams to negotiate terms for the newly unionized Telus National Systems and Telus Sourcing Solutions which were eventually ratified by overwhelming majority and formed Appendices G and H of the TWU-Telus Collective Agreement. She continued to update her skills with additional in-house bargaining training in 2009 and 2013. Miller’s bargaining experience eventually shifted from Collective bargaining to negotiating terms of settlement for arbitration and grievances, which yielded tremendous success for the Local Union and extremely lucrative and fair terms for grievors. Her interest in bargaining led to her successfully completing the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Services (FMCS) “Labour Relations & the Negotiation Cycle” course on her own time in Ottawa in 2014.

Miller was re-acclaimed for three consecutive terms as a Business Agent until her eventual election to the role of National Vice-President in 2015 after the TWU merged with the United Steelworkers (USW). The TWU became the TWU, USW National Local 1944. Over the next few years years, Miller’s main focus had been on executing and streamlining the arbitration program across Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, and on furthering the fight for social justice to ensure a better future and equity for workers. The streamlined processes she implemented led to tremendous success in financial savings as well as skill development for several of her staff.

Both in her capacity as a Business Agent, Human Rights Officer, and as a Vice-President, Miller received significant formal training. Miller’s proficiency and practical application of each of these trainings were immediately put into practice as she began to provide instruction on behalf of the Union to Local officers and legal counsel through the various stages of the grievance and arbitration process. She directly worked on several hundred of cases, resolving and winning cases of all varieties. During the course of her career, Miller received a wide array of formal union training from the TWU and from organizations such as the Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ), the Canada Labour Congress (CLC), the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU), the Canadian Association of Statutory Human Rights Agencies, and the United Steelworkers (USW) to name a few.

Isabelle Miller Giving Class President Speech at LDS

Her passion for education was apparent, and where she learned to master a skill, Miller made a point of ensuring she would provide and facilitate training of others to help mentor other advocates. She has facilitated courses and workshops in various venues and conferences throughout the years, and has been invited to speak as a subject matter expert in labour on multiple occasions by the Local Union, USW, CLC, CBTU, and law firms. Her dedication to the field of labour relations is clear.

In April 2018, after an extremely contentious election, Isabelle Miller defeated the incumbent and was elected National President of the USW National Local 1944.

Getting Noticed: Accolades and Accomplishments

Her passion and commitment to promote gender, racial, and sexual orientation equality rights did not go unnoticed. In November 2012, Miller was awarded a Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) Young Worker’s Scholarship to attend McGill University where she completed a mini-MBA on a part-time basis while continuing her full-time Union work.

As a labour leader and social justice advocate, most work is done behind the scenes without fanfare, and simply for the love of the movement. In 2014 when Miller became the first Canadian recipient of the Rising Star Award at the International Convention of the CBTU in 2014 for work in the North American Labour community, particularly with Youth, it was a shining moment that she cherished.

Isabelle Miller is a true leader and mentor to workers and community activists; and still, the best is yet to come.