Nursing advocate and activist Pauline Worsfold honoured with UNA Bread & Roses Award

Pauline Worsfold, an experienced voice for nurses and nursing, was honoured with the 2024 UNA Bread & Roses Award on October 24 at UNA’s AGM.

UNA President Heather Smith recounted Worsfold’s accomplishments, starting with the beginning of her union journey as a ward rep with the Staff Nurses’ Association of Alberta at Edmonton’s University of Alberta Hospital in 1981.

“She played a crucial role in leading the amalgamation of the two nursing unions in our province, forming UNA as we know it today,” Smith recalled. The union of SNAA and UNA took place in 1997, soon after Worsfold became president of SNAA.

Worsfold made an important contribution to the decision by Alberta nurses to join the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, Smith noted, eventually serving as CFNU’s national secretary-treasurer. She also served a decade on the board of the Canadian Health Coalition, lobbying tirelessly for national pharmacare.

What’s more, Smith noted to laughter, “Pauline’s an accomplished race car driver – and I know ... I’ve been in her car!”

Worsfold told the AGM she was “humbled and honoured” by the award. “I share this award with all of you ... you who are doing the work, day in, day out, in the locals, big and small, near and far.”

She thanked her many mentors and teachers in the union movement. “What fun we had! What challenges we were able to mount. These individuals shaped who I am as an activist, unionist, and a feminist. To them I say, thank you.”

Thanking her family, Worsfold observed that “we fight for bread, to feed our families, and we fight for roses to nourish our souls. Take the time to celebrate your wins, big and small, before you move on to the next challenge, and the one after that. Because we must believe, the work we do today and tomorrow will ensure the world is a better place."

Bread & Roses Award recipients

2020: Karen Kuprys, Local 154 (Youville Home)

2021: Marie Corns, Local 80 (High River General Hospital)

2022: Orissa Shima, Local 85 (Sturgeon Community Hospital)

2023: Diane Lantz, Local 1 (Peter Lougheed Centre)

2024: Pauline Worsfold, Local 301 (University Hospital, Stollery Children's Hospital, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute & Kaye Edmonton Clinic)