This position has been filled. Thank you everyone for your interest and stay tuned for future opportunities.
Details
Job Title: Executive Director
Status: Full-time
Hours: 35 hours/week
Compensation: $23.00/hour plus benefits
Schedule: Variable
Reports To: Board of Directors
Organization Overview
The Retail Action Network (RAN) is a network of retail, hospitality, and food service workers
that fights for workplace justice, increased wages, and improved conditions in our industry.
After years of being exploited by bosses, a group of workers got together to organize. Inspired by other solidarity networks that had been supporting workers around the continent, we wanted to see something similar happen here locally.
Since we launched in September of 2015, we have undertaken a wide range of campaigns
that has changed legislation in BC and improved the lives of working people. As well, we
have worked with community partners to return thousands of dollars in stolen wages to
workers through direct advocacy. RAN has worked to publish research reports, and
organize workshops to help shift the narrative; challenging exploitative systems and
business practices as a result.
Representing non-union workers across the province, we look forward to scaling up this
initiative and supporting a broader base of precarious workers in the years ahead. Learning
from years of organizing, we are in an exciting position to help reimagine working class
struggle in BC and to effectively confront workplace injustices.
Position Overview
The Executive Director (ED) is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the
organization; management of staff, and volunteers; as well as reporting and progress
tracking. The ED will report back to the Board of Directors, maintain relationships with
organizational partners, and further develop programming that we offer.
This project is in an exciting period of transition, as the ED will support the move to a
province-wide project called ‘BC Worker Solidarity’, that has a mandate to support a
broader geographical scope and a wider range of precarious workers beyond retail.
The main pillars of ‘BC Worker Solidarity’ will focus primarily on research, education, and
advocacy, while continuing to work with a focus on building worker power and organizing
through various campaigns, worker-led groups, and labour partners. The ED will be
responsible for overseeing this transition and ensuring the continual inclusion of various
stakeholders and funding partners.
Duties & Responsibilities
Research:
- Work with community partners, research groups, and our internal data to support the publication of reports that help us to understand the challenges facing precarious workers;
- C0-ordinate research projects with other community organizations that can work with us to conduct necessary research;
- Publish policy-related research and write policy briefs, submissions to government and op-eds to support RAN’s organizing campaigns;
- Help structure events for the purpose of community-based research
Education:
- Develop both online and in-person workshops to inform working class people in BC of their rights, as well as the history of labour struggle;
- Develop training module for staff and volunteers to present workshops in the community;
- Accept feedback from participants and further develop workshops based on community needs;
- Find creative ways to grow educational programming in ways that support precarious workers.
- Support the development of materials that outline worker’s rights
Advocacy
- Support the development and effectiveness of the advocacy program;
- Work with the Solidarity Stewards to oversee the flow of casework and track activity;
- Develop working relationships with legal advocacy organizations;
- Work alongside community partners, labour organizers, and ‘solidarity stewards’ to support the launch of various advocacy campaigns.
Project Coordination
- Oversee funding targets and other key performance indicators;
- Support the development and growth of the Board of Directors and membership;
- Report back to the Board of Directors and work cohesively to develop and deliver
programming; - Maintain relationships with non-profit and community-based organizations, unions,
labour councils, policy makers, and funders; - Develop training and educational opportunities for staff and volunteers;
- Supervise staff and volunteers and work with HR staff related duties (including
hiring, performance evaluations) - Develop tools for staff and volunteers to conduct research in their day-to-day work
and track performance; - Maintain ongoing check-ins and meetings amongs team members;
Knowledge, Skills, and Experience
- Experience coordinating new projects and meeting targets;
- Experience supervising others;
- Familiarity with labour issues experienced by lower-wage workers, specifically those working in the retail, restaurant, and hospitality industry, as well as gig-economy work;
- Experience working in precarious employment settings;
- Familiarity with the employment legal advocacy landscape in Victoria, and BC more broadly;
- A combination of 5 years of experience and / or education related to the responsibilities listed above;
- Ability to work collaboratively with others, and work with a variety of organizations,
groups, individuals, policy-makers, etc., and in diverse settings; - Ability to work with volunteers and provide leadership;
- Ability to take direction from the Board, members, and staff when appropriate;
- Experience working independently, setting and meeting your own deadlines, and working in a way that is self-directed/self-motivated.
Values Alignment
- Commitment to workplace justice and grassroots worker organizing;
- An understanding that RAN operates with a decolonizing framework that respects relationships with the original people and spirit of this territory, and reflects on how our work at RAN may be bound up with systems and processes of ongoing colonization;
- Knowledge of how multiple forms of systemic oppression intersect to shape the
experiences of people who work in retail, restaurants, or hospitality
Employment Equity and Diversity
Employment equity is a strategy used to work towards the inclusion of all people in paid work. Employment equity practices recognize that capitalism, racism, colonialism, ableism, sexism, and other isms and forms of systemic discrimination shape people’s work experiences and result in unfair and unequal employment situations that include: under-employment, harassment and discrimination at work, low wages or pay inequity, limited opportunities for promotion, or exclusion from being hired in the first place. If you wish to self-identify as belonging to a group that faces systemic discrimination in employment please do so in your cover letter.