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Shirley Carr, first woman CLC president, dies at 81

'Shirley moved women’s rights to the top of the labour agenda and she was a determined opponent of apartheid.'

Ottawa (27 June 2010) - Shirley Carr, the first woman to become president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the country's largest labour body, has died at age 81 in Niagara Falls. • Obituary

Carr led the 2.3-million member congress from 1986 to 1992 after serving 12 years prior to that as executive vice-president. She passed away on June 24.

She was praised by Ken Georgetti, the current CLC president, as a labour pioneer who blazed a trail for women activists in Canada and fought fearlessly against apartheid in South Africa.

“We are all saddened to learn of the death of Sister Shirley Carr,” Georgetti said.

“Shirley moved women’s rights to the top of the labour agenda and she was a determined opponent of apartheid,” Georgetti says.

In 1992 she was awarded Venezuela’s prestigious Order of Diego de Losada, First Class, for her work against apartheid and in defending trade union rights around the world.

Carr came from a family of Nova Scotians and was fiercely proud of her roots. She first became active in the labour movement in 1960 with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and served in various capacities at the local, provincial, regional and national levels.

Carr was active at the international level as well, serving as a member of the Governing Body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) from 1980 to 1985. She chaired the Workers’ Group of the Governing Body Committee on Discrimination and the International Labour Conference Committee on apartheid. She also served as vice-president of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and was chairperson of the Commonwealth Trade Union Council.

Carr was awarded Honorary Doctorates of Law from several universities and in 1980 she was named an Officer of the Order of Canada.

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