Irene Lanzinger has a long history as a teacher and a strong leader in the labour movement. She was the first woman to be elected president of the BC Federation of Labour and held that position from November of 2014 until her retirement at the end of 2018.
Irene was a secondary science and mathematics teacher in Abbotsford and Vancouver as well as teaching abroad in Japan and Saudi Arabia. She served as the chief negotiator for the BC Teachers’ Federation, bargaining on behalf of 41,000 public school teachers. She was elected vice-president of the BCTF in 2002 and president in 2007.
While Irene played a strong role in the Canadian labour movement, she also broadened her work to the international scene. She has worked in solidarity with union leaders in Namibia and across Latin America, including Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Ecuador and Columbia.
Irene has a B.Sc. in Physics and a M.Sc. in Education and is currently on the Board of Directors of BC Hydro and the Community Savings Credit Union.
