Steward Profiles

Contact info for all of our stewards can be found here. Feel free to call them; they are here for you!

Marc Samoisette – Our sole steward on Mac campus, Marc Samoisette is an affable fellow who knows and loves farming. He is among a select group of employees that has studied, works and actually lives on campus! Marc is a chief agronomy technician who works in field operations (cropping, seeding, weeding and fertilizing) and instructs mostly postdoc and Master’s students doing agricultural research. He began his career as a casual in the summer of 1989 and has been here since. Marc has also worked in the Soil Science department as well as the Morgan Arboretum. Currently, he is studying for a certificate in accounting/finance at John Abbott College, which is conveniently within walking distance of his home.

As a steward, Marc takes pride in his union role “[t]o understand both sides of Labour Relations, employer and employee.” He says that he appreciates the training given by PSAC and enjoys dealing with union members.

Apart from his day job, Marc enjoys his family time and likes to garden (unsurprisingly!). His wife Suzanne makes a mean strawberry preserve, he told me! Marc likes to listen to traditional Québecois folk music and watch the red foxes scurry through the crop fields outside his backyard.

Marina Federova – You cannot help but smile when you meet Marina; she bursts with energy and is the quintessential “people person.” In the four and a half years since completing her undergrad in political science (with a minor in psychology) at McGill, she has made her way from a casual in Dawson Hall to Student Affairs Coordinator in Internal Medicine at the new super hospital. But despite the recent move to the MUHC Glen campus, Marina distinguishes herself as a McGill employee first despite being “embedded” in the sprawling medical complex. She likes her position as well as the people in her unit, but is aiming to be a student advisor somewhere on the main campus.

Marina has a strong sense of union solidarity, especially with the merger only months away. She mentioned her concern for the continuation of our pension and health benefits and would like Human Resources to show more transparency and really collaborate with organized labour across campus. She really enjoys helping members with their challenges with management and enjoys her advocacy role.

Marina likes to channel some of her enormous reserves of energy into volunteering; this ex-pat Russian lends her skills at St. Mary’s Hospital and helps out Liberal Party candidate Marilyn Jennings in the NDG riding where she now calls home.