At CUPE Ontario, we recognize that Black excellence and Black history should be honoured year-round, not restricted to a single month of celebration and appreciation. The strength, solidarity and leadership of Black trade unionists have marked our labour movement in profound ways and we owe an enormous debt to the resilience and contributions of the Black communities to our unions.
But Black History Month 2025 has turned out to be especially significant for CUPE Ontario: this year our secretary-treasurer, Yolanda McClean, has been recognized by the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) and her life, work and achievements honoured in the Legacies of Labour and Community Activism poster series.
No honour could be more appropriate or more deserved. As a Black labour activist and the first Black secretary-treasurer in our union, Yolanda puts racial justice and building collective power at the heart of everything she does. And given that the theme of this year’s Black History Month is “Black Legacy and Leadership: Celebrating Canadian History and Uplifting Future Generations,” this recognition by the OFL and CBTU is particularly fitting.
Yolanda’s entire history in the labour movement is testament to her efforts to build a future of equality and hope. She is CBTU president for Canada and a vice-president of the OFL. As CUPE Ontario’s secretary-treasurer, she has guided the development of CUPE Ontario’s Anti-Racism Organizational Action Plan (AROAP), which serves as our roadmap to becoming a union that truly reflects our values of equity, justice, and solidarity.
Yolanda is also the driving force behind AORAP’s flagship program, Women in Leadership Development (WILD), which promotes the inclusion and representation of Indigenous, Black, and racialized women in CUPE. Thanks to Yolanda’s passionate advocacy, the second cohort of WILD participants is getting ready to inspire and lead in our union.
As we prepare to vote in the provincial election this month, we should mark the contrast between a leader like Yolanda, who works to raise up working people and advance their cause, and someone like Conservative premier Doug Ford. Ford and his Conservatives use dog-whistle rhetoric to promote division instead of unity and attempt to shatter solidarity whenever they find it opposing the forces of the right. One of the Ford government’s first actions was to downgrade the place of diversity and justice education in Ontario’s curriculum. Since then, his policies have continued to promote cuts, privatization and backroom deals, all of which exclude and cause disproportionate harm to Black communities and other equity-deserving groups.
This election, CUPE Ontario urges members to remember and follow the examples of Black leaders in the labour movement, including leaders like Yolanda McClean. We must honour their legacy of solidarity and courage and vote to build a more inclusive and equal Ontario, where all working people are valued, respected, and empowered.
