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Sisters and Brothers,
It was with a heavy heart that we at the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario (CUPE Ontario) received the sad news of the passing of one our much-loved labour sisters, Julie Davis. Julie was a leader in the trade union movement, a strong voice for women’s rights, and an inspiration to us all. She died on November 14, 2014 at the age of 68.
Born and raised in rural Ontario, Julie Davis devoted her life to improving the lives of working people for more than four decades. In the 1970s, she served as a steward for the OPEIU. In the 1980s, she was a pioneer for the rights of working women – a time when women were breaking down barriers and achieving progress in their struggle to end gender discrimination and inequality.
Julie’s commitment to labour continued in her many tireless years as a staff member at CUPE. She served in a clerical/administrative position and then as a CUPE national representative. She assumed the role of staff coordinator for CUPE’s health care sector in Ontario in the years following the 1981 hospital strike. Later she was appointed Regional Director for Ontario before being promoted to the position of Managing Director of Regional Services and Organizing with responsibility for overseeing all of CUPE’s regional staff and offices.
In 1986, Julie was elected as the first woman officer at the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), breaking new ground in a male-dominated labour movement and becoming an inspiration across the province to women in the labour movement. She served as the OFL’s Executive Vice-President from 1986 to 1988 and Secretary-Treasurer from 1988 to 1995.
Social justice was at the core of Julie’s activism in the labour movement, in the women’s movement, and ultimately in her political career with the Ontario New Democratic Party. She was elected President of the Ontario NDP, and led the charge in the Ontario NDP’s historic win in 1990. She also served as the labour representative on the NDP’s federal council during Jack Layton’s leadership.
Julie was adamant that social justice could be achieved only when trade unionists joined forces with other advocates and she was instrumental in organizing and sustaining countless coalitions. She also believed and supported grass-roots mobilization and encouraged many activists in and out of the labour movement in their work.
We will always remember Julie for her tenacity, dedication and passion in the fight for fairness and equality. Her legacy lives on in the countless activists who discovered their political and social justice voice thanks to her.
CUPE Ontario offers our deepest condolences to Julie’s family, friends, and sisters and brothers in the labour movement.
In Solidarity,
Fred Hahn Candace Rennick
President Secretary – Treasurer
Click here to read the official letter from Fred and Candace.
