CUPE Ontario statement for Emancipation Day – August 1
The CUPE Ontario Anti-Racism Organizational Action Plan (AROAP) Committee was established in 2018 with the goal to address the systemic underrepresentation and exclusion of Black, racialized, and Indigenous members in our union.
The Committee, which is made up of CUPE Ontario officers, Black, Indigenous, or Racialized members; and staff has begun the critical work of addressing racism in the union. That’s meant developing a plan to ensure representative participation at conventions, conferences, and in locals; advocating for the creation of leadership trainings for underrepresented members; working with Union Education to ensure that all workshops incorporate anti-racism principles; and more.
This work is more critical than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic has only exposed the deep inequity in all corners of our society. AROAP’s clear goal, passed by members at two CUPE Ontario Conventions, is to ensure that CUPE Ontario is a leader in the anti-racism movement, by creating an organization that removes barriers, that encourages the CUPE National structures and local unions in the region to do the same, that ensures CUPE in Ontario is safe and open for every member’s activism and participation – and is an organization that is better able to oppose all forms of racism, including specifically anti-Black and anti-Indigenous racism, in all our communities.
Want to learn more about AROAP? Read the full Terms of Reference here, and click here to read the AROAP itself.
