I’m pleased to report to you about OPSEU’s Social
Mapping Project.
This unprecedented initiative involves the completion of
a social map of our membership and our staff. Essentially, that means
your union is about to reach out to you like never before. OPSEU needs
to learn more about those we represent and those who work for us in
order to serve you even better and to give you the opportunity to fully
take part in all your union has to offer.
Only when we have a better handle on the breadth of all
the communities within OPSEU, can we work to ensure that the Union’s
policies, programs and services are inclusive and barrier-free.
The Social Mapping Project got its mandate from
Convention 2008 – which of course is the union’s highest-level decision
making body. At last years Convention, it was formally agreed that to
create an inclusive union home for Ontario’s increasingly diverse
workforce the identification and removal of all barriers to
participation must be an organizational priority.
Just this past week, a dynamic two and half day meeting
was held by the Provincial Forum that oversees the Social Mapping
Project. Plans were set in place to ensure the project is well
resourced, has trained leaders and has committed member mobilizers armed
with an innovative outreach program designed for each OPSEU Region.
There’s going to be two phases to this groundbreaking
task. This fall, a census of the entire OPSEU membership will create a
demographic snapshot of our current membership and staff.
Next year, we’ll focus on identifying and making
recommendations about how to remove any systemic barriers to
participation in our membership and employment practices. That means
having a good, hard look at our internal policies and the full range of
programs OPSEU develops. We intend to have a thorough examination of
how we may be creating barriers that hinder some members and staff from
fully participating or from gaining career opportunities.
This project is emerging as a terrific opportunity for
OPSEU – a chance to stay out front as the union of choice in Ontario.
To my knowledge, no union in Canada has previously taken on this kind of
responsibility. But it only makes sense, doesn’t it? Name another
large Canadian union whose diversity, in every respect, is greater than
ours. We owe it to our entire membership to lead the way on
inclusiveness.
To succeed, we’ll be counting on a very wide buy-in by
activists and by rank and file members we have not yet connected with.
Stay tuned for more information and materials. By
November, all members will be asked to complete their Social Mapping
surveys and will be given an opportunity to count themselves in!
