Solidarity Funds: Solidarity Tours

Solidarity Not Charity
 

Dear Members,

In September of this year, OPSEU will be sending a delegation to Southern Africa to experience firsthand what international solidarity really means. As their President, I am extremely proud of these members and I know that they will be great ambassadors for their union and their communities across this province.

OPSEU has had a long history of international solidarity. Our members’ understanding and participation in international solidarity is critical to our continued commitment to stand with oppressed people everywhere.

To us, solidarity is very different from charity. Solidarity with women’s organizations, indigenous groups, unions, peasant organizations, human rights activists, grandmother’s groups, etc. is crucial to our understanding of the fight against poverty and injustice everywhere. By joining together with others who are fighting similar struggles we strengthen our own commitment to social justice and global solidarity against the forces that continue to widen the gap between rich and poor in all countries.

This OPSEU Tour 2012 is no ordinary tour of Southern Africa. It is one which will engage our members in a hands-on experience as they learn about community development and social justice in Malawi and South Africa. This is what they will be doing during their 3 week tour:

Tour members will spend a week at the Makupo Development Project in a Malawian village, volunteering in the local school; they will visit four separate Stephen Lewis Foundation projects in Cape Town and Johannesburg – all projects dealing with the struggle against HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa; they will meet with affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

Each of the seven regional representatives is engaged in fundraising in their own communities for the cost of their tour and each of them is committed to furthering OPSEU’s international solidarity work in their own region upon their return. Join me in wishing this amazing group of OPSEU members a wonderful trip to Southern Africa.

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

Warren (Smokey) Thomas,

President

BIOGRAPHIES

Peter Thompson

My name is Peter Thompson and I work for the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) formerly Ministry of Finance. I started working in the Assessment Department in 1989 in the Toronto office and then received full time employment in Windsor. I currently hold a designation and membership with the Appraisal Institute of Canada (AACI), and the Institute of Municipal Assessors (MIMA), and I’m currently working towards my designation as a Paralegal. For many years, I have been actively involved in my community as a soccer coach. I have been involved in the labour movement for 20 years, which includes working on various committees, caucuses. Currently, I am the Chair of the Workers of Colour Caucus. My personal SOCIAL (UNION) MAP is as follows:

                        Chair – Workers of Colour Caucus

                        Investigator Advisor Harassment Discrimination Policy

                        University of Ottawa, Human Rights College. Graduate

                        First Regional Human Rights Rep (Region 1 - 1994)

                        Vice-Chair - Provincial Human Rights Committee (PHRC)

                        MPAC Bargaining Team Member (2 terms)

                        Ministry of Finance (Divestment/Transition Team)

                        Vice-President (Local 154)

                        Unit Steward

                        Steward

I am extremely honoured and grateful to be selected by the Social Justice Fund as OPSEU Region 1’s representative travelling to South Africa in September 2012. The Social Justice Fund was set up to support international solidarity projects and their objective is to strengthen the global movement against privatization and exploitation of international vulnerable communities. One of the organizations that they support is the Stephen Lewis Foundation. I have participated in raising funds and awareness for them since 2007.  Long before my activism started with OPSEU, I was a student activist while studying in college/university. As a student, I realized that I had a passion for social justice and I wanted to make a difference in my community.

In my work with OPSEU and other labour affiliates, I have acquired leadership skills and an increased awareness of social justice issues. As an activist, I am passionate about making a contribution to improving the wellbeing of people in my community and around the world.

I wish to continue my work with regard to human rights issues and I look forward to gaining experience and insights from the South African perspective.

In solidarity,

Peter Thompson, Chair Workers of Colour Caucus

Eric Davis

I grew up in rural Ottawa, on a horse farm. I went to Queens University to study x-ray technology,
and started working as a casual at the LCBO. I got involved with OPSEU while I was still in school,
and became president of my local. This ended up leading to my involvement in politics, and I’ve
worked with a number of candidates and campaigns at all 3 levels of government. I worked on the last
 municipal campaign as a labour organiser, on the last Federal election as a voter contact organiser,
and in the recent Provincial election as a campaign manager. I sit on the LBED
Eastern Region Labour Management Committee. I am the Region 4 Provincial Human Rights member,
and am now chair of the Social Justice Committee. I’m also involved in the Kingston area council, and a member at large on the Kingston District Labour Council.


Amy MacKinnon

My name is Amy MacKinnon. I am a 32 year old Registered Nurse living in Toronto. I have been working at Casey House Hospice, a specialty hospital for people living with HIV/AIDS, for the past 8 years. During this time I have been active as a member of OPSEU Local 501 as a steward for 7 years and Local President for the past 4 years. I have participated on the Bargaining Committee, Labour Management Committee, as well as the Occupational Health & Safety Committee as a certified member. I am very excited to be a part of the Solidarity Tour to South Africa and Malawi this September. Aside from the extraordinary travel opportunity, I feel I have much to gain as part of this Solidarity Tour, including an expanded world view – experiencing issues that face a developing country first hand. As a young woman I am interested in the issues that face women and girls particularly as they related to gender equality. As a health care worker in the specialty of HIV/AIDS I am interested in experiencing the working conditions in a resource limited community as well as understanding the impact that HIV/AIDS has on the workforce and how they continue to cope with these challenges.
 

Samantha Payne

My Name is Samantha Payne and I am a member of OPSEU Local 345 at Peterborough Regional Health Centre, in Peterborough Ontario. In November 2011, after returning to work from my second maternity leave, a wonderful opportunity presented itself to me, my Union was offering an open call to its members to be a part of the 2012 International Solidarity Tour to South Africa. I jumped at the chance to be a part of International Solidarity work and submitted my application. As a mother of 2 small children, I want to show them that love is the most important motivator of all, and I express that love for my fellow human beings by trying to contribute. I feel the most important part of the tour will be the learning, the experiences that I will be able to bring back and express to my friends, family and co-workers.

I was notified in December 2011 that I have been selected as the Region 3 Representative for the Tour to take place in August, along with 1 representative from each OPSEU region (7). It is now my responsibility to raise the $5000 needed to travel to Africa to take part in several Solidarity projects.

Several groups are excited for our arrival and are securing projects for our group to work with including projects with The Stephen Lewis Foundation, (e.g. The Bigshoes Foundation) and The Makupo Development Group.

OPSEUs’ Social Justice Fund and Live and Let Live Funds were created as a response to globalization and a way of working together towards common goals and strengthening worker organizations and communities around the world. Solidarity/Humanity Funds have the ability to assist working people in the countries where they work and live, enhancing economic development, improving workplace health and safety and ensuring gender equality. OPSEU Social Justice Funds have been used to construct a new outdoor kitchen for cooking communal meals (almost every house or village uses wood in an open fire for cooking and heating water for baths, etc.). As part of Brother Thomas’ (President, OPSEU) tour in 2008 he assisted with installation of solar lights, was a part of the building of a farm and also well drilling. These are some of the projects OPSEU continues to be involved in. Solidarity is not charity, OPSEU Solidarity Funds support projects that will continue to benefit a community.  

Shannon Nolan

Wow!  Really?  A chance to apply with OPSEU to participate in a SolidarityTour to Africa? Why not take the chance and apply? Nerves, fear and the unknown had to be overcome to possibly take one more thing off of my “Bucket List”, a chance to give back to those in Africa. With the confirmation on December 20th that I had been selected for this tour I was speechless and that never happens.

Greetings. I am Shannon Nolan, RPN. I am employed at Edgewater Gardens Long Term Care 64 bed home in Dunnville. We are situated and adjoined to Haldimand War Memorial Hospital on the banks of the Grand River. I have been an RPN for the past 23 years and have worked in many health care facilities from active hospital, walk-in Women’s Health and Long Term Care.

I hold the position of your Sector 8 Vice-Chair for Long Term Care Division and the newly elected Vice President of Local 214. I also hold the position of union steward, bargaining committee and health and safety committee member at Edgewater Gardens.This is my first term as the vice-chair and vice president and I am meeting both with two feet forward.

My husband Bill and I have been married for 20 years. We have a son Kiefer, 18 and daughter Kelsey, 16 who along with my extended family and friends have given me the support to take on this great African Adventure. I am a very passionate person who does not take on a task lightly. I like to see my goals met with fun and adventure along the way. With this said I have a travel companion named Ollie the Scentsy Elephant.Ollie has been with me for the entire application process and in the end will find a new home with a child while we are on our travels abroad.

I look forward to meeting the challenges we may face in our fundraising and while in a country unfamiliar to all of us. I truly am thankful for the chance to make a difference in the lives of those we shall encounter along our path of travel.

Darlene Kaboni

My name is Darlene Kaboni, born and raised on the Wikwemikong Unceded Indian Reserve, located on Manitoulin Island, Ontario, my first language being Ojibway. I’m a spouse, mother to a son age 28, and a grandmother (nookimas) to a one-year old grandson. I have worked two jobs for many years, one being at Canada Post Corporation since 1987 (part time) as a clerk and the other with Cambrian College of Applied Arts and Technology since 1992 (full time in 1996) as the secretary for the First Nations department. I belong to both the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU).

As a member of OPSEU Local 656, I’m on our local executive as a Steward and the Newsletter Editor. I have represented my local at the Sudbury Area Council meetings. I am also a member of the OPSEU Aboriginal Circle. In February 2011, I represented OPSEU as their First Nations representative for the Horizons of Friendship Tour to Guatemala, Central America. The tour to Guatemala gave me an opportunity to learn about community development, social justice and human rights not only of another country but of a people, the Maya of Guatemala. As an Indigenous person myself, I related to a lot of what the Maya experience as a nation.

As a member of CUPW Local 612, I’m the CUPW representative on the Sudbury & District Labour Council Executive Board; I’m the First Nation representative on the CUPW National Human Rights Committee and on the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) Aboriginal Working Group. I represented the First Nation Working Group of CUPW at the World People’s Conference on the Rights of Mother Earth in Cochabamba, Bolivia in April 2010 and quickly realized that we all must stand together, globally, in taking a stand towards human rights and social justice.

I look forward to being part of the tour to Africa, not only to visit and learn about another culture but to acquire knowledge that I can share with others and hope that I also have something that I can share with them about my own culture. First Nations people are the highest sufferers of HIV/AIDS, especially amongst women and girls and the reasons for this may be very similar, such as poverty and domestic violence against Aboriginal women and other reasons.

Geraldine Kakeeway

I am absolutely thrilled to be part of the 2012 Southern Africa Solidarity Tour. I still cannot believe I was selected to participate in this amazing once in a lifetime opportunity.

I work at Confederation College as a support services officer at our regional campus in Kenora, Ontario and have been with the college since 2002. I have worked in the education sector in various capacities for over 20 years. I am a member of OPSEU Local #731 in region 7. I graduated with two diplomas from Confederation College (1985 Social Service Worker and 1998 Aboriginal Law and Advocacy) and I think it is fantastic I am employed by the college I attended.

My husband is Dan Cameron and we have a daughter, Erin, age 24 and a son, Sean, age16. I am an Anishinaabe Kwe, and band member of Whitefish Bay First Nation located one hour south of Kenora. My Anishinaabe name, Migisikwe, translates to “Eagle Woman”.

I’ve been a member on several local boards in Kenora and currently sit on the board of the directors for the Lake of the Woods District Hospital and I believe that if I want to make a difference and make my world a great place to live, I must be active in it.

I look forward to making new friends and I can only imagine how this will be a life changing experience for me personally and how our group can make a difference for those individuals we will have the privilege of meeting along the way.

Miigwech!

Mary Cory

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