December 2014
On Saturday, September 6, the Toronto & York Region Labour Council hosted the 2014 Aboriginal Workers/Workers of Colour Conference (AWOC) in Scarborough, Ontario.
I attended the one-day conference, which included a keynote address by Hassan Yussuff, the first person of colour to be elected as president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Six workshops were held, including “Decent Jobs/Living Wages” and “Electing Champions to City Hall,” and a guide to equity was launched.
Called Moving Beyond Diversity, Towards Inclusion and Equity: A Leader’s Guide to Strengthen Unions, the 30-page guide, published by the labour council and written by labour activist and educator Jojo Geronimo, is meant to be a tool that any union can use to create a strong equity agenda as part of its organizational culture. I spoke with Geronimo about the origins, goals and future of the project.
Haseena Manek 