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YUFA Joins the OFL
27 Aug 02 - The YUFA Executive voted unanimously to join the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) at its meeting on 20 August.
With this decision, YUFA has completed its formal affiliation with the three levels of Canadian labour centrals. YUFA officially joined the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the Toronto and York Region Labour Council earlier this year.
The OFL is an umbrella organization for Ontario unions, the Ontario locals of national unions and labour councils chartered by the CLC. The member unions of the OFL represent about 650 000 working people. The OFL provides its members with services in the fields of communications, education, research, legislative and political action, human rights, occupational health and safety, worker's compensation and basic education skills.
The OFL has supported the Ontario Health Coalition's Save National Medicare campaign, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' Alternative Budget Group, campaigns on the privatization of education in Ontario, the Positive Space Campaign that supports equal rights for gays and lesbians, the Talking Union campaign that introduces high school students to unions and has supported other research projects and campaigns.
A number of York faculty have worked on OFL projects such as the Ontario Alternative Budget. Membership in the OFL will provide more opportunities for faculty to present their work to a much wider audience. It will also help us draw attention to and initiate broader collective action on post-secondary education issues.
Membership in the OFL will cost YUFA about $9000 per year.
The Executive's decision followed a meeting with OFL President Wayne Samuelson at the end of June. He spoke about the advantages of affiliation and the what university faculty associations could bring to the OFL.
In the past few years, YUFA and other faculty associations have begun to participate in national and provincial labour federations in order to raise public post-secondary education issues more widely. All unions that are members of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), as YUFA now is through its membership in NUCAUT, may join chartered provincial federations like the OFL.
If you are interested in getting involved in the OFL, you can email YUFA or any member of the Executive, or use the Feedback form.
Robert MacDermid
Communications Officer