Over the last few years, diversity and equity in labour movement leadership has been growing. And while these historic elections have been a great step forward, equity and diversity work needs to grow beyond just ticking boxes.
Susanne Skidmore, the first openly queer woman to be elected president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said that unions are still celebrating ‘firsts’ when it comes to diversity in labour leadership.
“The work has been happening on the ground to get people to the place where they see themselves moving up in leadership positions,” Skidmore said, “but there’s still more work to do.”
After her election in 2022, Skidmore said it was important that people talk about how she is the first openly queer woman to be elected to her position.
“There are still glass ceilings that exist in many parts of the world, whether it’s private industry, the labour movement or government,” Skidmore said. “It’s still very important that you know, that we talk about equity and that we talk about who we are so that folks who come up after us can see themselves in these positions as well.”
This era of ‘firsts’ has still left many marginalized labour leaders vulnerable.
JP Hornick is the first queer president of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU). They said that their queerness has always informed their organizing.
“Our existence is inherently politicized,” Hornick said, “and it means that you have almost no choice but to engage with that. You can either engage with that passively or actively. You can either experience the conditions that restrict your life or you can push back against those social forces that would tell you to shut up.”
Hornick said the reason she feels it’s important to have her queerness inform her activism is because it helps her to address worker needs outside employment as well.
“What motivates us is not just our social position as workers,” Hornick said, “but how that fits into the larger social milieu. You cannot in any way separate out worker justice from climate justice, from environmental racism, from racism and xenophobia.The labour movement has to be rooted in social justice, or we have abdicated our responsibility for building worker power.”
Another historic election that occurred in 2022 was the election of Lana Payne as National President of Unifor. Payne is the first woman to have this position and she said that she hopes this will encourage other women to become or stay involved with the union.
READ MORE: Lana Payne elected as new National President of Unifor
“I hope that it really does show that leadership positions are for everybody.” Payne said. “I think it’s important that we’re at a place where this can happen.”
While she recognized her election was important, Payne said she doesn’t want people to fixate too much on individual power. Instead, a more equitable labour movement will focus on collective power.
“You can’t really create worker solidarity if you’re not including everybody in that process,” Payne said.
The recent historic elections and growing diversity in the labour movement indicate progress, but Jan Simpson, president of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), said people must remember that work cannot end there. Simpson is the first Black woman to lead a national union.
Since her election in 2019, Simpson said she still sees that there are too few racialized people in positions of leadership.
“I am one racialized person on a board of 15 people,” Simpson said, “therefore the microaggressions I face daily are invisible to those who do not look like me.”
Simpson said that the labour movement must work through white fragility and white defensiveness to be able to continue progress forward.
“Racial capitalism was built on the foundation of the white supremacy of mostly well-connected old men which is a faulty and false notion that continues the systemic evils of racism, patriarchy, colonialism, and imperialism,” Simpson said. “Sadly, the union is not immune, and as it has embraced racial capitalism, it replicates the systems that keep these injustices in place. Unions and union leaders must re-commit to uncomfortable, difficult conversations about how we work together with equity seeking groups to begin to dismantle their policies, procedures and practices within their union and the House of Labour that perpetuate and uphold the legacies of racism, patriarchy and more.”
One pioneer in the internal reflection needed for the labour movement to live the values it projects is Yolanda McClean, the first Black woman to be elected Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario.
McClean is reviewing the CUPE Ontario policy manuals to ensure that an anti-racism lens has been taken to union policy. As well, McClean is leading the Anti-Racism Organizational Action Plan Committee which has launched training programs that empower women to become more involved in the union.
“That’s how we change things,” McClean said. “When we really do something that’s proactive. And just paper is not going to work. You actually physically have to make changes.”
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Nick Seebruch, editor
