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“This campaign will give us the chance to shape the Ontario we all want. The 28 of you are right on the forefront.” — Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida, OPSEU First Vice-President and Treasurer
Toronto (05 Oct. 2016) — In a ceremony on September 29, near Port Stanton, Ontario, Warren (Smokey) Thomas, President of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU/NUPGE), and Eduardo (Eddy) Almeida, OPSEU's First Vice President/Treasurer celebrated the talents and achievements of the 28 OPSEU/NUPGE member organizers who will soon be at the heart of the We Own It! campaign.
We Own It! campaigners take on privatization fight
“Your board members wouldn’t have picked you if they didn’t think you had the drive and talent to make this campaign a success,” Thomas told the 28. “Fighting privatization is a big fight, but it’s a fight we’re going to win.”
“This campaign will give us the chance to shape the Ontario we all want,” said Almeida. “The 28 of you are right on the forefront.”
The ceremony capped a week of workshops and information sessions about community organizing. Throughout the week, the 28 members learned some of the tried-and-true strategies, tactics, and tradecraft that have been used successfully by countless other issue-based campaigns around the world.
Australian Health Services Union to use OPSEU's We Own It! to fight privatization down under
Participating throughout the week was David Perry, an Australian trade unionist, who is a member of his country’s Health Services Union (HSU). During last the ceremony, Perry announced that his union has decided to launch a We Own It! campaign of its own.
"I have been so impressed by this campaign that we’ve decided to rename our own fight against privatization to We Own It,” said Perry to loud applause. “Privatization is a global phenomenon and we have to fight it as a global force.”
“It’s a long fight. It’s an important fight. It’s a fight we’re going to win," said Perry.
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) is one of Canada's largest labour organizations with over 360,000 members. Our mission is to improve the lives of working families and to build a stronger Canada by ensuring our common wealth is used for the common good. NUPGE