TORONTO - CUPE Local 3903, consisting of 2200 contract faculty, teaching and graduate assistants at York University, are donating $2000 to OCAP. This donation comes on the heels of Buzz Hargroves announcement that the CAW is cutting off funding to OCAP, which amounted to $15,000 last year.
Because most members of CUPE 3903 live below the poverty line, the union has developed a close relationship with OCAP.
While most media coverage exclusively focuses on OCAPs actions that involve arrests, 99% of their work involves day to day advocacy on behalf of the poor, such as helping them navigate through the courts, fighting evictions and stopping deportations. For example, last year OCAP organized an occupation of an immigration office, supported by over 100 trade union activists (mostly from CUPE 3903 and the CAW Flying Squads), which stopped the deportation of a Somali woman and her 5 children, 2 of whom would be facing forced genital mutilation.
OCAP does indispensable frontline advocacy on behalf of the poor, which is a matter of life and death for the most vulnerable members of the working class, says Alex Levant, Vice President, CUPE 3903.
CUPE 3903 is not a rich local most of us live below the poverty line but we must all pitch in to ensure that OCAP can continue its vital work, adds Levant. If we are able to donate $2000, then certainly wealthier locals can do their part as well. Consider this a challenge. The union is calling on all locals across the labour movement to help make up the $15000 of lost funding.
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For more information please contact:
Todd Gordon, Flying Squad Coordinator,
CUPE 3903
416 536-9265