AJAMU NANGWAYA

Union activist Ajamu speaks candidly about the challenges facing the Canadian labour movement in terms of better supporting immigrants of colour and better addressing the changing canvas of the Canadian workforce.

And Ajamu is well placed to gauge how unions are doing on this front. As the 2nd Vice-President of the CBTU (Coalition of Black Trade Unionists) and Chair External of CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) Local 3907, Ajamu works in the thick of the Canadian labour movement on initiatives related to anti-racism, employment equity, immigration/migration, and equality.

In an August 2007 letter to the editor of Pride Magazine, Ajamu speaks out about why – and how – the Canadian labour movement must do more to better the situation for immigrants of colour:

In the area of unionization of racialized workers, the Canadian labour movement has fallen asleep at the proverbial switch. In 2003, about 31% of non-racialized workers were covered by a collective agreement. In that same year, only 21% of racialized workers enjoyed the benefits of a collective agreement. A report by the Canadian Labour Congress indicated that 25% of non-unionized White workers would like to join a union. The figure was 40% for unionized racialized workers. Yet the union movement continues to put the bulk of its organizing resources into workplaces that are mainly populated by White workers.

This backward position of the labour movement comes in the face of a national labour force where 70% of its 1990s net growth came from immigration. According to Statistics Canada projection, in 2011, 100% of the increase in Canada’s workforce will come from immigration. [I issue a] call for labour unions to “take proactive steps to expand their interests and extend protections to workers in communities who to this day remain largely unprotected.