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The long days and nights of a campaign trail build lifelong activists and friendships. The member organizers of Unifor’s Make it Count Ontario election campaign met on Wednesday, June 20 in Toronto for the first time after the election to reflect on the campaign they ran together.
“Unifor is now at a completely different level of engagement and mobilization in the province. We continue to build and grow our union from this point forward,” said Naureen Rizvi, Unifor Ontario Regional Director, speaking with the room of activists.
Unifor’s targeted member-to-member campaign was effective, seeing NDP candidates elected in 16 out of the 20 ridings where member organizers were active. Roland Kiehne, Unifor Membership Mobilization and Political Action Director, thanked the activists for their hard work and led participants through sessions where they reflected and planned for future mobilizations, as well as with discussed strategies for the 2019 federal election.
Throughout the course of the five-week campaign, Unifor engaged in live phone surveys with over 2,720 members, contacted almost 77,000 members through recorded voice broadcasts. Around the province activist knocked on more than 8,000 members’ doors. On Election Day, the union engaged 36,581 members through text messaging, encouraging them to vote and in some cases, directing them to the polls.
For the organizers in the room during the debrief though, one on one member canvassing was at the heart of the campaign.
Stories ranged from young workers, first-time voters, coming out to a meeting, then pledging to vote, and then finally volunteering with a canvass, to campaigners reconnecting with retirees on their own front steps. The wide-ranging breadth of experiences crossed over rural and urban ridings, and in different cultural communities and income levels.
These conversations and this level of engagement help build the union. The combined effort of Unifor members during the election serves as the foundation for the next four years of a fightback against Doug Ford’s already-apparent attacks on workers.
Unifor National Secretary-Treasurer Bob Orr reflected on Ford’s win at the end of the day, reinforcing the importance of Unifor’s political participation both during elections and in between them, “We can still push and be active and have a strong political voice. We have seen this power before in Saskatchewan when labour mobilized and pushed the Saskatchewan Government to back off on plans to sell crown corporations.”
The push to defend workers’ rights, a $15 minimum wage and a better future in Ontario is not over, it is only beginning. Learn from the organizing of the Ontario election and engage with members of your local union. By ensuring political action committees are active and organized, and by staying connected to national and provincial campaigns, members can be ready for anything that is on the horizon.
For help setting up a committee in your local, reach out to your president or email @email.
