On April 18th, 2023, CUPE Local 79 publicly endorsed Ana Bailão for Mayor in the city’s by-election due to take place on June 26th.

This decision was made absent of any consultation with rank and file members of CUPE Local 79, including the rank and file members of the Political Action Committee. It is unclear as to whether or not the union’s Executive Board was consulted on the matter.  With the nomination period for the Mayoral by-election ending well after the next general membership meeting, it seems as though there would be ample time to consult the membership.

CUPE Local 79 represents over 25,000 members. It is unfathomable how this endorsement could have been made without first consulting union members. Our union has the resources to solicit members' feedback on political endorsements in a variety of ways, and yet the Executive Committee chose not to do so. What is even more troubling is that this endorsement was made before the close of the nomination period on May 12th, and without any evidence presented to the membership that Bailão is a pro-labour candidate.

One of the guiding principles of trade unionism, and what separates it from top-down corporations, is that union decisions should be informed by the will and voices of the membership. Elected leaders within the union should be accountable to the membership and find ways to execute decisions made by the membership through a democratic process. We urge the Executive to rescind their endorsement and instead institute a democratic process where members' voices are heard and reflected in the union's political decisions. 

Many members feel that Bailão is not a pro-labour candidate and have cited the following as examples:

During her time as councillor she consistently supported John Tory’s agenda, which has made our city less affordable and eroded our essential services. She has voted to cut TTC funding and recently supported a fare hike. She voted against expanding low-income child care subsidies and supported cuts to TCHC. Many of Bailao’s campaign contributions come from the developer industry, and she recently worked for a developer (Dream Unlimited) responsible for massive rent increases in its Toronto properties. Bailão is simply offering more of the same things we saw under John Tory.  

We are asking the Local 79 Executive Committee to:

• Immediately rescind their endorsement of Ana Bailão
• Implement an inclusive, meaningful and fulsome consultation with Local 79 rank and file members before endorsing a candidate for Mayor.

In order to maintain the accuracy of this petition we ask that you only sign if you are a current Local 79 member.

In solidarity,

Rank and File 79 (RankandFile79@gmail.com)