Yolanda McClean is a Canadian library technician and trade unionist. Since 2021, She has been the Secretary-Treasurer of the Canadian Union of Public Employees in Ontario, which is the largest union in the province. She is also the Executive Vice-president at the Ontario Federation of Labour. She is the first Black Canadian to hold either position. She began her career in 1984 as a library technician in the Toronto District School Board.[1]
In 2018, she was named one of the top 100 Accomplished Black Canadian Women.[2]
In April 2022, she was elected vice-president of CUPE Ontario, becoming the first Black and racialized officer of CUPE Ontario. A month later, McClean was elected Third Vice-president of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists.[3]
In August 2022, McClean called on organized labour to support the Black Lives Matter movement.[4]
In January 2023, rabble.ca noted that McClean was leading the union's Anti-Racism Organizational Action Plan Committee.[5] A month later in February 2023, she appeared rabble.ca's podcast where she discussed "ways of achieving gender and racial equity inside and outside of Canada’s labour movement."[6]
References
edit- ^ ""We Made History": CUPE Ontario Re-elects President Fred Hahn and Elects Secretary-Treasurer Yolanda McClean". www.businesswire.com. 28 April 2022.
- ^ "Yolanda McClean". 100abcwomen.ca. 100ABCWomen. 8 November 2018.
- ^ "Yolanda McClean acclaimed Third Vice-President of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists". Canadian Union of Public Employees. 7 June 2022.
- ^ "I can't work if I can't breathe: why Labour must support Black Lives Matter - Spring". springmag.ca. 9 August 2022.
- ^ Calugay-Casuga, Gabriela (20 January 2023). "Pushing equity forward within the labour movement". rabble.ca.
- ^ "CUPE Ontario's Yolanda McClean on empowering BIPOC women workers". rabble.ca. 3 February 2023.