Dear Colleagues,
Please be advised of the following:
1. Liminal Space – proximity warning
With the pandemic’s long goodbye tossing certainty out the window, TUFA members — like millions of others – are at grave risk of entrapment in the liminal space between Doing and Not Doing. We should not tarry long in this space. Your Executive Director encourages everyone to give their risk instruments a light tap – just to make sure the needle hasn’t gotten stuck — before considering the activities described below.
2. Juke Box Mania – evening of April 29
The Community Counselling Resource Centre sponsors an annual fundraising event called “Juke Box Mania.” For several years, CUPE 3908 and TUFA have jointly fielded a competitive team that has always done quite well. . . unless compared to the performance of the lawyers over at LLF. Turns out that clever rote-learners with an ear for language do very well at music trivia. Really, how embarrassing for us! We need to win this coveted pennant. To that end, TUFA is fielding a SECOND teams for this year’s competition. All we need now are 12 [musically] strong TUFAns, partners of TUFAns, or TUFA-adjacent nonlawyers to get the job done. The event will be virtual and your participation can be entirely remote, but we are making arrangements to permit those who would prefer to gather around a common screen to do so. This is a first-come, first-served call. Individual participants will be asked to kick in $50 which we will use to spring for dinner/munchies for our two teams and to augment our total contribution to the CCRC’s campaign.
3. Health & Safety Committee – Call for 2022/23
TUFA needs to appoint a new representative to the Multi-workplace Joint Health & Safety Committee. Interested members should contact the TUFA office for more information. Thanks to Jeff Adams and Julian Aherne for their service on the JH&SC throughout the pandemic.
4. TUFA Equity Committee – Update and Call for 2022/23
New Terms of Reference for TUFA’s Equity Committee were reviewed at last week’s General Membership meeting and our Equity Committee members have now confirmed their satisfaction with the language as presented. TUFA staff will work with the Committee in the coming months to repopulate and expand our Equity webpage, but for now the approved Terms of Reference have been posted to the top of this page, fyi. Thanks to Dalon Taylor (Chair), Nael Bhanji, Lynne Davis, Marina Morgenshtern, and Blair Niblett for all their work this year, and especially for developing and refining our collective understanding of the role this Committee can play in TUFA’s affairs. We can build on this foundation: members interested in serving on the 2022/23 Equity Committee should contact Committee Chair, Dalon Taylor, or the TUFA office for more information.
5. Peterborough & District Labour Council – Update and Call for delegate
The resignation of PDLC President Tyler Burns has resulted in the unforeseen promotion of PDLC Vice-President Marcus Harvey to that office. Ideally, TUFA should now appoint a new delegate to represent the Association at Labour Council’s monthly meetings. Interested members please contact Marcus for more information.
6. PDLC – Day of Mourning – April 28 (10:45 am start)
For the first time in two years, the PDLC will hold its National Day of Mourning event in-person at Peterborough City Hall. Natasha Luckhardt, Producer and Director of Town of Widows and now the Director of Health, Safety and the Environment at the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), will be the Keynote speaker. The event will begin at 10:45 am around the flagpole and will culminate in a lunch (courtesy of the PDLC) at the Black Horse pub.
7. PDLC May Day – May 1 (2:00 pm to 4:00 pm)
The Labour Council will mark May Day — Sunday May 1st — at St. Anne’s Parish Hall (859 Barnardo Avenue). The celebration will include speeches, music and entertainment, refreshments, and offers a chance for labour and community activists to reconnect with one another. Please register soon so that we know how much food to order.
In Solidarity,
Marcus
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Marcus Harvey,
Executive Director