WAM Candidates
Elect new, radical and dynamic leaders to the top positions in the Ontario Federation of Labour.
Sponsored by the Workers’ Action Movement
Vote Julius Arscott for OFL Executive
Julius is the only candidate who is actively in solidarity with the Palestinian people demanding Ceasefire Now, End the Occupation, and who campaigns to End NATO's Proxy War in Ukraine, Disband NATO, for Homes Not Drones, Water bombers Not fighter jets, No concessions bargaining, No two-tier wages/benefits, for a General Strike to Dump Thug Ford.
The Workers’ Action Movement (WAM) strives to foster militant, democratic leadership to inspire union members to make a better world for the working class and humanity.
Previous Campaigns
2021 Ontario Federation of Labour Convention
Barry Conway
WAM Candidate for OFL President
Barry Conway, 36, is currently the Second Vice-President of the Hamilton and District Labour Council. He just completed a 6 year term as the Outside Unit Vice President for Canadian Union of Public Employees' Local 5167. Barry became active in his local shortly after he was hired by the City of Hamilton. When the employer failed to pay him and his co-workers for their regular 80 hour, 2 week period, and after many phone calls to and fro, Barry occupied the payroll office. He said he wouldn't leave unless it was with pay cheques in hand for his co-workers and himself, or if forced to do so by the police. Within an hour the employer had cheques cut for all the affected workers.
That was the beginning of an active, militant life within the union, and in the broad public sphere for Barry. As the Outside Unit VP he openly denounced senior management during an ice storm for not protecting the waste collections operators. Workers were ordered to perform their duties in the most adverse conditions which were known to be unsafe. The whole yard crew collectively put in a work refusal and Barry helped to wage the war against the employer to ensure the workers would be safe. He's also a Pride Defender, currently fighting assault charges arising from an incident in which he helped to defend the queer community when it was violently attacked by right wing opponents at the 2019 Hamilton Pride march. More recently he has been an active ally to Indigenous struggles, supporting Land Back Lane, the Wet'suwet'en people and other First Nations causes.
Barry works tirelessly to build rank and file solidarity by assisting front line workers to find their voice, and to find their power.
Sandra Griffith-Bonaparte
WAM Candidate for OFL Executive Vice-President
Sandra emigrated in 1988 to Canada from Grenada in the south-east Caribbean. She got a job in the federal public service and became involved in the Union of National Defence Employees, a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. As President of UNDE Local 70607 for over 12 years, Sandra's outstanding leadership attracted envy and hatred from some white members in her region, especially when she gained accolades as a union spokesperson and educator. Her bigoted opponents filed false charges of harassment against her. The UNDE brass removed her from office for ten months, but Sandra is back now. She is a member of the Workers' Action movement in Ottawa.
“As your prospective Executive Vice-President on the OFL leadership team, I will relentlessly fight to protect our workers’ rights and strongly advocate for eradicating inequities that our members are experiencing in the workplaces. I will be the voice of my union brothers and sisters that will not stop talking until it is heard and power is returned to our membership!”
Daniel Tarade
WAM Candidate for OFL Secretary-Treasurer
Daniel Tarade is a 27-year old scientist, university lecturer, and community organizer living in Toronto. He and his parents arrived in Canada as refugees of the Bosnian war and settled in Windsor, Ontario.
Growing up with a brother with Type 1 diabetes, and inspired by the University of Toronto scientists who discovered Insulin, Daniel pursued a career in science. The process of obtaining a PhD in Laboratory Medicine & Pathobiology at the University of Toronto radicalized Daniel.
The ‘proud’ Canadian tradition of putting profit before worker and societal well-being extends to the sciences. Brian Mulroney’s Progressive Conservative government privatized the publicly-owned Connaught Labs in 1986. Instead of fighting for a strong, publicly-owned and scientist-led pharmaceutical industry, our federal and provincial governments today throw billions at for-profit pharmaceutical companies that exploit the sick.
This led Daniel to turn to organizing, where he advocates, as a solution to the present crisis, a real economic democracy.
As Secretary-Treasurer of the OFL, Daniel will draw on his working-class roots and experiences, and seek to put the Movement back into the Labour Movement.
Daniel's father worked in a non-unionized feeder plant in Windsor, where awful working conditions and poverty wages destroyed his body and left his family scrambling when the automobile factories began outsourcing to countries with even fewer labour protections. Daniel fights to organize unorganized workers and to put workers in control when owners abandon communities.
Daniel heard horror stories from his nurse mother. She worked in private long-term care and faced limitations on the number of diapers, gloves and sheets she could use, so that the bosses could squeeze more profit out of our elderly and disabled friends, family, and neighbours. Daniel fights for public control over long-term care! Get profit out of healthcare! Mobilize the working class to defend healthcare workers from both neoliberal budget cuts and reactionary anti-vax mobs.
As a teaching assistant (CUPE Local 4580) at the University of Windsor, Daniel was paid half the wage of more senior assistants doing the same work. Daniel challenges two-tier wages and benefits.
As a grocery store clerk during the pandemic (CUPE Local 1281), Daniel suffered dangerous working conditions exacerbated by a government that prioritized business as usual above worker safety. Daniel calls for mass labour mobilization to ensure safety for all workers during and after the pandemic!
As a lecturer at the University of Toronto (CUPE Local 3902), Daniel experiences first-hand how our public institutions become corporate-controlled, underpay workers, and invest billions in infrastructure projects that undermine Indigenous self-determination and threaten environmental catastrophe. Daniel fights for public institutions that serve the public, not the privileged few. This includes our unions too, which are begging for a democratic revolution!
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