01/06/2026
This week I was reminded who I come from, and who I stand with.
Local 1734 invited me to their convention as a retiree, and I want to say it plainly: it was an honour. I couldn't be in the thick of the main energy & action this time, but I was there on the sidelines, helping where I could, reminding people to eat, to drink some water, to take a breath. And from that spot, I saw something I won't forget.
The people in that room are union representatives. Many are frontline school board workers themselves, but at convention, they carry a bigger role: they represent every frontline worker affected by what's happening. The lowest paid in the board.
The hardest working. People who walk into workplaces where they face violence, disrespect, and racism, and who keep showing up anyway. Day after day. For the kids. Because the kids need them, and they care. That's the whole reason.
On the day the convention began, word came down of a historic layoff. Around 250 school board employees, and it isn't just here, it's province wide. There is no precedent for cuts on this scale.
So a week that was meant for union business, for elections and the work of the local, became something else entirely. These reps spent it on their phones, barely sleeping, working through thousands of emails, trying to find answers that don't exist yet, carrying every family's fear as if it were their own. Because to them, it is.
I watched you take all of it on personally. That is who you are.
To Local 1734: thank you. For the invitation, for the welcome, for letting this old fighter be part of it. I grew up in this movement. It's in my blood. And watching you, I know it's in good hands.
I'm a retiree now, which still sounds strange to say out loud. But I am not done. As long as I have breath in my body, I am in this fight with you.
No one hurts our kids. No one.
CUPE Ontario CUPE 1734 Ali Chatur
