An open letter to OPSEU’s Presidential candidates
Three candidates are running to be the next president of OPSEU/SEFPO. 26% of the union’s members are disabled.
So how has accessibility factored into these three campaigns?
The intersection between disability and labour
As someone with an invisible illness, I am very aware that visibility is not an accurate indicator of an issue’s severity or prevalence. This is particularly true when considering the experiences of disabled workers in Canada.
From the sidelines
There is a direct link between the disinterest in protecting disabled people from COVID to the medical barriers that Erin Gilmer (and so many others) faced and the bureaucratic violence and systematically enforced scarcity that Erin O’Neil (and so many others) faced. As disabled people, we are seen as less: less trustworthy, less important, less human.