The frontline workers, lawyers and paralegals at West Scarborough Community Legal Services have voted to become OPSEU members, joining a growing number of legal clinic and Legal Aid workers in the union.
“Congratulations to all of these new members,” said OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas. “More and more frontline legal workers are choosing to join OPSEU every week, and we welcome each and every one of them.
“It’s clear that Doug Ford’s cruel and chaotic cuts to Legal Aid Ontario and the community legal clinics it funds are doing terrible damage in the community. No wonder so many employees at legal clinics are coming together in OPSEU to fight for their rights, and the rights of the people they help.”
For more than 30 years, the frontline workers at West Scarborough Community Legal Services have helped people assert and protect their rights in the fields of work, health care and disability, housing, human rights, immigration, and income assistance. They offer their legal services in nine different languages.
“The workers at clinics like West Scarborough Community Legal Services care deeply for the people they help,” said Kareen Marshall, chair of OPSEU’s Community Agencies division. “They want to provide the best services possible, and that sometimes means standing together to demand better working conditions for themselves.
“I’m so pleased and proud that they’ve decided to stand together with us in OPSEU. Together, we’ll fight back against Ford’s cuts and make sure that everybody gets the legal support they need.”