Steelworkers Local 6500 received donations and pledges totalling $70,000 at the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario Convention May 27.
According to a press release put out by CUPE, convention delegates cheered as Local 6500 president John Fera “took the stage to tell the story of how his community has been pitted against the giant multinational Vale in what is now nearly a year long epic struggle to protect workers' jobs and pensions.”
Speaker after speaker went to the stage to commit donations from their local union.
After $30,000 was committed from CUPE Ontario local unions, Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) president Sid Ryan committed a further $5,000 from the OFL.
To bring the donation total to $70,000, CUPE national leader Paul Moist promised to match everything raised on the floor that night.
Fera thanked the delegates "from the bottom of my heart.”