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STRENGTHENING OUR LABOUR MOVEMENT INSIDE & OUT JANE MEANS BUSINESS FOR OFL FINANCES MELISA PUTS BOOTS ON THE GROUND Since taking office last December, OFL Secretary-Treasurer Patty Coates has made it her mission to restructure and strengthen the OFL finances from the bottom up. A central piece of that strategy is the hiring of a CPA to direct the OFL finances and administration through the creation of a new Controller position. Jane Liu stepped into her new role on April 11, after dedicating the past 20 years to heading up financial management and accounting in the private sector. Before she sets her mind to making the OFL’s financial operation more effective and efficient, she plans to apply her skills to restructuring and streamlining the OFL’s accounting so that the staff, officers and Executive Committee have an up-to-theminute financial snap shot when they are planning the campaigns of the labour movement. “People sometimes have the misconception that best business practices are at odds with socially progressive values. Nothing could be further from the truth,” said Liu. “I believe that accountability and transparency are essential for a democratic organization like the OFL because it empowers the Board and the members to harness the resources of our movement and apply them to our political priorities.” Campaign reinforcements arrived just in time for the official launch of the OFL’s “Make It Fair” campaign and Melisa Bayon comes to the position of Campaign Organizer with loads of street cred. Melisa cut her campaign teeth over a decade of hotel worker organizing for UNITE HERE across Canada and the United States and spent the last few years as the lead organizer for homecare workers with SEIU Healthcare. She has drafted non-union organizing strategies and led scores of grassroots campaigns to empower some of North America’s most precarious workers by forging bonds with political and community allies. The daughter of a single mother who fled from Argentina with young children, Melisa comes by her working class roots honestly and knows first hand that unions are a pathway out of poverty. “There is no campaign with more potential to transform the daily lives of workers than the campaign for labour law reform,” said Bayon. “We are building a campaign to redefine the future of work in Ontario and to give every worker control over their own life. This campaign isn’t just about solidarity, it is about our survival.” OFL ACTION REPORT 13