This was a busy week for the UCI with community events in Chinatown and Burnaby. On Sunday, October 29th, the UCI hosted a tour of the historic Lim Sai Hor Kow Mok Benevolent Association building, home to our Chinatown Cooperative Development Centre.
The tour was led by Union Cooperative Organizer David Ng through the VALU Community Projects Cooperative in partnership with the Heart of the City Festival. We highlighted the community building solidarity work of the VALU union cooperative artists and the cooperative network building through the UCI.
David shared both his family and work history with the Lim Building before screening several short films about the artistic solidarity projects with the Lim Elders. We were then joined by Association Elder Orville Lim and invited for a tour and performance on the third floor Association space.
On Thursday night, Managing Director Jonny Sopotiuk was invited to join over 60 community leaders in the Edmonds neighbourhood of Burnaby to speak about union cooperatives as an alternative to exploitative gig work.
The community leader meeting was convened by the Hi Neighbour Initiative of the United Way of BC. The UCI is busy working with Mary & George from the United Way Edmonds on new community cooperative development projects to launch next Spring.
If your organization or community group is interested in a workshop on union cooperatives or a tour of the Lim Association Building & Chinatown Cooperative Development Centre, please reach out to info@unionci.ca.
