Union boss won’t accept award at Caboto Club
Dino Chiodo, Unifor’s national auto director, announced Thursday he won’t attend the 2017 Italian of the Year banquet at the Caboto Club on March 17 to collect the award.
Chiodo acknowledged that, as a labour leader, if he collected the award under the club’s policy that doesn’t allow women to be members, it would compromise his ability to advocate on women’s issues in the future.
“I can’t say, ‘ We want equality for women, but it’s OK, it doesn’t matter this time,’ ” said Chiodo, who would have collected the award had the dinner been moved to another club as he suggested. Chiodo said he isn’t refusing the
award outright because of the involvement of the Fogolar Furlan and Ciociaro clubs in choosing the winner. Chiodo said the Caboto Club and the Italian Women’s Club of Caboto are the other groups that participate in making the choice. I don’t want to disrespect the other clubs involved in the award by not accepting,” Chiodo said. “I don’t want to divide the community further.”
Chiodo said the issue of Caboto’s membership policy will be discussed at the board and membership level at Unifor Locals 444 and 200.
“I am hopeful that down the road we can certainly make some movement on this issue,” Chiodo said.
“I look forward to working together, having progressive discussions, but at this point I will not be able to attend the March 17 event.”
The former president of Unifor Local 444 — the city’s largest private sector union — said he remained optimistic that progressive change can be made and that dialogue with Caboto officials has never ceased.
“I believe there has been a lot of hurt in our community regarding this topic and I know we can come together as the great community we have to make it better,” Chiodo said.
“Currently, we are on different sides of this issue, as difficult as it is. I will continue to strive from my personal beliefs for equality for woman.”
Caboto manager Ron Moro has said the club isn’t ruling out changing its 93-year-old membership rules that don’t allow women to be voting members or sit on the board of directors. Following Sunday’s general membership meeting, Moro said the club wants to study its options and consult its Italian Women’s Club so it can make a decision on its own timetable.
Moro and club president Dennis Segatto were both contacted for comment Thursday but were unavailable.
The other three large Italian clubs in the area, Fogolar Furlan and Ciociaro in Windsor and the Roma Club in Leamington, all include women as full members. The Caboto Club’s membership policy was thrust back into the spotlight last month when Premier Kathleen Wynne cancelled a town-hall meeting scheduled to be held at the club on Feb. 15 after learning of the policy.
The latest group to reassess its relationship with the club is the Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame.
In a Facebook posting, the hall announced it was “regretfully” suspending its longtime relationship with the Caboto Club until changes have been made to the policy.
Chiodo said he regrets an opportunity has been lost to handle the issue differently.
“The thing is, the club has been a good community partner and done a lot of good in the city,” Chiodo said.
“There could have been a real positive story come out of this by basically making some steps towards doing the right thing. “Their interpretation is that they’re being bullied into a decision. That wasn’t our intent, and we have to keep trying to make that clear to them.”