Alejandro Vargas Samboy

Alejandro is a frontline worker, labour organizer, and community leader with over 15 years of experience serving workers and communities across Toronto. His work has centered on leadership development, crisis response, equity-focused programming, and building worker power through grassroots organizing.

Alejandro has held multiple leadership roles with the City of Toronto, including Parks Ambassador, Eco Coordinator, and Youth Supervisor, where he worked directly with communities impacted by austerity, homelessness, workplace violence, privatization, and systemic inequality. His experience on the frontlines has shaped his commitment to strengthening public services and ensuring workers have a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect their workplaces and communities.

At the University of Toronto’s Hart House, Alejandro served as a Youth Engagement Coordinator and co-created BEE — the Black Excellence Program — the institution’s first all-Black young men’s leadership and mentorship initiative. The program focused on culturally responsive mentorship, equity, leadership development, and creating safe spaces for Black youth to build confidence and community.

As a Member Organizer with CUPE Local 79, Alejandro has worked directly with over 30,000 members across multiple sectors, helping workers organize around workplace issues, leadership development, and collective action. He also served on the 2025 bargaining team representing 15,000 part-time recreation workers in the City of Toronto, helping secure important gains, including the elimination of minimum wage rates for recreation workers.

Alejandro’s platform is rooted in member-led democracy, organizing, and equitable access to union leadership and decision-making processes. He believes workers themselves should play a direct role in shaping bargaining priorities, policies, campaigns, and the future direction of the labour movement.

His vision for the Racialized Workers Caucus is to build stronger pathways for equity-seeking workers across Ontario to participate in union leadership, share their lived experiences, and organize collectively around the issues impacting their workplaces and communities. Through member-to-member organizing, political education, and cross-sector solidarity, Alejandro aims to strengthen representation, dignity, accountability, and working-class power throughout CUPE Ontario