Hayley Millington

Hayley Millington is the National Executive Vice-President (NEVP) of the Union of National Employees (UNE) in Ontario, Canada, and is part of the first team of elected Black Women leaders, having been elected at the Convention in August 2023 alongside UNE’s First Black President, Alisha Kang.

Hayley started her activism in 2013 as her Local’s Human Rights Representative. That year, she attended her first UNE conference and was elected as the National Equity Representative for Women. She held the position for two terms before running for National Equity Representative for Racially Visible People, which she held for a year and a half before being elected to Assistant National Vice-President for Human Rights.

Hayley has worked at the Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) Learning Branch since 2001. Prior to assuming the position of NEVP for the UNE, she investigated student loan fraud. She was hired into the government after attending the only job fair directed at racially visible members through a program called Embracing Change. The job fair was the first and last for what the government called “targeted recruitment.”

Hayley is also passionate about nonprofit housing, particularly cooperative living, and has resided at a co-op in Ottawa since 2002. She has been on and off their Board of Directors (BoDs) since 2003, serving as Secretary, Director, and President at various times. She has also served on the BoDs of the Cooperative Housing Association of Eastern Ontario. She continues to be a resource for her coop community and its members.

Before working in organized labor, she taught grades 3-5 at international and private schools abroad. Hayley grew up on the island of Trinidad and Tobago and migrated to Canada in 1988. She holds an Honours degree in History and English from Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario. She has a son she considers the “best bits” of herself.