Alika Hendricks, Society of United Professionals/IFPTE Local 160

Alika Hendricks is a Unit Director with the Legal Aid Ontario Lawyers’ bargaining unit of the Society of United Professionals/IFPTE Local 160. As an elected representative, Alika is an advocate for the advocates. Her bargaining unit members are lawyers who represent low-income Ontarians in the areas of criminal, family, immigration, and clinic law.

Trained as a criminal lawyer, Alika was part of the years-long effort to organize her workplace into IFPTE. Since winning Legal Aid Ontario lawyers’ bargaining rights, she has served on her bargaining unit’s inaugural bargaining team, and is now a member of the team that is currently at the table negotiating a renewal agreement.

Committed to volunteerism and building community, Alika is vice-chair of the Society’s Coalition of Racialized Professionals. She is also a recurring mentor with the McGill Black Alumni Association and a board member with Community Builders Youth Leadership as well as an active member of her children’s school council.  

Alika’s passion for workers’ rights was awakened during law school, where she contributed to research on the vulnerabilities faced by domestic workers. She has contributed to the Society’s public policy advocacy on a variety of issues, including legal aid funding and bail reform. Alika is completing her LLM in labour and employment law at Osgoode Hall Law School to bolster her capacity as an advocate in the labour sphere. 

Alika is grateful to her husband for his unending support and her four children who motivate her to make the world a place worth inheriting.