A statement from Crystal Krauter-Maki, educational assistant and CUPE Local 4148 president, regarding the ransomware hack of Huron Superior Catholic District School Board

January 10, 2023 Sault Ste Marie, ON -Members of CUPE 4148 are caretakers, maintenance workers, carpenters, educational assistants (EAs), early childhood educators (ECEs), and clerical staff employed by the Huron Superior Catholic District School Board (HSCDSB). There are very few, if any, other organizations to which workers supply so much personal information as they provide…

Sault Ste Marie city workers vote to strike for a wage increase to address high cost of living, give city managers tools to retain and recruit staff

SAULT STE MARIE, ON – The workers who dug Sault Ste Marie out of huge Christmas holiday snowstorms have voted to strike, if necessary, to get a wage increase they need to receive for their families to keep up with the skyrocketing cost of living and the city needs to provide to retain and recruit…

Year-end Message from Fred and Yolanda

Year End Message 2022 Sisters, Brothers, Comrades & Friends What a year 2022 has been! As pandemic restrictions eased, we re-engaged with one another in person and at numerous CUPE Ontario conferences and events, reigniting our participation in community events like Pride celebrations, Carnival, and Labour Day. Our 55,000 school board workers made labour history…

Execution of protesters in Iran

CUPE Ontario has added its voice to the growing chorus of condemnation around the executions in Iran of two young people who were involved with the nationwide protests triggered by the death in custody of Jina Mahsa Amini. CUPE Ontario expressed its profound shock and condemnation at the deaths of Majidreza Rahnavard and Mohsen Shekari,…

City employees shocked by pre-Christmas lay-offs as Mississauga contracts out emergency dispatch services to private firm

Mississauga, ON – On Tuesday, December 6, just weeks before the Christmas holidays, CUPE 66 emergency dispatchers for the City of Mississauga were told they were immediately being laid off, as a private contractor took over their jobs on the same day. “This was completely unexpected after we had received such exemplary reviews in August,”…

“We need higher wages, not higher rents”: Striking teaching and research assistants block graduate residence construction

(Hamilton, ON) Today, striking teaching and research assistants at McMaster University blocked the construction of a graduate residence owned by the university to shed light on wages failing to keep up with the cost of living. “We’re on strike mainly because McMaster is still pushing little more than poverty wages on us,” said Chris Fairweather,…

CUPE Ontario congratulates, praises education workers and OSBCU on ratification of historic deal

TORONTO – CUPE Ontario leaders heaped praise and admiration on CUPE education workers and their central bargaining team, the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU), following the announcement that union members had strongly endorsed the tentative agreement negotiated by OSBCU in late November. Results of the province-wide ratification vote were released this morning, following…

Education workers vote to ratify first freely-negotiated collective agreement in a decade

TORONTO, ON – Ontario’s lowest-paid education workers have voted to ratify their next collective agreement with the Council of the Trustees’ Associations (CTA) and the provincial government. A total of 41,559 out of 55,000 frontline CUPE education workers cast ballots, and 30,330 –73% – voted “yes” to accept the tentative agreement that was reached by…

CUPE Ontario statement on education workers’ ratification of OSBCU agreement

Following the announcement of CUPE Ontario education workers’ ratification of the tentative collective agreement negotiated between OSBCU, the CTA and the Crown, CUPE Ontario shared the following statement with members: On behalf of all members of CUPE Ontario, we send our heartfelt congratulations to our union’s education workers, members of the Ontario School Board Council…