On May 1, CUPE Ontario’s 280,000 members are among the many around the world who recognize International Workers’ Day, or May Day. With this being the second May Day in the grips of a global pandemic, and with the third wave disproportionately crashing on the backs of workers, the lessons and the path forward are not lost…
On April 27th, CUPE Ontario’s Executive Board resoundingly passed a motion to endorse Team Unite for election at the 2021 CLC Convention. Team Unite includes long-time CUPE Local 79 leader and CUPE Ontario activist Lily Chang, who is running for Secretary-Treasurer and has a proven track record of fighting for members in the workplace and…
Every year, on April 28, we pause to mourn and recognize workers who have been injured and killed on the job. And while we remember we also understand the fundamental importance of the political work of fighting for the living by redoubling our efforts to demand real safety for workers and the communities that rely…
Since 2018, members of CUPE Local 375, representing 1,100 longshore workers at the Port of Montreal, have been without a contract. Continued bad faith bargaining on the part of the employer, the Maritime Employers Association (MEA), culminated in them announcing schedule changes that would see members working more per shift without any additional pay, and…
This Earth Day, we invite Local executives to sign on to the CUPE Climate Change Emergency Declaration. While the planet reels in response to the health emergency from COVID-19, we cannot lose sight of the environmental crisis. There is no vaccine for climate change. Global temperatures continue to go up, and we continue to experience an increasingly destabilized climate. CUPE recognizes…
Windsor, ON—Children’s aid society workers in Windsor, whose work requires daily in-person visits to multiple private homes, schools, and other congregated settings, call on Dr. Wajid Ahmed, Medical Officer of Health for the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, to use his authority to authorize vaccine prioritization for frontline workers as has occurred in other regions of…
KANATA, ON – Workers at Bridlewood Trails Retirement Community in Kanata voted almost unanimously today to join The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). “The pandemic has been very challenging for workers in retirement and long-term care residences. Thanks to COVID, everyone knows care workers need to be treated better and given more respect,” said…
TORONTO, ON – Part-time clerical workers at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto have voted to join the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Canada’s largest health care union. The ballot count was delayed for more than three months by technical objections from the group’s former bargaining agent, NOWU. Finally, on March 15, the Ontario Labour Relations Board…
TORONTO, ON – As mass immunization efforts ramp up across the province, CUPE Ontario is calling for temporarily unemployed airline workers to be prioritized as an available workforce to support COVID-19 vaccination clinics. “Most airline workers possess first-aid training, speak multiple languages, and have federal security clearance” said Jill Patterson, the Vice-President of CUPE Local…
Toronto, ON – A Coalition of over 40 Ontario unions has formally filed evidence in a lawsuit to repeal legislation which severely limits wage and benefit increases for public sector workers, a move the Coalition says violates bargaining rights enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. “We have always believed that the Ford government’s…
