You can also share the video with your retiring members, show it at your membership meeting or put the link to it on you local’s website.
Thousands of CUPE Ontario’s retired members live in communities across the province. All are recognized by the union as retiree members of the union and increasingly they are bringing years of activism to our critical work and campaigns at their locals and in the communities where we work and live.
When our public services, our pensions, our benefits and our public health care system are threatened by all levels of government and their corporate allies, we firmly believe that we, as retirees, must come together to fight to protect our rights. hard-won and to show our solidarity with current unionized and non-unionized workers who are fighting for better working conditions and to build a better society.
Chair and executive board rep of our Retirees Network, David Kidd.
Ask David to meet with your retired or soon-to-retiree members or talk to your local about supporting your retirees continuing activism with our union. Contact him: [email protected] with the subject line: “Retirees”.
CUPE 79 Rally for Fairness – Casey Barnett thanks CUPE Ontario Retirees video here: https://youtu.be/l4P4iIwc1Ks
Retiree Engagement:
One of the ways locals and district councils are supporting their retiree members (and, importantly, drawing retirees back into the work of our union) is by establishing, via a local meeting motion, a Retiree Council or Committee.
- Support from CUPE Staff Reps is, of course, really important for promoting retiree engagement by setting up Retirees’ Committees.
2024 Network Campaigns:
Three campaigns have been adopted by the CUPE Ontario Semi-annual Retirees Meeting.
Halt Healthcare Privatization
Retirees are vigorously supporting the Ontario Healthcare Coalition’s work to end the outsourcing of hospital services to for-profit clinics. We have been gathering petition signatures. We have been calling CUPE members and retirees in a province-wide effort to fill buses headed to Queens Park from across Ontario and to get folks to regional rallies. We have joined the fight to reverse the privatization of OHIP services and increase the salaries and benefits of all healthcare workers.
Climate-proof our Pensions
CUPE retirees want to protect our pensions by insisting that our pension plans safeguard our retirement from risky fossil fuel (oil and gas) investments and invest in climate safety. We really don’t want our pension savings undermining the financial and environmental interests of CUPE members retiring in the future. And we don’t want our retirement savings making the climate catastrophe even more dangerous than it already is projected to be. Our grandchildren deserve better.
This campaign has retirees organizing presentations by Shift: Action at our locals, conventions and sector conferences so that we can all learn how to safeguard our pensions. Between these events our Retirees Climate-proofing Pension working group is submitting letters to the editor and gathering personal testimonials of CUPE retirees.
On October 1st in communities across Ontario CUPE retirees join SCAN (Seniors for Climate Action Now) to mark the UN’s International Day of Older Persons and renew our pledge to “Climate-Proof our Pensions” against profit-driven, fossil-fueled climate change.
Network Enlargement Campaign
CUPE Ontario was tasked by the annual convention with connecting all new retirees to the Retirees Network and having locals send in a list of retired members twice a year. Retirees contact details are not being shared but are added to the growing Retirees Network list so that retirees can connect with other retirees, keep abreast of CUPE events on a regular basis and “give back” to our union through our ongoing activism.
CUPE Locals are building “retirees working groups” and committees, connecting with colleagues who have retired. All to provide avenues for each retiree to lend our skills, developed over a lifetime of work, to the movement. As CUPE Ontario’s President, Fred Hahn, has said, “Every last retiree who joins the Network strengthens our union and our ability to succeed for a brighter future”.
CUPE’s Semi-annual Meeting is held in the spring and the fall and is open to all CUPE retirees. Locals and district councils are encouraged to send any number delegates. Retirees can attend in person or online. CUPE Ontario issues notice of the Semi-annual Meeting to all locals, district councils and several hundred Retiree Network members.
Be sure to join CUPE Retirees in Ontario on Facebook for news and updates!
Contact us: [email protected] with “Retirees” in the subject line.
Join the Retirees Network
Just fill in the form below:
