Toronto Paramedics reach bargaining impasse with City of Toronto; headed to interest arbitration

Toronto, ON — Front line paramedics, who are members of Toronto Civic Employees Union (TCEU) CUPE Local 416, are entering interest arbitration with the City of Toronto to settle outstanding terms of the collective agreement, which expired on December 31, 2019. Comparatively, other first responders including Toronto Police and Toronto Fire, reached separate five-year agreements…

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Pink Triangle Day 2021

On Pink Triangle Day 2021 we embrace love’s diversity by celebrating LGBTQI2S+ people, families, and communities. We also reaffirm our solidarity with struggle against the oppression of the Ford Conservative government and wider homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia in our society. In Nazi Germany, thousands of LGBTQI2S+ people were sent to concentration camps where they were…

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“Anti-Black Racism is a Public Health Crisis”: CUPE Ontario calls on Province to finally make the declaration

Last summer, in the middle of a renewed and massive global movement to affirm that Black Lives Matter, CUPE Ontario’s 280,000 members, in recognition of the moment of reckoning we’re in, took the step of echoing a call of Black health leaders. We joined them in insisting that the Government of Ontario to immediately declare Anti-Black racism a…

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“Ford lied about spending the contingency funds”: CUPE Ontario says budget must reflect that public services save lives

TORONTO, ON – The day before the Financial Accountability Office (FAO) of Ontario was scheduled to release a report on the province’s finances, the Ford Conservatives misleadingly claimed they spent all the COVID-19 contingency funds, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario. “Yesterday, the Finance Minister announced to Ontarians that the Ford government…

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PSWs at UHN-Hillcrest say hospital exploits them with dismal pay, back-breaking work and it must stop: CUPE

TORONTO, ON – Toronto’s prestigious University Health Network (UHN) is exploiting personal support workers (PSWs), nurses and other health staff at their satellite hospital the Hillcrest Reactivation Centre, charged several PSWs who spoke publicly for the first time about their dismal pay and back-breaking working conditions. The three PSWs described their gruelling workloads, constant understaffing,…

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First major victory of CUPE unionization efforts: University of Waterloo responds with 32 per cent wage increase

Waterloo, ON — In a clear response to unionization efforts, the University of Waterloo (UW) has provided notice that it will raise wages for graduate student workers from $33.89 to $45 an hour. The move would bring wages for UW teaching assistants up to sector-wide norms, although they would still lag on total compensation relative…

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Over 40 Ontario unions take next steps in lawsuit against Ford government’s wage restraint legislation

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…

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Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre’s approval of international travel for senior manager and CEO’s subsequent silence are unacceptable: CUPE

Ottawa, ON – There should be one set of rules that apply to all hospital staff said the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) today in calling out the CEO of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre (ROMHC) for her silence on the storm over the approval of international travel and paid quarantine for a…

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