International solidarity report 2018-2019 | Canadian Union of Public Employees
CUPE is deeply committed to the global labour movement and to international solidarity. Building relationships with workers and community allies around the world strengthens our collective fight for human and labour rights, decent work, strong public services and peace. In…
CUPE will continue to stand up for members at Air Canada and Air Transat
The union representing flight attendants at Air Canada and Air Transat says it is cautiously optimistic about the news that Air Canada will buy Air Transat for a reported $520 million. However, the Canadian Union of Public Employees will be keeping…
Letter from Kyungkyu Yang of the Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union
The following letter is from Kyungkyu Yang, KPTU Education Center ‘Wum’ Director and KPTU Advisor, to the members of CUPE Newfoundland Labrador. He was a special guest speaker at CUPE NL’s first-ever Global Justice Conference held in May 2019. June 12, 2019 To: Sherry…
K-12 support workers in Revelstoke reach tentative agreement
CUPE 5150 K-12 support workers in Revelstoke BC reached a tentative agreement on June 17 following two bargaining sessions. “Our bargaining committee was great and negotiations were friendly,” said CUPE 5150 President Clara Maltby. “For what we had to work with, bargaining went…
K-12 Rocky Mountain support workers reach tentative agreement
CUPE 440 K-12 support workers in Rocky Mountain BC reached a tentative agreement on June 24. Bargaining began in May and the local met with the employer for a total of five sessions. “This was a tough round,” said CUPE 440 President Ann…
K-12 support workers in Boundary BC reach tentative agreement
CUPE 2098 K-12 support workers in Christina Lake, Grand Forks, Greenwood, Midway, Rock Creek, Beaverdell, and Big White BC reached a tentative agreement on June 25, following four bargaining sessions that began in April. “The commitment and creativity shown by the bargaining committee and…
CUPE 2098 kicks off summer with free public swim
Local residents enjoyed a free public swim at the Grand Forks Aquatic Centre on June 21, thanks to the sponsorship of CUPE Local 2098 (K-12 support staff). Swimmers of all ages attended, including 65 school-age children, kicking off the summer…
Workers’ rights held up by Essential Services Tribunal
The University of Saskatchewan has lost their battle to take the right to strike away from hundreds of workers on campus. That was the result of a ruling released today by the Essential Service Tribunal between CUPE Local 1975 and…
K-12 custodial, maintenance and IT workers in Langley reach tentative agreement
CUPE 1851, K-12 custodial, maintenance and IT workers at the Langley School District (SD35) reached a tentative agreement on June 26, following seven bargaining sessions. “Our team started preparing at the beginning of the year and kept focused and on task…
CUPE in solidarity with Sudanese movement for democracy and human rights
Thirty years ago this Sunday, former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir took power in a coup. CUPE expresses our solidarity with people in Sudan who have been struggling for peace and democracy for decades. This weekend, Sudanese people will be demonstrating…
Federal health committee agrees with CUPE: it’s time to end violence against health care workers
This week, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Health released its report on the critical issue of violence against health care workers in Canada. The report strongly reflects the recommendations made by CUPE in our written submission and during…
CUPE 116 members at UBC ratify collective agreement
CUPE 116 members working at the University of British Columbia (UBC), ratified a tentative agreement (TA) they reached with the employer on June 9. The ratification vote was completed late Tuesday night with members voting in favour of accepting the…
Nuclear workers building union power
Unions from Belgium, France, Japan, Malawi, Russia, South Africa, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the US participated in the meeting, which was hosted by Turkish union Energy, Water and Gas Workers’ Union (Tes-İş). Turkey will include nuclear in its energy…
Coquitlam K-12 support workers reach tentative agreement
CUPE 561, K-12 support workers, reached a tentative agreement (TA) with SD43 on Wednesday. Bargaining began on April 24 and a TA was reached after 7 sessions. “The deal was achieved because of money negotiated for local tables in the provincial…
World chemical unions confront the future, united
The chemical unions last met in 2015 in Hannover, Germany. The meeting was opened by sector co-chairs Iris Wolf of IG BCE in Germany and Sergio Leite of Fequimfar in Brazil. Iris Wolf stressed that the industry faces tremendous change…
Massive cabinet shuffle won’t fix the Ford Conservatives’ plummeting poll numbers
The Ford Conservatives’ unprecedented Cabinet shuffle, after only one year in office, will not improve their plummeting polling numbers or fix the problem of cuts to public services faced by Ontarians says the President of Canadian Union of Public Employees…
Djibouti: teachers are being unfairly imprisoned : Education International
Education International and the Francophone Trade Union Committee for Education and Training are demanding the immediate release of seven teachers arrested in Djibouti on apparently unsubstantiated charges. The Comité syndical francophone de l’éducation et de la formation (Francophone Trade Union…
Ending migrant workers’ rights violations in Mauritius
On arrival in Mauritius, workers are paid low wages, work long hours, live in squalid conditions sometimes in dormitories behind factories, and risk deportation when standing up against the violations. The labour and human rights violations against the migrant workers…
New report shows public, not private, solutions are the way forward for health care in Canada
Canadians cherish our public health care, but in 2019, funding cuts and an aging population are putting increased pressure on the system. Provincial spending cuts have whittled services down to the core and CUPE members working in health care can…
Unity, struggle and solidarity in the pharmaceutical industry
The meeting was hosted by IndustriALL’s Turkish affiliate Petrol-İş. Petrol-İş and another Turkish affiliate, Lastik-İş, are both central actors in the Turkish landscape and work hard to defend and protect their members in these difficult times. The network examined and analysed the sector and discussed how…
CUPE 4991 K-12 outside workers in Prince George BC reach tentative agreement
CUPE 4991 K-12 maintenance and grounds workers in Prince George BC, reached a tentative agreement on June 21 following two days of bargaining. “I certainly appreciated the commitment of our bargaining committee – who were mainly new to bargaining – and the…
BASF unions strengthen global unity
Union networking at BASF has been active at regional level in Latin America, North America and Asia-Pacific over the years. Tegional network members met for the second time after the first global meeting in 2015. Industrial relations are well established…
CUPE 401 K-12 workers on Vancouver Island reach tentative agreement
CUPE 401 members who support K-12 students across Vancouver Island reached a tentative agreement on June 20, following four bargaining sessions. “This employer was open to finding ways to reach an agreement that benefitted all parties,” said CUPE 401 President Blaine Gurrie. The tentative…
CUPE 779 K-12 Sea to Sky workers reach tentative agreement
CUPE 779 K-12 Sea to Sky support workers in BC reached a tentative agreement on June 21 following seven bargaining sessions with the employer. CUPE 779 President Andrea Smith said that bargaining was respectful on both sides and had high praise for her bargaining committee….
CUPE joins disability rights groups in celebrating the new Accessible Canada Act
On June 21, 2019, the Accessible Canada Act (Bill C-81) became law. This comes after years of activism by disability justice advocates, who pushed hard for meaningful federal laws to make sure persons with disabilities can exercise their full human rights. …
K-12 support workers in Bulkley Valley ratify tentative agreement
CUPE 2145 K-12 support workers at seven schools in Smithers, Telkwa and Houston BC have ratified a tentative agreement on June 24, following bargaining that began in April. “I couldn’t be prouder of our bargaining team – they were great. We all worked really…
It’s our victory – ILO adopts new global standards to combat violence and harassment in the world of work
The IUF wholeheartedly welcomes the adoption on June 21 of new global standards on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work. The Convention and Recommendation, adopted at the 2019 International Labour Conference, are the outcome of sustained mobilization and…
IndustriALL renews global agreement with energy company Eni
The GFA was signed between ENI industrial relations manger, Fabrizio Sbarra, and IndustriALL, general secretary, Valter Sanches, as well as representatives of Italian affiliated unions FILCTEM-CGIL, FEMCA-CISL and UILTEC-UIL, which were co-signatories. The renewed GFA includes improvements in its human rights due diligence…
50 Years of Struggle: CUPE LGBTQ2+ History
CUPE members fight for inclusion of sexual orientation in employer anti-discrimination policies, e.g. Toronto municipal and library workers. New CUPE “Standard Agreement” (model collective agreement language) emphasizes equality. National Convention calls on all governments to extend human rights protection to sexual orientation…
We did it! New ILO Convention on violence and harassment at work
The adoption of the Convention and Recommendation is a huge victory for workers and the trade union movement, which has been fighting for years to get an international labour instrument to address gender-based violence (GBV) in the world of work. The…