Important dates in CUPE's history

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1963
After seven years of merger discussions the Canadian Union of Public Employees – CUPE – is formed, merging NUPE and NUPSE and almost 80,000 members from approximately 500 locals. CUPE becomes the second largest union in the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and largest Canadian union affiliated with the Congress. Stan Little becomes CUPE’s first national president. Bob Rintoul becomes CUPE’s first national secretary-treasurer.

1964
CUPE 488, Western Memorial Hospital workers in Corner Brook, signs its first collective agreement since 1957.

1966
Hydro-Québec workers join CUPE on September 30, adding 9,000 members to CUPE.

1967
Grace Hartman, from CUPE 373, City of North York, is elected national secretary-treasurer of CUPE, making labour history as the first woman to hold a top national union job in Canada.

CBC employees join CUPE.

CUPE claims its first pay equity breakthrough when female members of CUPE 101 in London, Ontario win an end to wage discrimination.

1969
CUPE’s membership reaches 130,000.

1970
Union campaigns put a stop to patronage in New Brunswick’s Department of Highways.

Workers in Saskatchewan’s Victoria Union Hospital in Prince Albert, and in St. Joseph’s Hospital in Estevan are legislated back to work. The compulsory arbitration perpetuates poverty wages for hospital workers.

City of London library workers become the first library workers in Canada to go on strike. The two-week walkout gives them exactly what they asked for.

1975
Grace Hartman is elected national president of CUPE. Kealey Cummings, from CUPE 1000, Ontario Hydro, is elected national secretary-treasurer.

6,000 Toronto hospital workers win a wage hike of $1.50 per hour, with positive repercussions for poorly paid hospital workers across Canada.

1976
100,000 CUPE members join one million other Canadians in a one-day general strike to protest the Trudeau government’s wage controls.

1979
School bus drivers in Digby, NS walk off the job. The school board hires scabs at $152 per month more than CUPE members were earning and defies numerous labour board orders to resume bargaining in good faith. It becomes one of the longest and most difficult strikes in CUPE’s history, lasting three-and-a-half years.

1980
Manitoba’s 3,000 CUPE hospital and nursing home workers strike and win a historic wage settlement in a one-year contract providing average increases of 26 per cent.

1981
Hospital workers in Ontario are among the few who do not have the right to strike and are forced to address their needs through binding arbitration. The process keeps their wages down and makes them fall farther and farther behind in cost of living increases. They walk off the job in an eight-day illegal strike. Repercussions are severe. On June 11, 1981, CUPE National President Grace Hartman, CUPE Ontario President Lucie Nicholson, and CUPE Representative Ray Arsenault are sentenced to jail terms. Workers proceed to build a strong, province-wide coordinating council.

CUPE’s 10,000 municipal workers in Greater Vancouver go on strike to gain, among other things, pay equity for women workers by bringing up their rates to those of mainly blue collar workers.

CUPE's national Women's Task Force is established by Convention resolution. Its objective is to work towards the elimination of sexism and gender injustice in the workplace.

1983
CUPE members, along with 2,000 other unionists, stage the largest demonstration PEI has ever seen and succeed in getting wage control legislation scrapped.

Grace Hartman retires as national president. She is succeeded by Jeff Rose, from CUPE 79, Toronto Civic Employees.

BC public employees take part in the massive “Operation Solidarity” against the Social Credit government’s anti-worker policies.

CUPE’s membership reaches 294,000.

National President Jeff Rose presents CUPE briefs to the federal Commission on Equality in Employment (Abella Commission) and to the Royal Commission on the Economic Union and Development Prospects for Canada (Macdonald Commission).

1984
CUPE's national Health and Safety Committee recommends creating a remembrance day for workers killed or injured on the job. The Canadian Labour Congress adopts the idea in 1986, as do many affiliated unions. April 28 is now recognized in Canada and around the world as the International Day of Remembrance for Workers Killed or Injured on the Job.

Ontario hospital workers achieve first negotiated and ratified settlement since central hospital bargaining began in 1976.

CUPE campaigns take place in every part of the country against public sector restraint programs and downsizing.

CUPE’s first national Women’s Conference is held.

National CUPE conference for union pension representatives takes place.

Sixteen-month strike by members at Keddy’s Nursing Home in Nova Scotia wins them breakthroughs in wages and job security.

CUPE appoints a Technology Officer with responsibility for the computerization of CUPE’s in-house research, local union and accounting databases.

National President Jeff Rose initiates discussions with the 30,000-member BC Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) – former CUPE 180 - aimed at bringing it back into CUPE in stages over the coming years.

CUPE launches Special National Defence Program – “Defending CUPE” – to give new impetus to rank-and-file activism. It includes resources for more growth through organizing, specialized staff in the regions, redesigned education courses for members and staff reps stressing nuts-and-bolts skills and techniques, the Trainee Rep Program and the Occasional Instructor Program. By 1989, about one-half of all CUPE education is being delivered utilizing over two hundred CUPE rank-and-file occasional instructors, and the Trainee Rep Program has produced several dozen graduates, over half of whom are women, helping to increase significantly the number of women staff reps.

1985
Local 1000’s 15,000 members at Ontario Hydro strike against contracting out.

700 workers at Toronto Hospital for Sick Children and 1400 administrative and clerical workers at the University of British Columbia choose CUPE.

CUPE creates a national Department of Occupational Health and Safety.

Jean-Claude Laniel, from CUPE 1500, Hydro-Québec, is elected national secretary-treasurer.

Women hold 20% of the seats on CUPE’s national executive (4 out of 20 seats).

National President Jeff Rose gives keynote speech on first day of founding convention of the Canadian Auto Workers’ Union (CAW).

1986
The Mulroney government cuts back public services and numerous CUPE fightback campaigns take place in this and succeeding years against the Tory trinity of deregulation, privatization and free trade.

Following an intense community campaign and a month-long strike, CUPE blue collar municipal workers in Montreal beat back contracting out and negotiate complete job security for all employees.

Pay Equity is legislated in Ontario. CUPE holds its first pay equity conference, at which delegates examine ways of achieving equal pay for work of equal value through collective bargaining and political action.

CUPE appoints a national Coordinator of Contracting Out and Privatization and a national Pay Equity Officer.

Delegates from anti-poverty, aboriginal, women’s and church groups join members from CUPE, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the National Union of Provincial Government Employees (NUPGE) at “Sharing Our Future” - a national conference on government cutbacks that has been organized by the three unions.

The CUPE Airline Division is launched after the 6,500 members of the Canadian Airline Flight Attendants Association vote to merge with CUPE.

CUPE is part of coalition challenging the constitutionality of Bill 37 in Québec, which virtually eliminates the right to strike in the public sector.

CUPE accelerates program to computerize the national office and all 61 regional and area offices. This is completed by 1989. Also in the works is a plan to link national, regional and area offices, divisions and locals nationwide.

Shirley Carr, a former President of CUPE’s Ontario Division, is elected president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

1987
Thousands of CUPE members join 250,000 workers to walk off the job in BC to protest the Vander Zalm government’s anti-labour legislation.

Major CUPE legislative campaigns take place in Alberta and PEI, organizing campaigns in New Brunswick, fightback campaigns against savage cuts in Saskatchewan and Alberta, organizing campaigns aimed at part-timers and casuals in Ontario and BC, and a campaign against Final Offer Selection in Manitoba. Political action and coordinated bargaining campaigns continue to take place in every region of the country.

CUPE members from all sectors attend the “Ways of Winning” conference which highlights strategies and tactics to combat contracting out and privatization.

CUPE creates a national Equal Opportunities Department.

A new monthly eight-page CUPE newspaper, directly mailed to tens of thousands of CUPE rank-and-file leaders and activists, rolls off the presses. Available in English as “The Leader” and in French as “Le Leader”, it joins established CUPE publications “The Public Employee” and “The Facts”.

Month-long successful strike by 4,000 CUPE members who drive the buses and subway trains in Montreal.

CUPE promotes the idea of a federal general election on free trade.

CUPE’s national Committee on International Solidarity is established.

1988
CUPE continues its extensive campaign against contracting out at Hydro-Québec. Major legislative campaigns take place in Newfoundland and New Brunswick, and CUPE ambulance workers in BC fight the privatization of ambulance services.

CUPE plays a leading role in the Pro-Canada Network campaign against the Mulroney-Reagan free trade agreement (FTA). CUPE’s anti-free trade documents and materials, employing the slogan “Canada: Don’t Trade It Away”, are used by the campaign throughout the country. 70,000 copies of CUPE’s “The Facts on Free Trade” are distributed.

CUPE’s national Committee on Racism, Discrimination and Employment Equity (“Rainbow Committee”) is established.

The CUPE Solidarity Network - “SoliNet” – is launched. It links national, regional and area offices, divisions, locals and members nationwide, allowing 24-hour-a-day inter-communication via electronic mail and computer conferencing from anywhere in the country.

Extensive education program developed for CUPE members and staff on the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS).

1989
CUPE campaigns take place in every part of the country against cutbacks and concessions, closures, contracting out and privatization, raids on pension-plan surpluses, and foot-dragging on pay equity.

CUPE’s national Advisory Committee on Pensions is established. CUPE issues a special issue of “The Facts” on pensions.

CUPE and other public sector unions in the Quebec Federation of Labour (QFL) reach pay equity agreement with the government of Québec.

CUPE’s membership reaches 370,000. Women hold 45% of the seats on CUPE’s national executive (9 out of 20 seats).

“Statement on Harassment” is written by the National Officers and read out for the first time to National Convention delegates.

National Convention delegates adopt “CUPE: Into the 1990’s”, endorsing the strengthening of coordinated bargaining in every region and changes in the areas of structure and services, the Defence Fund, union education, pensions, staffing, organizing and mergers, computerization, political action and international solidarity.

The net cost of “SoliNet” is reduced as numerous federations of labour, unions, and coalition partners pay to become part of CUPE’s technologically advanced, nationwide system. (“SoliNet” is free within CUPE.)

Judy Darcy, from CUPE 1582, Metro Toronto Library, is elected national secretary-treasurer.

1990
CUPE plays a leading role in the campaign against the GST and in favour of fair taxes. National President Jeff Rose crisscrosses the country rallying support and CUPE collects almost 150,000 of 2.3 million protest votes gathered by the CLC and the anti-GST coalition.

CUPE workers in New Brunswick and municipal workers in Edmonton and Winnipeg fight contacting out, while CUPE members in Saskatchewan fight privatization. In Newfoundland, Nova Scotia and PEI the focus is pay equity.

National President Jeff Rose presents CUPE brief to the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies (Baird Commission).

CUPE is a leader in the campaign entitled “100 Days of Action” to stop massive cuts at the CBC.

The government of Québec legislates an end to legal rotating strikes by CUPE workers at Hydro-Québec.

CUPE initiates nationwide “Combating Intolerance” campaign, calling for respect and tolerance toward linguistic, racial, religious and cultural minorities.

CUPE opposes Mulroney government’s Bill C-21, which aims at reductions in Unemployment Insurance payments and availability.

1991
CUPE undertakes fightback campaigns with other unions against cutbacks and against wage freeze and wage restraint programs in BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

CUPE applies for and receives funding from the federal Court Challenges Program to prepare and present a constitutional challenge to the definition of “spouse” in the federal Income Tax Act. At present, because of that definition, the Act fails to recognize pension plans which make equal provision for those in same-sex relationships, as the CUPE pension plan wishes to do. CUPE’s case, eventually entitled “Rosenberg & CUPE v. Canada”, succeeds in 1998 in overturning the definition of “spouse” in a historic decision by the Ontario Court of Appeal.

CUPE conducts a national campaign against workplace violence.

CUPE appoints a national Anti-Racism Coordinator.

Women hold 50% of the seats on CUPE’s national executive (10 out of 20 seats).

CUPE’s membership reaches 407,000.

Jeff Rose retires as national president and is succeeded by Judy Darcy. A selection of thirty-five of his articles and speeches 1983-91, entitled “Worth Fighting For” in English and “Ça vaut le combat ” in French, is distributed to National Convention delegates.

Geraldine McGuire of CUPE 951, University of Victoria, is elected national secretary-treasurer.

1992
20,000 New Brunswick members of CUPE go on an illegal province-wide strike to fight the McKenna government’s attempts to break signed collective agreements and force concessions on public sector workers. The eight-day strike includes government threats of injunctions, fines, lawsuits – even automatic decertification of CUPE as allowed under New Brunswick law. The mediated settlement honours the signed collective agreements, increases layoff protection and grants full amnesty to those who participated in the walkouts.

In Quebec, CUPE members wage a strategic and comprehensive campaign against the Bourassa government’s attempts to override free collective bargaining. Members succeed in negotiating a role in the organization of work.

CUPE launches a national coalition campaign to save Medicare. The campaign sounds the alarm that Canada’s most cherished social program is in critical condition.

Nation Air locks out its flight attendants. After a long battle, they agree to raise workers’ wages to $25,000, in parity with their counterparts at Air Transat. Nation Air subsequently collapses due to poor management and many of the workers are hired by other airlines organized by CUPE.

1993
CUPE, along with other public sector unions, fights the Ontario NDP government’s attempt to cut jobs and rollback wages and benefits by 5 per cent with no clear benefits to the members. CUPE was prepared to help in a solution to save public services in a time of economic upheaval, but not if it meant stripping the wages and collective rights of its members.

1994
The 39,000 members of the BC Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU) merge with CUPE.

1995
Calgary hospital laundry workers go on an illegal strike to stop their jobs from being contracted out. The workers have already agreed to 28 per cent in concessions to save their jobs. They spark an historic walkout by thousands of other CUPE hospital workers and other union members, and mobilize great public support.

1996
CUPE Quebec members mobilize strong opposition to the government’s plan to make huge cutbacks. More than 400,000 workers vote by secret ballot to take action, including an illegal strike if necessary. The unions reach an agreement with the government.

1995 to 1998
CUPE members in Ontario work with other unions and community groups in the “Days of Action” to protest the Harris government’s demands for concessions and to save public services. Protests take place in 11 communities, including Toronto, where more than 250,000 people demonstrate.

1997
Convention delegates approve a policy paper for a major anti-privatization campaign – Public Works! – with several initiatives including defending Medicare, the creation of Water Watch and the Annual Report on Privatization.

1998
CUPE reaches a membership of 460,000.

The Ontario Court of Appeal upholds CUPE’s Charter challenge against the Income Tax Act setting a major precedent for equality in pension and other benefits for same-sex couples.

CUPE 108, Halifax Municipal workers, rejoin CUPE.

CUPE's Women's Task Force becomes the National Women's Committee and is composed of representatives from each of divisions and staff.

1998-2000
CUPE fights Alberta’s move to bring in legislation allowing private hospitals.

1999
More than 3,300 CUPE members join with 6,700 workers from other unions in a social services sector strike that results in a province-wide agreement being struck.

CUPE PEI stops a P3 (public private partnership) hospital in Summerside.

New Brunswick campaign to stop toll highway succeeds in removing tolls.

Convention delegates create two new Diversity seats on CUPE’s National Executive Board.

2000
CUPE’s membership reaches 500,000.

20,000 Toronto inside municipal workers in CUPE 79 stage a successful 11-day strike. Among other things, the settlement provides a process for harmonizing wages among employees who had been covered by 24 separate agreements and a $5 million pay equity reserve fund.

CUPE’s ambulance campaign is a coast-to-coast success in drawing national public attention to Premier Ralph Klein’s plans to allow private, for-profit health care in Alberta.

A province-wide seven-day strike by more than 12,000 health care workers in Saskatchewan is settled with major gains on pensions and workload.

CUPE’s National Disability Working Group is created

CUPE’s On the Front Line – our new logo – is formally adopted by the National Executive Board. The bold raspberry-coloured CUPE made its debut in 1999 as the national convention logo.

CUPE launches its national “Up with Women’s Wages” campaign on Labour Day. Its goals are to raise women’s wages through bargaining, political action and organizing non-unionized, low-wage workers; to educate women and men; and to strengthen grassroots activism through the creation of local women’s committees.

Thousands of women and men, including CUPE activists with giant Up with Women’s Wages balloons, march on Parliament Hill as part of the World March of Women activities to fight poverty and violence against women.

CUPE, the Saskatchewan Government and the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations sign a historic Aboriginal Partnership agreement to support Aboriginal employment equity hiring initiatives.

CUPE’s new Young Workers’ Working Group meets for the first time to build on an action plan adopted at the 1999 Convention.

2001
CUPE holds its first national conference on Literacy and launches the Literacy Project. Activists from across Canada gather for the largest heath and safety conference in CUPE’s history. More than 380 delegates tackled workload, stress, violence and taking control of joint health and safety committees.

A province-wide strike of 19,000 public sector workers in Newfoundland makes important wage and pension gains for CUPE members.

CUPE makes an important breakthrough with the new Multi-Sector Pension Plan (MSPP) for CUPE members who do not have a pension plan or have an inferior one.

CUPE 1252’s 6,000 members strike at hospitals across the province of New Brunswick to negotiate a breakthrough agreement before the Lord government introduces back to work legislation.

Thousands of CUPE members protest destructive trade deals in Quebec City as the heads of 34 countries meet to negotiate the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Claude Généreux, from CUPE 313 is elected national secretary-treasurer of CUPE.

Convention delegates adopt a major policy paper that recognized communities as the front line of defence against privatization – “Taking Back our Communities”.

Montreal activist Dorothy Sauras from CUPE 302 wins the first Grace Hartman award. The award marks the exceptional contribution of women activists in CUPE and pays tribute to the pioneering spirit of CUPE’s first woman president.

January 2002
Gordon Campbell’s Liberal government launches a full-frontal attack on workers and public services in British Columbia with Bills 28 and 29. The legislation – a prescription for privatizing services – strips thousands of CUPE members in health care and social services of their collective bargaining rights – ending job security, gutting bumping provisions, removing contracting-out protection and rolling back hard-won gains in wages, benefits and layoff protection.

March 2002
CUPE’s Hospital Employees’ Union obtains secret government documents that reveal the Campbell Liberals plan to axe nearly 28,000 health care jobs – most of them held by women workers.

CUPE nominates the federal government for the Canadian Association of Journalists’ “Code of Silence Awards” for its role in hiding information on the NAFTA Chapter 11 tribunals. NAFTA’s Chapter 11 gives foreign corporations the power to sue governments for decisions that put the public interest before corporate interests.

April 2002
CUPE celebrates a huge victory of “power to the people” when a court rules the Ontario government lacks the authority to sell off Hydro One after a challenge mounted by CUPE and the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).

May 2002
CUPE and its health coalition partners launch the “mother of all common fronts” to save Medicare. On May 15, National Medicare Day, thousands of Canadians protest and canvass door-to-door to show the Canadian health care system is NOT for sale. At the end of the month, National President Judy Darcy presents CUPE’s action plan for health care reform to the Romanow Commission on the future of health care in Canada.

July 2002
More than 22,000 municipal workers in Toronto, members of CUPE 79 and 416 hit the streets determined to defend their jobs and public services in the largest municipal strike in Canadian history. Sixteen days after the first CUPE 416 members walk off the job, the strike ends when the Ontario government passes back-to-work legislation.

September 2002
More than 1,000 delegates from five continents gather in Ottawa for the 27th World Congress of Public Services International and launch a world-wide campaign in support of quality public services. As well, an ambitious campaign to achieve pay equity is launched. No country in the world has achieved pay equity and globalization and the privatization of public services are contributing to a widening gender gap.

In Saskatchewan, CUPE wins representation votes and remains the largest health care union in the province after the restructuring of health care regions.

November 2002
Four months after being legislated back to work, thousands of Toronto municipal workers, members of CUPE 79 and 416, win a clear victory when an arbitrator’s decision safeguards their job security protections.

CUPE welcomes Romanow Commission conclusion rejecting for-profit health care and calls on the Chrétien government to immediately strengthen public health care services. One area of concern with Romanow report is the line drawn between patient care and support services. Evidence shows that dietary, laundry and cleaning services are key to quality. CUPE opposes any move that would contract-out these services, noting this work is performed primarily by women, minorities and immigrant workers.

January 2003
CUPE wins its battle to stop the sale of Hydro One when the Ontario government scraps plans to privatize part of the utility, keeping public control of the province’s transmission grid. Privatization plans unraveled after CUPE and CEP launched a successful court challenge in spring 2002, arguing the government didn’t have the authority to sell the public utility. The challenge helped energize a strong grassroots campaign led by CUPE local 1 and the Ontario Electricity Coalition.

February 2003
Delegates from locals across Canada attend a CUPE health care conference and the People’s Summit in Ottawa. The Summit adopts an action plan to defend and improve public Medicare, with the cry “not a penny for profit.” CUPE mobilizes after the federal budget falls far short of the funding required for health care and fails to tie public health care spending to public or not-for-profit delivery.

CUPE take its fight for full marriage rights for lesbian and gay couples to Parliament. National President Judy Darcy tells a Commons committee CUPE has been speaking out for twenty years on behalf of lesbian and gay workers at the bargaining table and has broken ground on pension rights for same-sex partners.

March 2003
After ten hard months on the picket line, members of CUPE 2815 and 1417, who work at Vidéotron, Quebec’s largest cable supplier, ratify an agreement. Perseverance by the strikers forces Vidéotron’s owner, Quebecor, to back down on its plan to sell off 650 technician jobs. As well, the company cancels the transfer of its Montreal call centre, a move that would have made it difficult for many of the workers, most of them women, to keep their jobs. The strike/lockout has been a huge battle in Quebec, drawing daily media attention and strong support from the labour movement.

April 2003
After Air Canada files for bankruptcy protection, it turns on its workers demanding huge wage cuts. CUPE’s 8,300 flight attendants with the mainline carrier had just approved a new collective agreement that strengthened job security. CUPE condemns the federal government for its inaction and calls for leadership in four key areas: smart regulation, a reduction in user fees for airlines and passengers; support to help Air Canada weather a drop in passengers; and immediate action to guarantee pensions for employees.