From March to May, more than 2,000 new workers joined CUPE to improve wages and conditions and to make their workplaces better.
“CUPE continues to be the union of choice for a broad range of public and private sector workers,” says Daria Ivanochko, who heads the union’s organizing department. “This spring, employees from 30 more workplaces became CUPE member and are now bargaining their first contracts,” says Ivanochko.
- Police and outside employees of the Town of Kensington, PEI
- Canadian North airlines flight attendants
- Protective services employees and special constables for the Toronto Transit Commission
- Educational assistants working with children in the Medicine Hat, Alta school division
- Health care workers at residential care facilities in Surrey and Parksville, B.C.
Ivanochko says CUPE continues to pursue new organizing opportunities.
“We are working with unorganized employees at dozens of worksites across the country to bring the benefits and protections of union membership to more workers,” she says.
So far this year, that brings the total number of newly organized CUPE members to 4,000 up to the end of May. To find out more about joining CUPE phone 1-877-850-CUPE (2873). More detailed information, including regional organizing contacts, is available on line at www.cupe.ca/join-cupe.
With 605,000 members, CUPE is Canada’s biggest union.