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In the wake of the massive PSAC pay equity victory, CUPEs health services division in British Columbia, the Hospital Employees Union, is pressing government and health employers to implement a late September arbitration decision that will significantly

November 1, 1999, Delta, BCT006800650020nearly 800 members of CUPE Local 1091, Delta School Support Workers tonight voted 83% in favour of giving their bargaining committee a mandate to call a strike or call for other job action as a step in the

The message is clear in New Brunswick: Forget tax cuts. If the newly-elected government is serious about saving New Brunswickers millions of dollars, they must return the privatized stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway to public hands.

MONTREAL – Canada’s largest union has sent a strong message to employers and governments at its national convention – “don’t mess with CUPE”.

CUPE Local 1190 brief on the Moncton Fredericton Highway Project

As downsizing, restructuring and privatization sweep across CUPE workplaces, Aboriginal workers and workers of colour are among the hardest hit. Challenging workplace racism takes on discriminatory hiring practices and two-tier wage structures, exposing racism as a tool employers use to divide workers. Legal and legislative action, organizing minority workers, furthering anti-racism education and bargaining for equality are key strategies outlined in this policy statement.

On the front line is CUPEs plan to fight for jobs and public services into the next century. The plan taps into CUPEs strength as a union with 475,000 members who are front line workers delivering public services, front line defenders of the public sector and front line activists building a better, more caring society. On the front line takes on the right-wing attack on our rights and living standards by debunking tax cut myths, resisting concessions, saying no to contracting out and privatization and mobilizing against funding cuts. The action plan also commits CUPE to organize groups of unorganized workers, build the strength of existing members and organize to bargain for entire sectors. With this increased strength CUPE will continue to bargain collective agreements that break new ground on wages and benefits, take on the critical issue of workload and give workers a say in managing their pension plans. On the front line articulates CUPEs firm belief that the next century belongs to working people and ordinary Canadians - not multinational corporations and a wealthy elite.

CUPEs policy statement on public private partnerships explodes the myth that PPPs are an economical quick fix for the cash-starved public sector. The policy statement exposes PPPs as one-sided deals that reap profits for private corporations at the publics expense, threatening jobs and services. The plan commits CUPE members to redouble their fight against these dangerous schemes, as well as developing sound alternatives for public investment in public services.

This policy statement on water comes at a critical time. With huge water multinationals itching to control Canadian water infrastructure and export millions of gallons from our lakes and streams, Not for sale! makes it clear its time to act to stop water privatization. The plan includes a proposal for federal investment in water infrastructure that would halt the privatization of our water systems, averting the disaster that has plagued Britain and France. Through a cross-country series of Water Watch committees, CUPE members will take on the water privateers locally, nationally and internationally.

CUPEs youth policy statement is a plan to give the next generation the economic and social security they so desperately need. Reinvesting in public services, sharing unmanageable workloads, resisting attrition, promoting environmentally sustainable “green” jobs and bargaining equal pay and benefits are just some of the strategies to create jobs and strengthen services for young people, building the next generation of public service workers and CUPE activists.