CUPE member Sheryl Burns represented CUPE at a meeting on decent work for persons with disabilities at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Geneva this week. Sheryl is the co-chair of CUPE’s National Women’s Committee and the committee’s representative for persons with disabilities.

Representatives from trade unions across the world met to share what they are doing to promote decent work for persons with disabilities, and to help the ILO identify actions to support unions in advancing this goal.

“Globally, disability is increasingly recognized as a key labour and social justice issue, requiring concerted attention,” Burns said. “People with disabilities experience much higher rates of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, harassment and violence than others. Additional barriers and harm are faced by those that also experience racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia.”

Unions and disability rights organizations have done crucial work to draw attention to the need for a human rights focus on disability issues, and Sheryl was proud to share what CUPE was doing.

Sheryl gave a presentation about CUPE’s work with Canadian disability rights organizations on membership education and political advocacy for federal accessibility legislation. She also discussed Canada’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Learn more:

Read more about the ILO event.

Learn more about CUPE’s work on disability rights.