CUPE National President Mark Hancock joined the Prime Minister’s Canada-US Economic Summit today to bring a clear message on behalf of CUPE’s 750,000 members: we need bold, progressive, public solutions to the threats posed by Donald Trump’s tariffs.
“When our jobs and our economy are under threat from billionaire oligarchs in the US, the answer isn’t to just hand over the keys to billionaire oligarchs in Canada,” said Hancock.
Hancock said Donald Trump’s tariffs would put vital public services and communities nationwide on life support.
“People like Pierre Poilievre and the frontrunners in the Liberal leadership race want to finish the job with more corporate handouts and cuts to federal spending on vital services like health, education, and municipalities,” Hancock continued. “This moment requires us to protect things that matter most - not sell them out with more of the same failed right-wing policies that harm workers and communities.”
CUPE is calling on the federal government to Trump-proof Canadian jobs and the economy by providing income supports to workers through the EI Work-Sharing program, expanding training supports, and establishing a youth job guarantee. CUPE is also calling for the Canada Infrastructure Bank to use the $22 billion at its disposal to shore up public ownership of key transportation and energy infrastructure.
Canada must also develop public manufacturing in sectors that benefit us all, like pharmaceuticals, and put emergency nationalization of industries critical to the national interest on the table if they threaten relocation to the US.
The federal government can also stop outsourcing of Canadian jobs in sectors like telecommunications by making subsidies contingent on jobs staying in Canada.
CUPE is also reminding the federal government of its obligations under UNDRIP and the Jay Treaty to respect the rights of Indigenous peoples on both sides of the border.
CUPE is Canada’s largest union with 750,000 members working in front-line public services from coast to coast to coast.