On May 1, workers in Canada and around the world are organizing for safe working conditions, a living wage with benefits and a pension, and quality public services for everyone.
Our collective demands for decent work, safety, dignity and respect are even more urgent this year, as we live through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The crisis has exposed serious gaps and inequities in our country, and between countries. It has shown what happens when public services are cut, privatized, or neglected. The importance of strong public services, and the value of front-line workers, has never been clearer. Let’s make sure workers, and public-sector solutions, are at the heart of the recovery.
On May Day, we recommit to defending workers’ rights and public services in Canada and around the world, and to building a post-pandemic world that doesn’t go back to ‘normal’.
CUPE will keep strengthening worker-to-worker connections in the year ahead, through our partnerships with migrant workers in Canada, and with workers from countries including Colombia, Cuba, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel-Palestine, Myanmar, Nicaragua and the Philippines.
Through international solidarity, we can connect our struggles for labour rights, economic justice, racial justice, migrant justice and climate justice. Let’s build the movement for a better tomorrow, with the actions we take today.
WHAT MEMBERS CAN DO
- Read PSI’s statement on the COVID-19 emergency. CUPE is a member of Public Services International, which unites 30 million public sector workers around the world.
- Support the Migrant Rights Network call for a COVID-19 response that doesn’t leave anyone behind and check out their campaign video. CUPE supports the network and has signed onto this call for workplace protections, access to health care, and permanent resident status for all migrant workers.