CUPE National President Mark Hancock opened the 2025 Convention with a powerful call to action, urging members to stand united in the face of political and economic upheaval.
“We are living in a system that is built to fail workers,” Hancock told delegates. “It’s built to make us lose hope, and so we must keep challenging that system and fighting back to balance the scales toward justice.”
With record corporate profits and rising costs squeezing workers across the country, Hancock staked out CUPE’s position on the frontline, willing and able to shape the country: “If governments won’t act to make life more affordable for workers, you can be damn sure we’re going to force them to.”
He celebrated CUPE’s major victories since the last convention—from growing to over 800,000 members nationwide and welcoming new locals from Yukon to Newfoundland, to historic bargaining gains that boosted members’ paycheques, and major political wins like federal anti-scab legislation and expanded pharmacare, dental care, and child care.
Pointing to the recent Air Canada flight attendants’ strike, Hancock stressed why CUPE’s activism is vital: “In an era of government brazenly colluding with corporations to bring state power to bear against working people… there is nothing more Canadian than workers standing together to defy injustice.”
Hancock closed with a rousing challenge and an enduring promise: “When a system is built to keep us down, CUPE members rise up. Because history isn’t something we sit idly by and watch. History is something we make, together.”