Dear Sisters and Brothers:
This reporting period has been incredibly busy in all regions and sectors of our union.
By far, the biggest story was the May 5th, 2015 election of Alberta’s first ever NDP government under the strong leadership of Rachel Notley, which ended 43 years of Conservative rule.
CUPE members in the University sector in Toronto, Southern Rail workers in British Columbia, City of London inside workers and Halifax water workers were on picket lines, and as reported herein, we have achieved good resolutions to two of these disputes due to strong, united membership support.
In Ontario our union is waging a strong campaign against the privatization of Hydro One. In addition to selling all public assets to fund transit infrastructure, the Ontario Liberal government continues to cut funding to school boards, hospitals and social services throughout the province.
On the federal scene the election campaign has all but begun. The Conservatives are feeding their base by pushing adoption of the anti-union Bill C-377 and federal employees’ sick leave provisions through their omnibus budget implementation bill.
On the international scene Britain’s Labour Party suffered a terrible defeat on May 7th. And the people of Nepal endured a devastating earthquake in late April, which has to date claimed over 10,000 lives. I am proud to report that our union has made two donations of $25,000 to Oxfam Canada and $10,000 to our global union, Public Services International (PSI) to assist the people of Nepal.
This report, as is always the case, contains but a fraction of the activities our union is engaged in on behalf of our 630,000 members. My sincere thanks to all CUPE leaders and staff, your activism makes a difference.
