National President's Reports

As we closed out 2025 and welcomed the new year, I hope you all were able to take a moment to rest and spend some time with those who mean the most to you, as well as reflect, and applaud our collective efforts and wins over the last year.

I drafted my first National President’s report for the December 2015 National Executive Board meeting. Although a decade has passed every time I put pen to paper to report on the work of our powerful union, I do so with so much pride at what we’ve accomplished in the last quarter. This report is no different.

It’s been a long, hot summer, in more ways than one. At bargaining tables across the country, CUPE locals have faced tough negotiations, taken strong strike votes, and won solid contracts with real gains, including meaningful wage increases. We’ve pushed back hard against concessions and two-tier proposals, and we’re proud of the strength and solidarity shown by our members, bargaining committees, and staff.

Ordinarily, I would begin my report by celebrating the division conventions I have had the immense privilege to attend, where I have been able to observe and participate in our union’s democracy. But I want to begin this report with what was on all of our members’ minds through all those conventions – our country’s democracy.

As we turn the calendar page to welcome the New Year, it’s an opportune time to set our sights on the work that paves the road ahead of us. I kicked off 2025 by addressing staff in their respective regions, alongside National Secretary-Treasurer Candace Rennick, to express our heartfelt thanks for their invaluable contributions over the past year, and to share our vision of what’s to come.

Our union has significant accomplishments to be proud of this year, and there is no doubt that we are only getting stronger as we continue to grow. When right-wing governments in various regions threaten the vital public services Canadians rely upon, CUPE members are there to defend them.

Our union continued its work with vigour through the summer. Across the country, CUPE members and leaders have been focused on advancing our priorities to make every province and territory a better place to work, live, learn, and play. CUPE actively participated in Pride events from coast to coast to coast, advocated to governments to foster better relationships to advance workers’ rights, and fought tirelessly against the threat of privatization in various sectors.

What an amazing spring it has been. Division conventions were held across the country, bringing with them renewed vigour to continue the important work our union must do to defend workers’ rights, fight for public services, and protect good jobs.

A new year is always an opportunity to look, with fresh eyes, at the work we have done and the work we have yet to do. I really hope you were all able to rest and reflect over the December break because, while we had some very significant accomplishments in 2023, it is clear that we have much work ahead of us in 2024.

In my September report, I wrote about the long hot summer we had experienced, both weather and climate-related and at bargaining tables across the country. The season has changed, but hard bargaining continues in every region, as our locals fight hard, negotiate smart and win solid collective agreements from coast to coast to coast.

It has been a long, hot summer, both from a climate perspective and at bargaining tables across the country. In June, I reported on locals who were facing hard bargaining and difficult employers, who responded with strike votes and job action, and winning good contracts as a result. That persisted throughout the summer, and we continue to resist concessions and two-tier proposals and secure good deals with gains for our members, including real wage increases.

With every convention held in-person for the first time since 2019, it was an important opportunity for members to reconnect with each other and their union. There was a great energy that came from that reconnection, along with enormous shows of solidarity and passion and respectful debate. In my address to each convention, I acknowledged that our members, and workers generally, are tired, stressed, and frustrated. This is in part because our public services have been starved of resources and cannot keep up with demand, and because of staffing shortages caused by demographics and a lack of foresight and action by employers and governments.

The last two years have shown just how much power workers have when we are organized, coordinated, and steadfast in our resolve. Time and time again, we have shown we can succeed and achieve real gains for our members – at local or province-wide bargaining tables, in the courts against regressive legislation, or at the ballot box.

Across the country this fall, CUPE leaders, members and staff have been busy doing what we do best – advocating for our members at grievance meetings and at the bargaining table, pushing back against governments with austerity agendas, protecting public services against funding cuts and privatization, and fighting to protect human rights and our fundamental rights as workers.

As summer comes to an end, I hope you were able to take some time to relax and reconnect with family and friends, and set aside for at least a moment the many challenges we face. Because it is going to be a busy fall for CUPE members, activists, leaders, and staff. The impacts of the global pandemic, now 31 months old, continue to affect our workplaces, our communities, the economy, and the political landscape.

Since my last report in March, CUPE members across the country have continued to rise to the challenges as we slowly recover from the global pandemic and the impact it has had on our communities, our workplaces, and our union.

This winter saw yet another variant of the virus, yet another wave of public health restrictions, hospitalizations, deaths. And yet another layer of stress and strain on our members working on the frontlines in health care, education, and other critical public services across the country.

With all of the challenges you are facing, I want to thank you for making the time to participate in CUPE’s 30th constitutional convention last month. And I want to thank you for the trust and confidence you have shown me with your support for my re-election as your National President. I am honoured and humbled to continue to serve our 700,000 members from coast to coast to coast.