Congratulations to everyone who submitted their work to this year’s Communications Awards. As always, it was difficult to pick the winners, however our awards selections represent the dedication of all CUPE communications activists, and the great communications work done by CUPE locals across Canada.
Best photo: CUPE 1004 “Save the PNE Rally”
The award for best photo goes to CUPE 1004, representing workers at B.C.’s Pacific National Exhibition. The winning picture was taken on July 7, 2021, at one of the “Save the PNE” rallies to raise awareness about the PNE’s financial crisis and to call on the BC government to invest in the PNE. It was a call to help preserve jobs as well as the economic benefits that the PNE brings to British-Columbia.
CUPE 1004 invited other unions and the public to the event, and supporters stepped up. This powerful photo is a commemoration of the fighting spirit of the event and shows the solidarity of all who attended.
Best digital campaign: CUPE-SCFP 786 St-Joseph’s Hospital
The award for best digital campaign goes to CUPE 786, representing hospital workers in Hamilton and its surrounding areas. This local is actively engaging and empowering its membership through its website and social media channels, including Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
The content includes newsletters, the promotion of events, bargaining bulletins, and images that put the members front and centre. The front page of the website is representative of the local’s strength and solidarity, with a dynamic composite of member portraits. The local social media channels sustain this profile, with matching collages of members in pink shirts on their Facebook page and Instagram account. This is a local that is inviting, communicates with its membership, and where all are shown to stand together.
Best video: Hospital Employees Union (HEU), “Thank you from HEU members”
The award for the best video goes to the Hospital Employees Union (HEU), for their video “Thank you from HEU members”. This video is one of the key elements of an excellent campaign, which pays homage to health care workers and shared information with the public during the first months of the pandemic. The video achieves many things in just 15 seconds. It brings the members and the public together and provides a positive demonstration of how important it is to keep workers safe by staying home.
Best written content: SCFP 429, “Col blanc”
The award for best written content goes to SCFP 429, representing Montreal municipal workers, for the special issue of their magazine “Col blanc”, which deals with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the members of their local. Published in the Fall of 2020, in the middle of the second wave, this edition of “Col blanc” clearly and expertly handles the important challenges facing white-collar workers in Montreal such as working from home; workplace health and safety; mental health, in particular that of women who work from home and must also juggle household work; layoffs and reassignments; as well as the deterioration of workplace relationships.
Best campaign: CUPE 500, “Your Winnipeg”
The award for Best Campaign goes to CUPE 500, representing City of Winnipeg employees, for its integrated campaign called Your Winnipeg. At the start of 2020, the City of Winnipeg was considering drastic cuts to city services including closing swimming pools, public libraries and arenas, and cutting hundreds of jobs. The city also proposed cuts to water and wastewater maintenance, the planning department, solid waste, fleet, and other departments.
CUPE Local 500, representing employees at the City of Winnipeg, worked tirelessly during a campaign to raise public awareness of the proposed cuts. The campaign included a concerted advertising campaign, as well as grassroots community mobilizing. Member organizers were booked off to picket facilities and solicit petition signatures. The campaign also included a website and citywide advertising campaign that strategically placed billboards close to the most popular and recognizable venues at risk of closure. CUPE Local 500 made presentations and lobbied City Councillors in an effort to put pressure on decision makers. In late March 2020, the city’s budget process concluded and while some reductions to library hours and transit services were ultimately approved by Council, the full-scale cuts and closures did not materialize.