UNISON’s Keith Sonnet will get CUPE’s vote in the election for a new general secretary this week at the 100th anniversary world congress of Public Services International in Vienna.
The vote will take place Wednesday to replace Hans Engelberts, who has led the 20-million member global union federation for 26 years.
“Brother Sonnet is a solid trade unionist with much experience in running a large and diverse union,” said CUPE National Secretary-Treasurer Claude Genereux. “He has engaged in many campaigns around issues similar to CUPE’s and he shares our concerns, particularly on the issues of equality and anti-privatization.”
The other candidate, Peter Waldorf of the Danish public sector union movement, was also impressive in his responses to a series of four questions posed by some of the more than 40 Canadian delegates at the world congress.
“But we feel that Brother Sonnet is the right person for the job of building the PSI and sustaining us as a global organization that will assist all unions, big and small, from both the developed and the developing world,” Genereux said.
The Canadian delegation includes representatives from CUPE, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the National Union of Provincial and General Employees, the Service Employees International Union and four Quebec public sector unions. They will vote as a block in support of Sonnet.