For months, CUPE members have been doing the tireless, behind the scenes organizing work required to right a historic injustice that’s impacted workers and communities across Ontario. Today that work goes public as members of CUPE and OPSEU/SEFPO launch the Worth Fighting For campaign to get the remedy that workers in social services and Ontario communities deserve in the wake of Bill 124.
This is what CUPE does. More than just bargaining new collective agreements, our members shape the landscape for all workers. They fight for investments in public services. They improve all of our communities.
When Doug Ford’s Conservative government passed Bill 124, it was a direct attack on workers’ rights, forcing public sector workers to accept a wage freeze while inflation soared. It was also an attack on every person who depends on mental health supports, addictions counselling, developmental services, child protection, and countless other parts of our shared care system. Frontline community agencies saw their waitlists grow and budgets decline. Families struggled to find the support they deserve. And skilled and passionate workers were forced to find better paying jobs elsewhere.
In the years since Bill 124 was overturned, Ford’s government has made some workers whole – but they’ve continued to ignore the workers who provide Ontario’s social safety net, the vast majority of whom are women.
The government has refused at every opportunity to do the right thing. So now workers are fighting back. Because that’s what we do.
It’s how CUPE members in British Columbia won sweeping changes to child care to better serve their communities. It’s how CUPE members in Manitoba pressured the government for anti-scab legislation to protect unionized workers’ rights. And it’s how CUPE Ontario and OPSEU/SEFPO are going to force the Ford Conservatives to invest in social services and make workers whole.
These jobs and services are worth fighting for. And every single CUPE member across Canada stands with the Worth Fighting For campaign.
You can learn more and support the campaign at www.worthfightingfor.ca.