The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE; ) is a Canadian

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

serving the

public sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...

– although it has in recent years organized workplaces in the non-profit and para-public sector as well. CUPE is the largest union in Canada, representing some 700,000 workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines. Over 60 per cent of CUPE's members are women, and almost a third are part-time workers. CUPE is affiliated with the

Canadian Labour Congress The Canadian Labour Congress, or CLC ( or ), is a national trade union centre, the central labour body in Canada to which most Canadian trade union, labour unions are affiliated. History Formation The CLC was founded on April 23, 1956, thro ...

and is its greatest financial contributor.

History

CUPE was formed in 1963 in a fashion resembling

industrial unionism Industrial unionism is a trade union organising method through which all workers in the same industry are organized into the same union, regardless of skill or trade, thus giving workers in one industry, or in all industries, more leverage in b ...

by merging the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and the National Union of Public Service Employees (NUPSE). The first national president was

Stan Little Stanley Little (1911 – May 15, 2000) was the founding National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees from 1963 to 1975. He was also the President of the National Union of Public Service Employees from 1961 to 1963. Biography I ...

, who had previously been the president of NUPSE. Having led public sector unionism through a period where almost no workers had the right to strike, Little has been credited with bringing public sector unions "from collective begging to collective bargaining." By the time of Little's retirement, CUPE had already grown to 210,000 members and had eclipsed

United Steelworkers The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union, commonly known as the United Steelworkers (USW), is a general trade union with members across North America. Headqua ...

as the largest affiliate to the

. Little was followed in 1975 by Grace Hartman, a feminist activist who was the first woman to lead a major labour union in North America. Hartman led CUPE to involve itself in broader struggles for social justice and equality, and emphasized the role of social unionism, as opposed to the more conservative

business unionism A business union is a type of trade union that is opposed to class or revolutionary unionism and has the principle that unions should be run like businesses. Business unions are believed to be of American origin, and the term has been applied in ...

practised by many North American unions. She was arrested for leading Ontario hospital workers in defying a back-to-work order from the

Ontario Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Ontario was a superior court of the Canadian province of Ontario. Created in 1881 pursuant to the Ontario Judicature Act (1881), the Supreme Court of Ontario had two branches: the High Court of Justice Division and the Appell ...

in 1981 and sentenced to 45 days in jail. She retired in 1983. Hartman's successor as president was

Jeff Rose Jeffrey "Jeff" Raymond Rose (born 1946) is a Canadian trade unionist and former public servant. He is national president emeritus of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, having served as national president of CUPE from 1983–1991, and was depu ...

, a Toronto city worker. Rose's time as the defining face of CUPE was marked by membership growth from 294,000 to 407,000 members (largely through organizing), a strengthening of CUPE's infrastructure and rank-and-file skills, and his outspoken opposition to

Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studi ...

-era

wage restraint Incomes policies in economics are economy-wide wage and price controls, most commonly instituted as a response to inflation, and usually seeking to establish wages and prices below free-market level. Incomes policies have often been resorted to ...

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold Economic liberalism, economically liberal positions, while economic nationalist politica ...

, the GST,

privatization Privatization (rendered privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation w ...

deregulation Deregulation is the process of removing or reducing state regulations, typically in the economic sphere. It is the repeal of governmental regulation of the economy. It became common in advanced industrial economies in the 1970s and 1980s, as a ...

, and cuts to public services. Under Rose's leadership, CUPE was particularly effective in improving pay and working conditions for women. He stepped down in 1991 after eight years, becoming deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs for the Ontario

NDP NDP may stand for: Computing * Neighbor Discovery Protocol, an Internet protocol * Nortel Discovery Protocol, a layer two Internet protocol, also called SONMP * Nondeterministic programming, a type of computer language Government * National Dev ...

government. In 1991,

Judy Darcy Judy Darcy (born 1950) is a Canadian health care advocate, trade unionist, and former politician. Darcy was the first Minister of Mental Health and Addictions of British Columbia. She was the fourth National President of the Canadian Union of P ...

followed Rose and became the defining face of CUPE. One of Canada's most visible and colourful labour leaders, Darcy was a vigorous opponent of

, two-tier health care, and

agreements. Darcy was firmly committed to the union's involvement in broader social issues, and under her tenure CUPE strongly attacked the

invasion of Iraq An invasion is a military offensive of combatants of one geopolitical entity, usually in large numbers, entering territory controlled by another similar entity, often involving acts of aggression. Generally, invasions have objectives ...

, condemned Canada's involvement in

ballistic missile defence An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to destroy in-flight ballistic missiles. They achieve this explosively (chemical or nuclear), or via hit-to-kill kinetic vehicles, which may also have self-maneuvering. Tact ...

, and spoke out loudly in favour of

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same legal Legal sex and gender, sex. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 38 countries, with a total population of 1.5 ...

. Darcy stepped down in 2003 after 12 years as president, and was replaced by

Paul Moist Paul Moist is a former national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Canada's largest trade union, having served from 2003 to 2015. Career Moist studied Canadian history and politics at University of Manitoba from which he ...

. On November 4, 2022, more than 55,000 CUPE education workers began an indefinite strike against the Ontario government. Ontario Premier

Doug Ford Douglas Robert Ford Jr. (born November 20, 1964) is a Canadian politician and businessman who has served as the 26th and current premier of Ontario and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party since 2018. He represents the Toronto rid ...

attempted to stop the strike by using the

notwithstanding clause Section 33 of the ''Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms'' is part of the Constitution of Canada. It is commonly known as the notwithstanding clause (, , or, as prescribed by the Quebec Board of the French Language, ). Sometimes referred to ...

, which was criticized by

Canadian Prime Minister The prime minister of Canada () is the head of government of Canada. Under the Westminster system, the prime minister governs with the confidence of a majority of the elected House of Commons; as such, the prime minister typically sits as a ...

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau (born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who served as the 23rd prime minister of Canada from 2015 to 2025. He led the Liberal Party from 2013 until his resignation in 2025 and was the member of Parliament ...

as "wrong and inappropriate." During the

2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel On October 7, 2023, Hamas and several other Palestinians, Palestinian militant groups launched coordinated armed incursions from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel, the first invasion of Israeli territory since the 1948 ...

, Fred Hahn, general vice president of CUPE, tweeted: "Palestine is rising, long live the resistance." Eighty Jewish members of CUPE took Hahn and CUPE Ontario to the

Ontario Human Rights Tribunal The Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario () is an administrative tribunal in Ontario, Canada that hears and determines applications brought under the ''Ontario Human Rights Code'', the provincial statute that sets out human rights in Ontario prohibiti ...

, saying they felt “isolated, unwelcome, scared, silenced, discriminated against, threatened and harassed” by the way their union had responded since the October 7 attack. In August 2024, National President

Mark Hancock Mark Hancock is a Canadian trade union activist who is currently the National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). He was elected as the sixth National President of CUPE in 2015. CUPE is the largest trade union in Canada, w ...

said that Hahn had been asked to respond to a request from the union’s national executive board that he resign due to a social media video post by Hahn that Hancock called "antisemitic." Hahn, for his part, said that he was refusing to step down. A spokesman of the

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA; ) is a Zionist and Jewish advocacy organization and an agency of the Jewish Federations of Canada. It was founded in 2004 as the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CCIJA) and headqu ...

(CIJA) opined that CUPE should remove Hahn. Carrie Silverberg, one of the people who signed on to the human-rights complaint against CUPE, called Hahn's video “blatantly anti-Semitic”. Ontario’s labour minister, Dave Piccini, confronted Hahn and asked him to stop being anti-Semitic, and Premier

said on 21 August that Hahn's post was "bigoted". Hancock said that if Hahn does not resign on his own, "that’ll be new ground again for CUPE and me as a national president. I will review options available to me."

Internal organization

CUPE has an extremely decentralized structure, in which each local elects its own executive, sets its own dues structure, conducts its own bargaining and strike votes, and sends delegates to division and national conventions to form overarching policy. Advocates of this system claim that it places the power in the

grassroots A grassroots movement is one that uses the people in a given district, region or community as the basis for a political or continent movement. Grassroots movements and organizations use collective action from volunteers at the local level to imp ...

where it belongs; critics believe that it makes it difficult for it to organize concerted action and leaves the union highly balkanized with policies and strategies varying widely from local to local and sector to sector. This decentralized structure is often described as "CUPE's greatest strength and its greatest weakness." This political decentralization is mirrored by an organizational decentralization. Although CUPE has a national headquarters in Ottawa, it is relatively small—the vast majority of its staff are scattered across over 70 offices across the country. CUPE locals are affiliated directly to the National body, and affiliation in Provincial CUPE bodies is optional. CUPE National provides locals with support and assistance through National Representatives, who are employees of CUPE National. National Representatives are assigned to specific locals to assist the democratically elected officers of CUPE locals in various aspects of the operation and functioning of the local union. They primarily assist in more complex issues, such as conducting Grievance Arbitrations, bargaining, disability/accommodation issues, human rights, preparation of legal documents, local elections and education. National Representatives also have authority to place a CUPE local under administration, pursuant to the CUPE Constitution, which effectively means that the Representative runs the local for a brief period of time in an extraordinary circumstance and suspends the locally elected officers, usually only in very serious cases of fraud or gross incompetence or misconduct. In addition to servicing National Representatives, CUPE National employs Research Representatives and Legal & Legislative Representatives, who provide research and legal support to locals through their servicing representatives. Nationally, there are two full-time political positions: the National President (currently

) and the National Secretary-Treasurer (currently Candace Rennick).

Provincial divisions

CUPE divisions are the political voice of members in their respective provinces, and an integral part of CUPE. Chartered through the national union, each division advocates and campaigns at the provincial level for legislative, policy and political change in the interests of CUPE members and the communities they serve. Each provincial division is led by a democratically elected president, secretary-treasurer and executive board, who are directed by members at annual conventions (biennial in Quebec). Provincial organizations do not provide any servicing or support to the locals on specific operational items, focusing primarily on provincial lobbying, policy development and union education.

Internal labour relations

CUPE's employees have organized into two main bargaining units. The Canadian Staff Union (CSU) is the larger of the groups. It represents National Representatives and specialist staff in Area and Region Offices across the 10 Regions of CUPE. In 2008, CSU absorbed the Administrative and Technical Staff Union which represented about 60 administrative and technical staff at the Ottawa National Office. The Canadian Office and Professional Employees union (COPE) Local 491 represents support staff workers in the national, regional and area offices of CUPE. Additionally, a handful of CUPE Locals have dedicated CUPE staff working in their own offices.

National presidents

* 1963–1975:

* 1975–1983: Grace Hartman * 1983–1991:

* 1991–2003:

* 2003–2015:

* 2015–present:

National secretary-treasurers

* 1963–1967: Robert P. Rintoul * 1967–1975: Grace Hartman * 1975–1985: Kealey Cummings * 1985–1989: Jean-Claude Laniel * 1989–1991:

* 1991–2001: Geraldine McGuire * 2001–2011: Claude Généreux * 2011–2021:

Charles Fleury Charles Fleury, Sieur de Blancrocher (November 1652) was a French lutenist. Known principally under the name Blancrocher (''Blanrocher'', ''Blancheroche''), he was one of the leading performers of his day, active in Paris. Whether he composed or n ...

* 2021–present: Candace Rennick

References

External links

*
Canadian Union of Public Employees
– Web Archive created by the University of Toronto Libraries {{Portal bar, Organized labour 1963 establishments in Ontario Canadian Labour Congress affiliates International Transport Workers' Federation Public Services International Trade unions established in 1963 Organizations based in Ottawa Public sector trade unions in Canada