Tag Archives: cupe national

CUPE takes supervisory battle to the next step | Canadian Union of Public Employees

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July 22, 2016

CUPE has filed a notice of constitutional question in the cases of three employers who are attempting to unilaterally remove unionized supervisors out of the bargaining unit of their choosing.

The City of Moose Jaw, the Saskatoon Public Library, and Cypress Hills Abilities Centre are some of the first employers in the province to use new provisions under The Saskatchewan Employee Act (SEA) which allow employers to try to remove workers with supervisory duties from the bargaining unit. A fourth employer, the Regina Public Library, has applied to have similar employees removed from the bargaining unit claiming that they are managers.

“Working people have the right to belong to the union of their choosing. CUPE will fight any employer who moves forward with attempting to exclude supervisory members with every tool in our tool box, including legal avenues,” said Tom Graham, president of CUPE Saskatchewan. “Filing a notice of constitutional question is the first step in what could be a very lengthy and expensive legal battle.”

CUPE has serious concerns about the constitutionality of this legislation, as well as the impact the legislation is having on workers.

“This legislative change is causing a lot of stress and uncertainty for union members who have supervisory duties. People are worried about their job security. They are worried about what will happen to their benefits and wages if they get removed from their bargaining unit. They are worried about what their future holds,” added Graham.

CUPE believes that removing supervisors from the bargaining unit is completely unnecessary. Many major employers in the province have already signed irrevocable agreements to keep the status quo arrangement, including the Ministry of Health, SAHO, and the Government of Saskatchewan.

“Saskatchewan is now the only jurisdiction in Canada with this type of legislation. And I can see why,” said Graham. “This legislation is a solution in search of a problem. In my 37 years with CUPE, we have never had a problem with supervisors being in the same bargaining unit as the people they supervise that was not solved through application of the collective agreement.

“It is in both the union and the employer’s interests to maintain the integrity of the current bargaining unit, rather than create a separate bargaining unit within the local for supervisory employees. The status quo has worked and can continue to work.”

Source: CUPE takes supervisory battle to the next step | Canadian Union of Public Employees

Asbestos ban is a good start but we need a registry, says Hancock | CUPE

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May 11, 2016

Following Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s announcement that the federal government is “moving forward on a ban” of asbestos, CUPE National President Mark Hancock reiterated CUPE’s call for a comprehensive ban of the deadly substance.

“Asbestos is killing CUPE members. It’s been a serious hazard for decades. We’re happy to hear the government is moving on this issue, and we want to see them do the right thing by introducing a comprehensive ban,” said Hancock.

A comprehensive ban means, among other measures:

  • Banning the use, export and import of all asbestos-containing materials
  • Establishing an expert panel to make recommendations for implementation of the ban
  • Creating registries of cases of asbestos-related diseases and buildings used by the public that contain asbestos.

The Canadian Labour Congress has a detailed description of what a comprehensive ban would look like here.

“The government has to do more than just say ‘we’re banning it.’ We need to find out exactly where it is, so workers can take the appropriate actions to protect themselves from exposure. We need to prevent exposures, and support workers who have been exposed. It’s about protecting workers and protecting Canadians,” said Hancock.

Trudeau made the announcement on Tuesday at a building trades unions policy conference in Ottawa. No details or timetables for imposing a ban have been released. In April, CUPE joined the CLC in lobbying the federal government about implementing a comprehensive ban, and sent a letter to the prime ministeron the issue.

CUPE has been calling for a full ban of asbestos for decades, but successive governments have been slow to act and sometimes even worked counter to the cause, despite overwhelming evidence of the serious harm caused by exposure. Every year approximately 2,000 Canadians die from asbestos-related diseases.

Learn more about asbestos here.

Source: Asbestos ban is a good start but we need a registry, says Hancock | Canadian Union of Public Employees

Trans-Pacific trade deal will hurt Canadian health care–CUPE

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As Canada prepares to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPPA) report confirms the massive deal will severely weaken our public health care system.

The far-reaching TPP covers 12 countries that represent 40 per cent of global trade (Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, the United States, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia). The deal will likely be signed on February 4, while ratification could take up to two years.

Combined with reports the TPP will cost Canada 58,000 jobs, it’s another reason Canada should not be signing or ratifying the deal.

The CCPA report finds the TPP will:

  • make it more difficult and expensive for Canadian governments to establish new public health programs, including pharmacare,
  • undermine health regulation, and
  • obstruct efforts to renew and expand public health care in the face of new challenges.

US-style patent protections will mean higher drug costs

By caving to US corporate demands for longer pharmaceutical patent protections, Canada has negotiated a deal that will see prescription drug costs increase by $636 million annually once the TPP comes into force. This will be an added financial burden for public health care, employer benefit programs and other private insurers, as well as individuals. If the Canadian health care system has to shoulder increased drug costs, they may have to cut health care services and jobs.

The TPP’s impact on drug costs will be felt most acutely in developing countries, as longer patents block the entry of lower-priced generic drugs. This limits access to life-saving medicines. The international humanitarian medical organization Médecins Sans Frontières has highlighted how competition between generic drug makers dramatically drove down the costs of HIV medications, helping expand treatment to six million people in the developing world.

Foreign investor protections that promote privatization

The TPP gives foreign investors the right to sue governments if they feel a policy decision limits their profits. This system, called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), bypasses Canadian courts in favour of secretive, pro-investor tribunals that award enormous sums of money at a government’s expense. A recent example is Eli Lilly’s $500-million NAFTA claim against Canada.

These investor rights rules cost Canadian taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. They also lock in privatization and deregulation. For example, when private insurers already provide coverage for prescription drugs, like in Canada, an ISDS claim would make it very expensive if the government to decide to bring this coverage into the public system.

The TPP’s ISDS rules would make it next to impossible to create a public national prescription drug program. It would also make it prohibitively expensive to bring health care support services like laundry, IT or food services back into the public domain, even if the private contract has failed.

Attacking Canada’s pride

Canadians are proud of their health care system. Trade deals like the TPP, CETA and the Trade in Services Agreement are dangerous to our public health care. As the CCPA report concludes, the TPP is the worst of all worlds. It incorporates problems from previous trade agreements, and introduces new threats to Medicare.

Source: Trans-Pacific trade deal will hurt Canadian health care | Canadian Union of Public Employees

National Survey on Balancing Work, Family and Caregiving | Canadian Union of Public Employees

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To all CUPE members,

Are you a caregiver to an aging family member? Do you know any other CUPE members who provide care for a relative while holding down a job?

Caregiving is especially taxing when you are also engaged in paid employment. It becomes a balancing act that often results in higher levels of work-life conflict, as well as emotional and physical strain.

CUPE advocates for a healthy workplace and evidence based policies. These pieces all come together in the National Survey on Balancing Work, Family and Caregiving currently being undertaken on behalf of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) by Dr. Linda Duxbury, Professor at the Sprott School of Business at Carleton, University in Ottawa.

Dr. Duxbury is a Canadian expert in the field of work-life balance and we are pleased to be able to assist her with this research effort.

This is your opportunity to contribute to research that aims to increase awareness at both public policy and employer level of the challenges faced by employed caregivers.

We would encourage you to participate and share this survey with CUPE members in your local.

You can read more about the research project here.

As a person who is employed and with family caregiver responsibilities, your participation will help to provide much needed evidence on this developing topic. In addition, the researchers have agreed to share the key findings from our members with CUPE. Your individual response will be kept in strict confidence. Only summary results will be published.

For more information please contact Margot Young at myoung@cupe.ca.

Source: National Survey on Balancing Work, Family and Caregiving | Canadian Union of Public Employees

37-day strike in view for 8,000 City of Montreal workers

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The 8,000 white-collar workers of the City of Montreal will be on a rotating strike for 36 days from January 25 to February 29. The various services, offices and boroughs of the city will be affected in turn. This wave will culminate in a general strike day on March 1, the deadline for the payment of municipal taxes. In addition, the white collars will not do any overtime work during this period. However, they will provide all essential services prescribed by law.

With this strike, they are protesting the Coderre administration’s determination to open the floodgates to subcontracting and privatization. They want to raise awareness that this indefensible offensive against internal expertise persists although they have been without a collective agreement for more than four years.

“The work of the Charbonneau Commission and their final report has demonstrated repeatedly that the fight against collusion is impossible without a strong, healthy public service. Instead, the white collars find themselves in the midst of an all-out war with the Coderre administration. The administration wants to eliminate any checks on subcontracting and to reduce the total compensation of white-collar workers by 12 to 14%. We will therefore defend Montreal’s internal expertise with all our might, as long as the Coderre administration refuses to listen to reason,” said Alain Fugère, president of the Island of Montréal white-collar union (CUPE 429).

“The precise words of Recommendation 25 of the Charbonneau Comission are: Internal expertise is an effective bulwark against collusion. Mayor Coderre was elected on the promise that he would strengthen that internal expertise. We want him to explain to Montrealers why he has changed his mind,” added the union president.

Specifically, the City wants to contract out all the work performed by a permanent employee in each of the following sectors: logistics of the purchase and distribution of clothing; information technology; printing; sports and recreation; post offices; parking officers; all or part of the activities already under contract (libraries and public works); and finally, all work carried out by auxiliary workers.

The detailed calendar of the rotating strike is available at http://bit.ly/1Oy6Yq7

With more than 110,000 members in Quebec, CUPE represents about 70% of the province’s municipal employees, who account for 31,000 of the union’s members.

Source: 37-day strike in view for 8,000 City of Montreal workers | Canadian Union of Public Employees