COPE strongly condemns the Government of Alberta and Premier Danielle Smith’s assault on the rights of the striking teachers in Alberta by invoking the notwithstanding clause to force teachers back to work.

No matter how the Government of Alberta attempts to frame it, this is nothing but an attack on the fundamental rights of teachers who are exercising their rights as workers and doing their part to defend public education and students in Alberta by asking the government to address critical issues that are affecting the educational experience, including class sizes and the need for student support.

By taking this action, the Government of Alberta is also showing they have little regard for workers’ rights in general and would be willing to use this method to attack workers and union members in any sector as they see fit.

Our union, and our tens of thousands of members across the country, stands in solidarity with the teachers in Alberta, and with the Alberta Teachers’ Association, in their continued efforts to defend public education and workers’ rights in the face of a government that has shown little regard for either.

L’article Statement from COPE President Annette Toth on Alberta government’s strike busting est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

On behalf of the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union (COPE) and our tens of thousands of members across Canada, I am affirming our union’s support to the 10,000+ Air Canada flight attendants who are currently on the picket line at airports across the country.

As a regular customer of Air Canada both as an organization and as individuals, we are collectively calling on you, Mr. Rousseau, and your team at Air Canada, to roll up your sleeves, get down to work and, in good faith, negotiate a fair settlement with the union, the Air Canada Component of CUPE. These workers deserve your attention to address their core concern of unpaid work when they perform duties on the ground including boarding assistance, pre-flight safety checks, and dealing with flight delays.

Additionally, our union is calling on you, Prime Minister Carney, and you, Minister Hajdu, to immediately withdraw the order under s. 107 of the Canada Labour Code to end the legal strike by the Air Canada Component of CUPE and reaffirm the Charter-protected rights of these workers to strike.

It is unconscionable, for a country that prides itself as being a champion of human rights, for a company to expect workers to work on average 35 hours a month for free as Air Canada flight attendants are expected to do.

It is even more unconscionable for a government that touts itself as one that supports working people and families to be willing to trample on those same workers’ rights within hours of the workers’ exercising their Charter-protected rights.

These workers deserve to have a fair contract that compensates them appropriately for the work they do for Air Canada, whether that’s on the ground or in the air. The path to resolving this labour dispute is through negotiation, not legislation.

Sincerely,

Annette Toth
President, Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union

L’article Air Canada Flight Attendants Strike: Letter to Prime Minister Carney est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

It began with a powerful call from our National union, announcing a donation to the Canadian Red Cross. One by one, leaders from regional councils, local unions, and the Canada Equity Council rose to the microphones to pledge their support. In just a few short minutes, over $70,000 was pledged in solidarity.

The atmosphere was emotional. The room stood together not just in words, but in action.

At the close of the moment, Wab Kinew, Premier of Manitoba, addressed the convention and offered his heartfelt thanks to our union for standing with the people Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

We are proud to act in solidarity, and we invite others to do the same. Right now, the federal and provincial governments are matching donations to the Red Cross. Your support can go twice as far.

Donate here: https://give.redcross.ca/page/24CWFA

L’article Solidarity in Action at the COPE-SEPB National Convention est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

After detailed discussions with both local government and hotel management, our National Executive Board has made the decision to proceed with our 2025 COPE SEPB Convention as scheduled.

This decision was not an easy one to make as we recognize the challenges that many Manitobans face having to evacuate from their homes due to wildfires. However, through our discussions, we were made confident that our presence in Winnipeg will not undermine efforts to support and shelter those who have been displaced by wildfires, and that cancelling our Convention would not guarantee space for displaced individuals.

As of today, June 2, 2025, we have received confirmation that Premier Wab Kinew will be joining us and will be addressing delegates.

Support for people displaced by wildfire

Our national union will be examining ways for us to provide support for displaced individuals, including making financial contributions to organizations that are helping to ensure displaced residents have shelter.

Health and safety for delegates

The health and safety of our delegates at Convention is paramount. Presently, the health and safety recommendations from local governments are related to air quality in Winnipeg. We encourage delegates who have respiratory conditions to stay indoors where possible and to avoid engaging in strenuous activities outdoors. Please follow the recommendations as set out by Environment Canada.

If needed, we also encourage delegates to wear masks outdoors. We will also have masks available at registration and throughout convention.

We thank everybody for their understanding and patience through this challenging situation. We are looking forward to welcoming you to Winnipeg for the 2025 COPE SEPB Convention beginning on Wednesday, June 4, for our equity caucus meetings and convention opening on June 5, 2025.

On behalf of the National Executive Board,

Annette Toth
President

L’article COPE SEPB Convention 2025 will proceed as scheduled est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

L’article IMPORTANT: Wildfire Update – Convention Status est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

That is even more important for us now as Canadians who care about our friends, family, and neighbours, as we face the attacks directed towards our communities by Trump.

Within a week of assuming office, Trump has thrown lives and institutions into chaos, making orders that have attacked our cost-of-living, our health care, our economy, the environment, and our human rights. And we know there is worse to come because, at his core, he is a bully, plain and simple.

His threats and actions will deliberately make life more expensive for all of us. He will threaten our healthcare, our families, our sovereignty, and all the things we hold most dear. To achieve his goals he will pit Canadians against one another, distracting us and dividing us.

Attack on equity, diversity, and inclusion

Trump wants to end equity, diversity, and inclusion programs because he knows those initiatives empower people, make communities safer and stronger, and provides us with more freedoms and more choices.

Trump and those who enable him think they can get away with these things because they are counting on us to fight amongst ourselves.

But, make no mistake, this union will always fight – not each other, but against corporate greed and attacks on our human rights. We will always stand up against racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and fascism. These are the tactics that Trump and his followers both in the US and here is Canada will use.

Twenty years ago, we stood up against an international union that wanted to limit our rights and freedoms. Our members rallied together to form our own autonomous Canadian union. Now, we will collectively fight against Trump’s surrogates, like Pierre Poilievre and Danielle Smith, who are set on selling out our freedoms and rights as Canadians. We are proud to be Canadian and to have control over our own freedom and destiny. We are not for sale. Not now. Not ever.

We will support our members, we will embrace empathy, and we will ensure that our union, our communities, and our labour movement, are open and welcoming to everyone.

We will always stand up against bullies like Trump and we will work together with our comrades in labour to fight against those that try to divide us.

We know you will too. We encourage you to learn how the labour movement is standing up against bullies like Trump and Pierre Poilievre by going to workerstogether.ca or texting WORKERS to 55255.

In solidarity,

Annette Toth
President, COPE SEPB

L’article Standing up to threats as union members and Canadians est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

“COPE SEPB, along with our locals from across the country, are deeply disturbed by Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon’s imposition of binding arbitration to end the lockouts at the ports in BC, Montreal, and Quebec City.

“This action fundamentally strips the port workers of their right to achieve a fair agreement that recognizes the value of their work and their contributions to our economy.

“The only way to reach a fair and sustainable deal is through good-faith negotiations.

“By making this decision, the federal government has demonstrated they don’t stand with working people. We urge them to reverse their decision and allow the port workers to get back to the bargaining table in good faith.”

L’article COPE SEPB condemns binding arbitration order for port workers est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

The next COPE SEPB Convention will be held at the Fairmont Winnipeg in Winnipeg, Manitoba from June 5 to 7, 2025.

Don’t forget to put those dates on your calendar.

Stay tuned for more information!

L’article 2025 Convention: Save the date est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

Our name, Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union and Le Syndicat Canadien des Employées et Employés Professionnels et de Bureau in French (COPE SEPB), would be made official just days later.

That’s just the truncated version of the story. The journey to autonomy, and the birth of COPE SEPB, is a testament of the passion, resolve, and solidarity of our members from across the country as we fought to take charge of our own destiny, protect our members, and ensure that our issues would be at the forefront.

The seeds of separation were sowed as far back as 1959 in Montréal at an OPEIU Convention when Marcel Francq, then-president of Québec-based Local 57, spoke up to address the lack of a truly Canadian union of office workers.

The 35 years or so after Francq first put the issue of Canadian identity on the radar saw gains made by OPEIU’s Canadian members on issues related to self-control and self-determination. Those included having Canadian policies be determined by Canadians, Québec correspondence written in French, two Canadian vice-presidents to be elected by Canadians, and a Canadian director with authority to speak for the Canadian membership.

The most notable gain, however, was a constitutional change in 1974 that recognized the right of the OPEIU’s locals within Canada to establish their own autonomous national union. At the time, it was hoped this change would help support organizing efforts in Canada. Indeed, in the 30 years to follow, it sat in the constitution like a dormant volcano…that is until it exploded in 2004.

At her first meeting as the new Canadian Director of OPEIU in March 2004, New knew it was the beginning of the end of our long membership in the OPEIU. The meeting was intended to discuss a proposed increasing of the per capita dues of Canadian members by two dollars a month. This was coming at a time when Canadian dollar was trading at far less compared to the American dollar.

The most egregious part, however, was that the OPEIU presented the proposal as basically a done deal. They were untouched by our concerns over the fact that, due to the low Canadian dollar, it meant in practice that Canadians would pay a larger percentage of their wages than their American counterparts. We also argued, to no avail, that as the American-based OPEIU focused their political efforts in the USA exclusively, it left the political concerns of our Canadian members unaddressed.

Our locals in Québec were left particularly vulnerable with the dues increase announcement. They had just begun a much needed, and costly, restructuring and had promised staff and members that they would not lose a single staff regardless of the cost. The dues increase would mean they would have to break that promise and lay off staff.

At a follow-up meeting a couple of weeks later, when Goodwin suggested Canadians could ‘take-it-or-leave’ the writing was on the wall and plans for autonomy were being drafted.

However, it wasn’t smooth sailing from there. We may have called Goodwin’s bluff, but the OPEIU had no intention of allowing Canadians to simply invoke the autonomy clause and walk away.

At a hastily called meeting in Las Vegas, Goodwin informed us they planned to announce an “American autonomy” motion at the June 2024 convention, which would have prevented Canadians from accessing the international defence fund and closed the Canadian autonomy clause in the constitution. It was a motion that was sure to pass given Americans represented three quarters of the OPEIU membership.

The only way out for us was a massive signature drive where we would need the majority of our 35,000 members spread across the country to sign in support of autonomy. This also needed to be accomplished in a few weeks ahead of the 2004 convention.

There are few words to appropriately describe just what a massive undertaking that was, especially given the OPEIU tried to derail the campaign in any way they could. The international union went as far as taking out full-page ads in major newspapers across Canada, and even launched a lawsuit in BC Supreme Court that was thrown out by the judge.

As the June 2004 convention approached, our Canadian leadership group was cautiously optimistic about the signature drive. While there was still some thought perhaps reconciliation with the OPEIU could be salvaged with a last-minute deal as our delegation traveled to Florida, those hopes were quickly dashed shortly after arrival.

On the day before the start of convention, word came in that 74 percent of our Canadian members had signed in support of autonomy. With that, we had won the day.

Cheer and celebration erupted as soon as we returned to our hotel after New had delivered the letter of autonomy along with a spontaneous chorus of ‘O Canada’ breaking out as our delegation waved both the Canadian flag and the Québec Fleurdelisé. It was symbolic of the coming together of all our delegates across Canada and of particularly critical role our Québec locals played to lead us down this road dating all the way back to Montréal in 1959.

In November 2004, our union held our first official Canadian convention establishing our new Canadian constitution and establish our logo.

Today, the ongoing solidarity of our members from across the entire country is a tribute to the solidarity, fearlessness, and members are an ongoing tribute to the spirit, solidarity, and courage upon which our uniquely Canadian union was built on.

The symbolism behind our 20^th anniversary logo

In coming up with a logo to celebrate the 20^th anniversary of our union, we felt it was most critical to highlight our uniquely Canadian origins and, particularly, the critical role that our Québec locals played in our formation. We also felt it was important to honour our existing branding and logo and not stray far from our roots.

The inclusion of the maple leaf and Fleurdelisé into our familiar logo serves to remind us of our historic break from the OPEIU to forge our own unique identity. Additionally, having the maple leaf placed within the blue and the Fleurdelisé within the red, which is the reverse of how they are typically coloured elsewhere, is symbolic of our coming together in solidarity.

What’s in a name?

Once the dust was (mostly) settled from the breakaway from the OPEIU, deciding on the new name of our uniquely Canadian union was a fun task that fell to the delegates assembled in Florida. A photo captured from their first meeting as a Canadian union reveals several acronyms under consideration. The full names can likely be easily guessed.

The word ‘national’ appeared to be an early favourite as part of the name although ultimately, and probably for the best, it was dropped in favour of the word ‘Canadian.’

Some of those acronyms included: NUOPE, NOPEU, CPOW, NUPOW, CUPOW, NOPWU, and OPENU.

In 2015, Local 378 in British Columbia opted to rebrand as MoveUP, the Movement of United Professionals to better reflect the evolving perception of the membership.

L’article Celebrating 20 years of our uniquely Canadian union: COPE SEPB est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.

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We are writing on behalf of Canadian and Quebec unions that are members of Public Services International (PSI) that represent workers in health care. Collectively, we represent more than 500,000 workers who provide services in every aspect of our health care sector.

Our union is following the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body (INB) process to draft and negotiate an international agreement on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response, also known as the WHO Pandemic Treaty. We have done this work with the support of Public Services International (PSI), the global union federation representing public services, health workers, and care workers around the world, to which we are affiliated.

We are concerned that the first session of the seventh round of discussions of the INB (INB7) held November 6–10 is not progressing adequately on key priorities for health workers and care workers. We urge your Ministry to address the points shared below during the resumed INB7 session December 4–8, 2023.

In addition, we would like to meet with you to be debriefed on the outcomes of INB7. With your support, this future instrument will build on the learnings and experience of health workers and care workers who were at the front lines during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Uphold the Right to Decent Work for Health Workers and Care Workers
While we welcome the inclusion of an article on the workforce in health care and care work, in the current draft of the negotiating text, we are disappointed by its limited progress. Safe workers save lives. Yet, language in drafts prior to this negotiation stage that prioritized adequate protective equipment for front-line health workers during pandemics has been deleted.

It is imperative for countries to recognize the crucial work done by front-line workers during the pandemic and integrate this into the international accord (in Article 7) towards safeguarding the lives and health of health workers in the event of future health emergencies.

Further, the current draft lacks substantial provisions that uphold decent work for all health workers and care workers, protect their health and safety, and recognize the essential role of front-line and migrant health workers and care workers.

We recommend the following:
● Include in Article 1 a broad definition of the health and care workforce, which incorporates all workers classified as health workers by the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) used by WHO.
● Decent work should also be incorporated into Article 3 as a guiding principle to be followed when developing, planning, and implementing any measures related to the preparedness, prevention, and response to a future pandemic.
● Article 7 must include provisions that will secure and protect the labour rights of the health and care workforce, including with reference to ILO Conventions 87 and 98.
● Article 7 must guarantee safe staff-to-patient ratios and other minimum work and employment standards as outlined in the ILO Convention 149 on Nursing Personnel and the 2017 ILO Tripartite Meeting on Improving Employment and Working Conditions in Health Services.
● Include a provision for prioritizing Occupational Safety and Health measures in Article 3 (guiding principles), including a reference to ILO Convention 155 and Resolution 164.
● Include the precautionary principle in Article 3 as a guiding principle, and substantive language in Article 7, so that the precautionary principle is applied when the cause-and-effect relationships are not fully established scientifically and there may be threats of harm to human health or the environment, particularly in the delivery of health care and care services during pandemics.
● Include in Article 7 provisions to address injury, sequelae, or death for health workers and care workers, as well as their families during pandemic response.
● Include clauses in Article 7 that hold both source and destination countries accountable for protecting both the migrant workers and the health systems of sending countries.
Ensure Public Financing for Public Goods
In order to truly realize a robust, fair, and equitable global innovation system that will generate affordable and timely health technologies, we must understand health technologies (medical countermeasures) as public goods. Article 9.4 should guarantee that all health products, technologies, know-how, etc. that originate from publicly funded research programs are kept in the public domain and cannot be patented.
● Manufacturers of technologies that were developed with public funding must provide the resulting medical countermeasures on a no profit/no loss basis upon the announcement of a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
● This should apply regardless of the extent of public funding.

The Covid-19 pandemic showed that we cannot rely on the voluntary agreements the private sector promotes. We need compulsory measures to ensure transparency of costs of R & D and future public contracts signed with private companies. An earlier draft (the pre-zero draft) included compulsory measures for entities that receive public funding for R & D in pandemic countermeasures to disclose prices and contractual terms of public procurement (Article 9.3.b). However, this measure—the only one that created an obligation for private entities—has been removed. This should be put back, i.e., included.

Waive Patent Rights in All Cases of Public Health Emergencies
The COVID-19 pandemic has again shown that maintaining intellectual property privileges during a health crisis generates artificial scarcity and high prices, costing hundreds of thousands of lives, especially in the Global South. We cannot live through another health emergency by naturalizing monopolies and relying on voluntary solutions. The text must include a binding and automatic mechanism to waive intellectual property rights for technologies related to dealing with such an emergency immediately after a PHEIC is declared (in Article 11.3.(a)). Further, the future instrument should encourage countries to put in place similar mechanisms at the national level.

Further, countries are worried about implementing time-bound waivers unilaterally due to the threats of legal action. This had been addressed in an earlier version of the text that mentioned that parties couldn’t challenge these measures. We recommend this text be included in article 11.3.(a). Similarly, text that creates barriers to governments that are willing to put in place compulsory measures without the consent of patent and/or other intellectual property rights holders (i.e., “on mutually agreed terms”) should be removed from the draft text.

Finally, we recommend the inclusion of provisions towards the review of relevant free trade agreements to remove TRIPS-plus measures, such as data protection, linkage, and patent term extension, amongst others.

Ensuring Everyone Shares and Everyone Benefits
The inclusion of a Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing system (PABS system, in Article 12) is an important learning from the mistakes of the global response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet, we are concerned that the concrete elements of this system are left unaddressed and are worried that such a gap can render this important effort meaningless. We urge governments to maintain the same timeline for the PABS System as for the rest of the treaty.

We require monetary and non-monetary obligations on the recipient of pathogen data (Recipients), and for governments to bear the responsibility to ensure that commitments are respected. We welcome the requirement for Recipients to provide WHO with real-time access to pandemic-related products, though this should be based on a higher minimum (currently set at a minimum of 20%), as well as an appropriate distribution based on a rolling assessment of evolving public health risks and needs. In addition, the 3 subsections of Article 12.4 (c) should be revised into mandatory benefit-sharing conditions for the Recipients.

Strengthen Health Systems to Prevent Health Emergencies
Pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response require a global financial architecture that ensures that all countries have sufficient resources to inject into building strong and universal public health systems. We are concerned that language on finance is weak. The text should include the principle of solidarity and a commitment to an Equitable International Order (in article 3), as well as provisions towards equity in financing of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response.

Further, the ILO has underlined the role of social dialogue in strengthening public services, including public health systems.1 The European Commission document also highlights that “social dialogue is an essential tool for balanced crisis management and for finding effective mitigation and recovery policies,” and that “experience shows that social dialogue contributes to effective crisis management.”2 Article 6 should direct relevant actors to engage in social dialogue and governments to ensure active participation of unions and workers both in the planning and response during an emergency and in times of no pandemic.

Inclusion of Climate Crisis
We strongly recommend the inclusion of the climate crisis as a central priority to be considered in all pandemic and hazard preparedness and response programs. We further strongly recommend the need to prioritize improving health care resiliency in preparation for the ongoing climate crisis. In the zero draft of the pandemic treaty, the proposed “Article 5.(a). Strengthening pandemic prevention and preparedness through a One Health Approach” was the only article to mention climate change. Article 5.(a) did not make it into the current draft. We strongly encourage its inclusion in addition to much stronger language about preparing for health hazards in the context of our ongoing climate crisis.

Our current health care system is unprepared to respond to both current and future hazards created by the ongoing climate crisis. The pandemic treaty presents an opportunity to hold governments to account to invest in programs that would improve the resiliency of our health care infrastructure, protect the health care workforce during climate disasters, and support research into the health impacts of climate change.

We urge the negotiators to incorporate the climate crisis (and specifically, the extreme weather disasters that are caused by climate change), as hazards that require attention and funding. We encourage the negotiators to include the creation of funding programs to invest in construction projects to improve the resilience and pre-disaster mitigation of our health care infrastructure. Finally, we urge the negotiators to require investment in occupational health and safety programs and hazard pay for health care workers during any extreme weather event.

The negotiations now enter a key moment. We look forward to your support and remain at your disposal for any questions you may have.
Yours sincerely.

L’article Concerns About the WHO Pandemic Treaty During INB7 est apparu en premier sur Cope SEPB.