Canadian Union of Public Employees

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)

Canadian Union of Public Employees / Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique
File:Logo cupe.jpg File:Logo scfp.jpg
Founded	1963
Members	570,001
Affiliations	CLC, ITF, PSI
Website	cupe.ca scfp.ca (French)

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE, French: Syndicat Canadien de la fonction publique) is a Canadian trade union serving the public sector - although it has in recent years organized workplaces in the non-profit and para-public sector as well. With more than half a million members across Canada, CUPE represents workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines. Over 60% of its members are women, and almost a third are part-time workers. CUPE is affiliated to the Canadian Labour Congress.

History

CUPE was formed in 1963 in a fashion resembling industrial unionism 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, 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 Steel as the largest affiliate to the Canadian Labour Congress.

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 practiced 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 in 1981 and sentenced to 45 days in jail. She retired in 1983.

Hartman’s successor as president was Jeff Rose, 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-era wage restraint, free trade, the GST, privatization, deregulation, 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 government.

In 1991, Judy Darcy 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 privatization, two-tier health care, and free trade 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, condemned Canada's involvement in ballistic missile defense, and spoke out loudly in favour of same-sex marriage. Darcy stepped down in 2003 after 12 years as president, and was replaced by Paul Moist.

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 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.

Organizationally, there are provincial divisions for each province, as well as the national organization. Nationally there are two full-time political positions -- the National President (currently Paul Moist), and the National Secretary-Treasurer (currently Claude Généreux).

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.

UN-sponsored Conference Against Racism

The B'nai Brith of Canada called attention to CUPE's role in the UN-sponsored Conference Against Racism held in Durban in 2001.

Although many Canadian Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were present at Durban, their reaction to the widespread antisemitism there was disappointing. The response of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) representative is instructive. In a report submitted by CUPE Ontario delegate Antoni Shelton, and posted to the CUPE Ontario website... Shelton presented the CUPE perspective on the conference. Shelton described the equation of Zionism with racism with utter passivity and accepted it as a legitimate point of contention, along with other issues such as compensation for slavery. Shelton was amused by the “photogenic” qualities of the marginal anti-Zionist Neturei Karta sect. He had no comment on the Nazi caricatures of Jews and other antisemitic paraphernalia circulating at the NGO conference at Durban.

Disinvestment from Israel and boycott

Main article: Disinvestment from Israel

2006

In May 2006, the Ontario wing of CUPE voted unanimously to pass a resolution to support the “international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel until that state recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination.” The three point resolution continued on to call for action to develop an education campaign about the “apartheid nature of the Israeli state”, and for CUPE National to conduct research into Canadian involvement in the occupation. The Canadian Labour Congress was also enjoined to add its voice "against the apartheid-like practices of the Israeli state...." The resolution summarized its reasons for making this call by directly referencing the “Israeli Apartheid Wall”, and by recognizing the 170 Palestinian groups that have called for the global campaign. It further noted the voice of its sister union, CUPE BC, and its opposition to the occupation of Palestine.

Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League labelled CUPE's action as "deplorable and offensive." The Ontario regional director of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Steven Schulman, characterized the vote as "outrageous." "For a respected labour union to engage in such a vote, which is completely one-sided and based on mistruths, is shocking," he said.

On June 6, 2006 Willie Madisha, president of the 1.2 million member Congress of South African Trade Unions wrote, in a two page letter, “I congratulate CUPE Ontario for their historic resolution on May 27th in support of the Palestinian people- those living under occupation and those millions of Palestinian refugees living in the Diaspora. We fully support your resolution.”

CUPE Ontario president Sid Ryan has defended his organization's position by referring to the support it received from the Alliance of Concerned Jewish Canadians[1][2], a small group of Canadian Jews who oppose Israeli policy towards the Palestinians and supports the CUPE resolution.

CUPE National has responded to the Ontario resolution by stating that,

CUPE National respects the right of its chartered organizations to take a stand on all issues. As a national union we are governed by policy resolutions adopted at our national conventions. And as such, we will not be issuing a call to our local unions across Canada to boycott Israel.

On July 7th, political commentator Lysiane Gagnon wrote in the Toronto Globe and Mail:

Of course, CUPE and the United Church’s anti-Israel activists will tell you their positions are just about Israel’s policies and have nothing to do with Jews. But the line between anti-Semitism and obsessive anti-Zionism is thin and blurry. It is certainly perfectly acceptable to criticize the state of Israel, but the practice can become anti-Semitic when only the Jewish state is singled out as a rogue state, in a world that contains so many horrible regimes.[3]

An editorial in the Canadian Jewish News also took issue with some CUPE leaders comparisons between Israel's policies and South Africa's apartheid system.

Let there also be no condoning the sly attempt by CUPE Ontario leaders to hide or obfuscate its true aim. The logic of the haters of Israel is as simple as it is distorted: Israel is an apartheid state. It must be treated in the same manner as the only other apartheid state was ever treated. It must be dismantled! By joining with the hate-filled slogans being hurled at Israel, the union, was de facto supporting, condoning and even affirming the call for the elimination of the Jewish State.

2009 Call for Boycott of Israeli Academics

In January 2009, CUPE's Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee announced plans to introduce a resolution that would ban Israeli academics from speaking, teaching or researching at Ontario universities. Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario, stated that "Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general." Ryan stated that the resolution was a reasonable response to Israel's attack on the Islamic University, which he likened to the torching of books by Nazis during the Second World War.

Janice Folk-Dawson, chairwoman of the university workers committee, stated that resolution will protect the quality of education by preventing Israeli academics from professing biased views. She also stated that "International pressure on Israel must increase to stop the massacre that is going on daily. We are proud to add CUPE voices to others from around the world saying enough is enough" and that support for the resolution "is coming from the rank-and-file members, not just the leadership." Despite the expected backlash, Folk-Dawson stated that "We believe we are doing the right thing."

Criticism and Allegations of Anti-Semitism

Some academics denied that the boycott was anti-semitic, calling it instead "unfair and inconsistent," "despicable," "anti-Israel," "anti-intellectual," "anti-global," "ugly" and "absolutely inappropriate," though Michael Neumann, a philosophy professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario expressed support for the boycott. Neumann argued that a boycott is not anti-semitic, stating that "It targets Israeli, not Jewish, professors." He further stated that "People may always have bad motives underlying good motives. And it's not absolutely impossible that some of these people have anti-Semitic feelings deep down, but do I think that plays a large part? No, I certainly do not."

The resolution was immediately criticized by the Leo Rudner of the Canadian Jewish Congress, who stated "I think it's ironic individuals who speak about freedom of speech jump to the opportunity to take that freedom away from other individuals." Emanuel Adler, chairman of Israeli Studies at the University of Toronto, also criticized the resolution, stating that "the conflict and the violence should not be brought inside the university." Jonathan Kay, a columnist for the National Post, sharply critcized the resolution, stating that "Mr. Ryan and his fellow CUPE leaders care about demonizing only one country: the Jewish state."

Frank Dimant, Vice-President of Bnai Brith Canada criticized the resolution, stating that "This blatant and openly discriminatory resolution by CUPE-Ontario against Israeli nationals is in contravention of Canadian Human Rights Law. Public unions should not be used as breeding grounds for negatively singling out one group of people and denying them their basic rights and freedoms."

Paul Davenport, President of the University of Western Ontario (UWO), subsequently stated that UWO will not participate in any boycott of Israeli academics. Davenport stated that "I'm very dismayed at the suggestion by CUPE that universities should boycott faculty from Israel. "We believe in academic freedom ... it is simply very unwise to try to eliminate interactions between academics."

Oren Gross, Director of the Institute for International Legal and Security Studies at the University of Minnesota Law School, sharply criticized CUPE, asking why CUPE did not propose boycotts against "American and British academics who did not condemn their governments' war in Iraq, Russian academics who had been silent during their country's assaults on Chechnya and Georgia, Chinese academics who did not protest against their government's actions in Tibet, and ... Palestinian academics who remained silent in the face of a continuous campaign of terrorism orchestrated by Hamas from Gaza."

Revised Proposal

CUPE's national president, Paul Moist, who issued a statement declaring that "I believe such a resolution is wrong and would violate the anti-discrimination standards set out in the CUPE Constitution and that "I will be using my influence in any debates on such a resolution to oppose its adoption." Approximately 10 days after its initial announcement, the CUPE removed its call to boycott individual academics from its website and replaced it with statement that stated that "this is not a call to boycott individual Israeli academics. Rather, the boycott call is aimed at academic institutions and the institutional connections that exist between universities here and those in Israel." In addition, the original resolution, mentioned Sid Ryan three times and listed him as the main contact for questions. The new resolution did not mention Ryan at all. Despite his initial statements, Ryan later stated that he agreed with Moist.

Revised Resolution

On February 22, 2009, CUPE's university workers committee, represetning 17 universities in Ontario, passed a version of the original resolution which called for members at Ontario universities to boycott working with Israeli institutions doing research that benefits that nation's military, but not individual academics. Members will be encouraged, but will not be forced, to mount boycott campaigns in such circumstances. CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan stated that the original resolution calling for boycotts of all Israeli academics who did not condemn Israeli military tactics was wrong. He defended the new resolution which hed stated "broadens and deepens" a 2006 resolution on Israel to support a campaign of economic boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel for its "illegal" occupation of Gaza. Ryan also stated that CUPE will investigate whether its pension plans are investing in companies developing weapons in Israel. Ryan likened CUPE's boycotts to those of Ghandi, stating that "It's following a long tradition and a peaceful tradition of using the pressures of a boycott in a peaceful way to bring pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end this illegal occupation."

Response from Canadian Jewish Groups

The revised resolution was immediately condemned by Canadian Jewish groups, in particular by the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC).

Bernie Farber, CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC), stated that resolution was discriminatory and anti-Semitic and proves that "anti-Semitism is once again amongst us." Farber also stated that "It's devious, it's disingenuous. They talk about Israeli universities and partnerships. What makes up a partnership? Israeli academics and Canadian academics make up a partnership. You're still talking about people, except you're hiding it. It means you are prepared to boycott your fellow academic and it's absolutely disgusting. I found it profoundly disappointing that people would just sit back and not get it, that they would plunge into this dark hole of anti-Semitism."

Mark Goldberg, vice-chairman of CJC Ontario Region, accused CUPE of being disengenious with its claim that the boycott was not directed at individual academics, asking rhetorically: "How do you boycott institutions without boycotting individuals in the process?" He also stated "to support the proposed discriminatory resolution represents another low point in the proud history of the Canadian labour movement's involvement in international affairs. The changes that were made to this resolution since it was first announced are cosmetic at best and do nothing to alter the basic discriminatory elements." He also

Len Rudner, also with CJC Ontario Region, stated that: "While workers face an uncertain economic future and students at one of Canada's largest universities are scrambling to recover from a lengthy strike that has jeopardized the current academic year, it boggles the mind to consider that CUPE Ontario's leadership has no matter more pressing than promoting a resolution that is bigoted on its face and discriminatory in its intent. It is unfair, unbalanced and unhelpful."

B'nai Brith Canada called the resolution "discriminatory and racist." Frank Dimant, B’nai Brith Canada’s executive vice-president, stated that the motion “marginalizes its supporters here at home and disenfranchises CUPE members who are supportive of democratic Israel and its right to defend its citizens against terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.” He also stated that everyone who voted in favour of the resolution was “promoting hatred and advancing a discriminatory agenda that is at odds with Canadian values of tolerance, respect and human rights for all.

Meir Weinstein, national director of the Jewish Defence League (JDL) stated that the resolution is "thinly veiled anti-Semitism" and that Sid Ryan was "is a hater of Jews and Israel." He also called for Ryan to be removed from is position."

Response from Canadian Federal Government

The Conservative Government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper sharply criticized the CUPE Ontario resolution again Israel as "intolerant." Following the passage of the resolution, Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney stated that while the resolution was not illegal, it involved "singling out and targeting the Jewish democratic state of Israel for opprobrium." He also stated that:

"The premise of these things seems to be that the Jewish people shouldn't have their own country. Underneath that, there's a certain kind of dangerous intolerance which is not consistent with Canada's best values. This reinforces the whole, extreme, unbalanced rhetoric about Israel as an apartheid state, Israel as a racist state – to quote the Canadian Arab Federation – this creates an opinion environment which makes it acceptable to start shouting at Jewish kids who probably also happen to support Israel. It's creating the opinion environment which has become very, very uncomfortable for Jewish students on many of our campuses."

Current Status of Proposed Boycott and Future Actions

Since the boycott resolution has passed CUPE's University Workers Committee, it will now be on the agenda at CUPE Ontario's conference in May.

Tyler Shipley, spokesperson for CUPE local 3903 at York University, told the Toronto Star that his group will begin to advocate for York to sever financial ties to Israel and will back the upcoming Israeli Apartheid Week.

Some observers have questioned what practical effect the resoluton could have since the 20,000 university workers represented by CUPE Ontario include campus staff but almost no full-time faculty.

National Presidents of CUPE

• Stan Little 1963-1975
• Grace Hartman 1975-1983
• Jeff Rose 1983-1991
• Judy Darcy 1991-2003
• Paul Moist 2003-

External links

• Official CUPE site
• CUPE French Version
• A Critical Analysis of the 2007 CUPE Constitution