CUPE Workers Platform

The Platform

An organizing platform to rebuild CUPE Ontario into a member-led union focused on material gains, democratic power and class solidarity. We will build a union that organizes, bargains openly, coordinates across workplaces and fights austerity and privatization with members at the centre!

Working-Class Politics First

To win, we have to build the largest movement possible. We need to grow power beyond the bargaining unit. That means organizing with members from other unions and non-union workers. We need to move away from competing with other unions and recognize our shared class interest.

Member-Led Democracy

We must empower leaders outside of formal elected positions. The role of leadership is to execute the will of members, not manage them, not stage-manage politics, and not trade away power for access. Gatekeeping and controlling information puts power at the top which weakens our collective strength.

The Current Landscape

We’ve in a pivotal moment where public services are being gutted. Education is suffering from lack of funding, hurting us and students. Health care is being starved and privatized. The government overreach into municipalities has decimated funding and forced impossible workloads on us. Social services are so neglected that we cannot afford to work in the sector. Violence is normalized in our workplaces while we beg for more resources simply to do our jobs. Instead money is diverted to the top - adding more management and padding their paycheques.

Yet we see so many CUPE members organizing and fighting courageously. Every sector is facing the same problems but working in silos. Our fragmented approach has failed to stop the cuts, let alone win much needed gains. We need to get back to basics, to a time when unions were winning.

CUPE members have shown they can organize but now is the time to push further. We’ve seen strikes pulled back because challenging power becomes uncomfortable. Without taking risks we will never win. Risks become easier when we have solidarity - not as an empty slogan but actually having each other's backs in difficult moments.

Our power is in the workplace and coordinated job action. We should use our resources to build a sustained working class fightback that wins concessions from any government. When workers organize and refuse to settle for less, we win, no matter who sits in legislature.

Organizing with Purpose

Organizing with Purpose

Organizing with Purpose

What is happening in Ontario is part of a coordinated global attack on workers by the wealthy. We struggle to pay for groceries, housing and other necessities. Divisions by race, gender identity, and immigration status are promoted to keep workers fighting each other so the rich can grow richer. We have more in common with working class people across the world than we do with Canadian owners of corporations. We must resist wars of aggression. If bankers and politicians like Carney want to promote wars, they can go fight them.