The leader of Canada’s largest public sector union spoke at AFSCME’s 47th International Convention on Thursday, promising continued solidarity between the two unions.
“We may live on different sides of the border … but we are all part of the same movement,” said Mark Hancock, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). “A movement that believes in dignity for working people. A movement that believes public services matter. A movement that believes that democracy matters. We also believe that when ordinary people stand together, there is nothing that we cannot achieve.”
AFSCME and CUPE have a strong cross-border partnership.
In appearances at each other’s events in recent years, AFSCME President Lee Saunders and Hancock have identified many issues the unions have in common regarding public service workers. And they have inspired American and Canadian union members alike.
“Every time AFSCME has had a tough fight, CUPE has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us, including in Wisconsin in 2011, when we occupied the state Capitol to protest the gutting of our rights,” Saunders said. “And last year, AFSCME was proud to stand with CUPE as their flight attendants went on strike, grounding Air Canada flights for several days as they fought for a fair contract.”
On Thursday, Hancock called Saunders and Secretary-Treasurer Elissa McBride fearless champions for workers, principled voices for racial justice and defenders of democracy.
“You are not alone,” Hancock told the AFSCME delegates and guests. “Across the border, in Canada and all across the world, it is our labor movement that is standing with you in the fight for democracy and against corporate greed. … Solidarity isn’t just a slogan. It’s a verb. It’s how we win.”
CUPE has more than 800,000 members, many of whom work in sectors familiar to AFSCME members: child care, education, emergency services, health care, libraries and social services.
“Governments don’t get to define the relationship between our unions, our members or the communities we serve,” Hancock said. “Workers do.”
Hancock was elected CUPE’s national president in 2015, following several terms in leadership with CUPE in the province of British Columbia. He has been a union member since 1984 and spent 15 years as president of Local 498 representing Port Coquitlam Municipal Employees.
