The Young Workers Committee is looking for new members!
If you are 35 years of age or younger and a COPE Ontario member and interested to be part of this committee, please contact Siraz Kaur Chatha COPE Ontario VP of Young Workers (see inform below).
The COPE Ontario Executive Board took time of its meetings in Toronto to honour National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
On this coming Monday, many of us will be wearing orange shirts in honour of National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and all that it represents about the tragic history of residential schools.
Residential schools are not a problem of the past, but a profound wrong that lives in the present through the trauma created by an official policy of our governments that was rooted in attempted cultural genocide – a policy to destroy Indigenous cultures and identity forever.
Some of us have the day off, others will be working. Many of us will be attending special events, either through work or in the community.
Wherever we may find ourselves, let us make it a day of reflection in which we remember the thousands of young people who were torn away from their families and communities, and acknowledge how far we have yet to go on the long road to reconciliation.
COPE Ontario joins the calls for the federal government to help fund new subway cars for the TTC's line 2. This would be an investment that makes sense from all angles – the TTC and its passengers, the environment and Canadian workers. Let's get moving! Click on link for article from CP24
June 20th marks the anniversary of the founding of COPE as an autonomous Canadian union.
It was on this day 20 years ago that the Canadian Office and Professional Employees Union became a union in its own right, the leadership of the time deciding it was time to part company with a U.S. based organization.
COPE is a proud Canadian union with members from coast to coast.
We’ve accomplished a lot in the last two decades on behalf of workers across the country, and there is lots more to do. Here’s to the next 20 years!
COPE Ontario celebrates Pride and supports 2SLGBTQI+ equality and justice! Show your support at an event later this month and throughout the summer.
• Thunder Pride (Various Events) - May 4 - June 23
• Pride Toronto (Various Events) - May 17- June 30
• Guelph Spring Pride - June 6-16
• Bay of Quinte Pride: Pride Parade & Pride in the Park - June 8
• Brockville Pride Parade - June 8
• Thunder Pride March - June 8
• West Nipissing Pride Parade - June 8
• West Nipissing Pride After party - June 8
• Kingston Pride Festival - June 8-16
• York Pride Sparkling Night - June 14
• Brantford Pride: Pride in the Park - June 15
• York Pride Parade - June 15
• York Parade & Pride on Riverwalk - June 15
• Senior Pride Toronto 2024: Be ________ - June 15
• Thunder Pride - Rise Up Fest and Parade - June 15
• Owen Sound Pride Parade - June 17
• Kenora Pride March and BBQ - June 22
• Pride Toronto March: My First Pride - June 30
• Fenelon Falls Pride - July 12
• Collingwood Pride Festival ( Various Events) - July 12-13
• Pride London Festival - July 12-31
• Pride London Festival - Victoria Park - July 19-21
• Muskoka Pride Week - July 19-28
• Sault Pridefest - Roary Day Parade Float - July 20
• Sault Pridefest - Flag Raising & Pride Walk - July 21
• Sault Pridefest - Loud & Proud - July 21
• Pride London 28th Annual London Pride Parade - July 21
• 1000 Island River Pride - June 21-23
• Simcoe County: FSP's 2023 Pride Season - July 24 - August 6
• Windsor-Essex Pride Festival - August 6-11
• Pride Manitoulin (Various Events) - August 9-11
• Hamilton: Strength with Pride - August 10
• Chatham-Kent (Various Events) – August 10-17
• Windsor-Essex Pride Parade - August 11
• Chatham-Kent Pride Flag Raising – August 12
• Chatham-Kent Pride Parade – August 17
• Minden Pride - August 22
• Ottawa: Capital Pride Parade - August 26
• Fierte Timmins Pride - September 9-15
• North Bay Pride Festival - September 11-15
• Peterbrough - Nogojiwanong Pride Week 2024 (Various Events) – September 20-29
• Peterbrough - Nogojiwanong Pride "Pride in the Park" – September 28
• Peterbrough - Nogojiwanong Pride "The Pride March/Parade" – September 28
COPE joined other unions at Queen's Park to call on the Ford government to halt a plan that will cause further chaos in the home care sector – for both patients and workers.
Bill 135 – rushed through the legislature with little oversight – demolishes existing governance structures and paves the way for privatization of vital health care services.
The measure would dismantle the existing system of 14 Home Care and Community Support Services organizations across the province and turn them into one unwieldly structure. Unions have asked the government to consult with them on how to avoid the labour relations turmoil that will result.
COPE Local 550 represents workers at Home Care and Community Support Services – Toronto.
COPE Ontario Interim Director Glenn Wheeler (centre) joined OPSEU President JP Hornick, ONA President Erin Ariss, CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn and NDP Health Critic France Gelinas at a media conference at Queen's Park.
COPE Ontario president Lorrie Vanderluis was in Ottawa recently meeting with other union leaders at the Canadian Labour Congress on plans for the next federal election. Lorrie met NDP leader Jagmeet Singh when he dropped by the CLC.
Please check out this article from Maclean's magazine from a former COPE Local 527 member who worked with Hamilton Wentworth District School Board as an EA that illustrates the many challenges working in the school board.
On 12 February 2024, the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld a decision that the wage-restraint legislation known as Bill 124 was unconstitutional. In a majority decision, the court affirmed a 2022 ruling which found that Bill 124 interfered with the freedom of association guarantee under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Ontario Court of Appeal also found that, as a result of Bill 124, “organized public sector workers, many of whom are women, racialized and/or low-income earners, have lost the ability to negotiate for better compensation or even better work conditions that do not have a monetary value.”