CUPE BC Convention 2025
April 30 – May 3, 2025
Attendance: Tim Baker, Lisa Devitt, Ken Wright, Stacey Robinson, Nancy Williams, Loreen Wanlin, Louise Henry
Day 1, Thursday, May 1st
Credential Committee Report:
533 members representing 103 locals
475 voting members with 29 alternates
Mark Hancock – CUPE National President
Spoke on the economic crisis caused by Donald Trump and the support of our NDP government. We have over 772,428 CUPE members nationwide, and all are working for a labour friendly governments for our country.
Mark talked about our sister Union in Columbia (through Co-Dev). The stories told by these unionists are truly terrifying in this country, as they risk their lives to protect the workers’ rights and by simply being a union activist. I visited a Nestle plant in Boga (on strike for 211 days), 8 leaders have been fired from their positions and shots were fired at the picketers on the line. Many of the picketers brought their families at an encampment in hopes of preventing violence if children were present. At a meeting with the company, only two union leaders showed up, when I asked why so few, they responded with that if they were killed, there would be more leaders available to lead the strike for justice. That is life as a unionist in Columbia!
Defending Canada from Donald Trump is important but not the only thing we can do. We need to strengthen our public services and building a strong economy for workers and families. We lost too many NDP seats in this election but kept 7 strong ones. We can thank the NDP for most of our labour friendly laws such as affordable childcare, affordable medical, maternity leaves etc.
To quote the leader of Denmark, “Donald, let me put this in words you may understand, Fuck Off”.
Tony Rebelo – Secretary Treasurer of CUPE BC
Thank you for the support over the last 5 months. One of the few fulltime secretary treasurers in the province.
CUPE BC has 3 separate funds, the General Fund, Defense Fund and the Colleen Jordon Fund. 57% of our capital goes to General Fund, 36% goes to the Defense Fund and 7% to the CJ Fund.
4.5 million: in the General fund with a spending of 3.5 million, leaves a surplus of 1 million.
3.9 million: in the Defense Fund, spending 2.2 million, with a surplus of 1.7 million.
The defense fund serves two services, supports striking unions and supports unions for struggles. For a strike, we get $85 from national and $15 from CUPE BC for a total of $100/day from day 1.
$438,000: in the CJ fund, spending $236, 000, leaves a surplus of $200,000.
This fund is used to support unionist in every continent and challenge imperialism globally.
CUPE National and CUPE BC have co-operated to require only one filing for strike pay. CUPE National will issues both the $85 and the $15 and invoice CUPE BC for payback.
Our CUPE BC conference is too small for the convention center but too big for hotels. The next 5 years convention will be in Victoria. To keep it in Vancouver would cost too much, increasing the spending of over $300,000 for this event.
Sarah Scanlon – Director of Safer Union Spaces office
We discuss how to deal with harm and harassment within house. 41% of members reported harassment or discrimination within CUPE did not feel respected during the process. 50% were not satisfied with the outcome of the reporting process.
What does harm do within a union setting? Creates a lack of trust that meaningful consequences accountability and changes will occur. Discourages people from attending events and members leave their union/roles. I feel that I have been tasked with creating a culture change by creating a centralized office to support the responses. Areas of development are to create an events ombudsman program, code of conduct, alternate process within trial procedure, informal intervention processes – including but not limited to restorative justice pathways. Success depends on support at the local level. We need activists to spread the word and provide on the ground support.
Resolutions
No. 41: An additional EA in every K-3 Classroom – Passed
No. 24: Union inclusion on the EOCP (Environment Operators Certification Program) Board – Passed
No. 29: Create partnerships for better funded post-secondary system – Passed
No. 32: Specialized front-line worker training – Passed
No. 39: Hybrid of per student and block funding in K-12 – Passed
No. 36: Presumptive coverage for all workers experiencing traumatic workplace events – Passed
No. 42: Library lobby toolkit – Passed
No. 26: Provide childcare frameworks for all public schools in BC – Passed
No. 30 & 31: Increase provincial investment in public universities and colleges and special purpose/teaching universities – Passed