As CUPE Ontario opens its 62nd annual convention in Toronto this week, rank-and-file members are expressing concern over what they say are undemocratic uses of union resources and money. In a month where hundreds of CUPE Ontario education and healthcare workers received pink slips, some union members are telling the Toronto Sun they are outraged that much of the convention’s bandwidth is being spent debating resolutions aligned with geopolitical or ideological issues far removed from local union concerns.
Members Demand Focus on Core Issues
“Most of the resolutions have nothing to do with my day-to-day job,” one education worker told the Toronto Sun, granted anonymity over concerns of workplace reprisal. “I want my union to fight for my hours, my job security, and my paycheck — I don’t care about global social issues right now. My dues go to this, and I’m not okay with it.”
Among the more than 80 resolutions up for discussion this year are proclamations of public support for a former York Region paramedic fired in 2024 over anti-Israel social media posts, urging the Canadian government to increase its intake of refugees, condemnations of the joint U.S.-Israel military operations to quell Iranian terrorism, and efforts to block the importation of Israeli-made goods into Canada.
Concerns Over Resource Allocation
“Every dollar and every minute that they spend doing social justice and climate activism, lobbying this and lobbying that, is a minute and a dollar less spent on advocating for their members, which is really what their job is,” said Carrie Silverberg, a CUPE Ontario member and education worker. She said she would like to see union leadership stick within the bounds of their established mandates of transparently advocating for members.
“Members want them to get back to the basics — I’d like to see that money used to make our work environments better,” she added. “If they have so much extra money, then give it back to the members, help provide better benefits. They’re spending millions of dollars on things that members don’t know.”
Fred Hahn Farewell Speech Draws Scrutiny
Of the more than 300,000 CUPE Ontario members, only around 1,200 delegates are chosen to attend the convention. CUPE members who spoke with the Sun are also concerned that controversial outgoing CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn — currently on paid leave amid investigations into “workplace climate allegations” — will be making a high-profile farewell address at the convention.
The union’s activism — coupled with public statements by Hahn — prompted Jewish CUPE Ontario members to file a human rights complaint against their union, alleging discrimination and antisemitism. That complaint was triggered by social media posts by a CUPE local and Hahn after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel, as well as allegations of antisemitic incidents dating back at least five years.
Shortly after the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, which saw Palestinian terrorists conduct a campaign of murder, kidnapping and sexual assault on Israeli villages, CUPE Local 3906 — representing academic workers at McMaster University — posted “Palestine is rising, long live the resistance” on social media. One day later, Hahn posted on social media that he was thankful on Thanksgiving for “the power of resistance around the globe,” adding that “resistance is fruitful and no matter what some might say,” and that “resistance brings progress.”
Union Defends Democratic Process
In a statement to the Sun, CUPE Ontario said delegates are selected by their locals specifically to represent members at the convention. “The resolutions debated and voted on come from those same locals and affiliated bodies, and they pass or fail by democratic vote of the delegates on the floor,” the statement read.
Another CUPE member said that with the millions of dollars being spent to hold these conventions, more needs to be done to ensure all members have a voice. “This is the cost while we stand here and debate all of these things that are not helping our collective bargaining, workers rights, safety — all of these mandates that are core to unions,” they said. “We spend so much time on social justice because they have this policy that none of us are free until all of us are free, they’re standing up for workers everywhere, but they don’t.”
