The union advantage
Joining a union is the best way to achieve fairness and respect in your workplace. Unionization gives you a strong voice in the workplace and the ability to seek:
- Improved pay with regular wage increases
- A pension plan and enhanced benefits
- Paid sick leave
- Improved vacation entitlements and other leaves
- More control over hours of work and breaks
- Proper attention to health and safety
- Protection against unjust discipline and dismissal
- Access to a grievance process
Without union representation, employees have no collective voice and no ability to seek lasting improvements in wages, benefits, and working conditions in a legally-binding collective agreement.
According to the most recent statistics, union members in Canada are paid, on average, an extra $5.26 an hour, $180 more weekly, and over $9,000 more per year than non-unionized workers. This union wage premium is about 20 per cent higher than non-unionized wages. Union members are also much more likely to have a workplace pension plan, extended benefits, and better paid leave provisions than their non-union counterparts.
A strong voice in your workplace
In CUPE the members are in charge. The Local membership elects its officers and bargaining committee representatives. Each CUPE Local decides its priorities for bargaining, when to settle a new contract, and how to manage funds.
CUPE’s strength comes from individual members working toward common goals. Together, we maintain and improve wages and benefits, improve health and safety conditions, and make your workplace better.
When you join CUPE, you and your co-workers gain an equal seat at the bargaining table with your employer, armed with the research, communications, legal, and staff resources of the largest union in the country.
There are over 680,000 CUPE members in Canada, and that number is growing constantly. CUPE is also the largest union in Saskatchewan with 30,000 members working in health care, K-12 education, municipalities, libraries, and community-based organizations like group homes and child care centres.
CUPE represents nearly 500 group home workers employed by eleven different employers across the province.
Our services
Being a CUPE member means you have the support, information, programs, and the staff expertise needed to meet the employer on equal terms, and negotiate better working conditions.
Each CUPE Local has the assistance of a CUPE National Representative. Representatives provide assistance with collective bargaining, grievances, health and safety, arbitrations, and other work-related issues. Our staff also includes specialists who provide members with expertise in labour law, research, education, communications, job evaluation, human rights, health and safety, and technology.
What about dues?
To pay for these services, Locals must collect a minimum of 0.85 percent of regular wages in dues. (That’s just 85 cents for every $100 in gross income.) After that, CUPE members vote to decide how much their Local will collect above the minimum, and how their local will spend the funds. These funds cover the cost of the Local’s day-to-day operations, such as meeting room rentals, and sending members to union education workshops and conventions.
Union dues are not applied to overtime or other premium pay. Dues are also 100 percent tax deductible.