Communicator Information

SAFER UNION SPACES: Violence is NOT Part of the Job

Check out CUPE National’s Safer Union Campaign Resources to see how you can help combat violence and harassment in the workplace!

AFL 2024 International Womens’ Day and May Day Solidarity Award Nominations

The Alberta Federation of Labour is currently calling for nominations for two very exciting awards!

The first award is the 2024 International Women’s Day Award. This award celebrates and recognizes the outstanding commitment and leadership of a woman in the labour movement and community. You can read about the core values a nominee should have, the rules for submitting a nominee, and the roll of previous winners in This Document!

The second award is the 2024 May Day Solidarity Award. This award celebrates and recognizes a union member or group of individuals who have made a contribution in the areas of peace, social justice, and workers’ rights. Check out the rules for submitting a nominee and the roll of previous winners in This Document!

If you have someone in mind for either (or both!) of these awards, make sure to email afl@afl.org before Tuesday, April 2nd, 2024. Winners will be announced at an award ceremony at the 2024 AFL Midterm Forum on May 17th and 18th, 2024!

Check out these two excellent blog posts from the Parkland Institute about the UCP’s proposal for an Alberta Pension Plan.

Ensuring Dignity in Retirement: Social Security and the Canada Pension Plan
In the opening installment of the series, Baldwin Reichwein, Richard Ramsay, and Jake Kuiken examine the history of pension plans in Canada and Alberta, setting the stage for understanding the UCP’s pension policies and their current proposal of an Alberta Pension Plan. They also say that, “Given a volatile geopolitical climate globally, constant workforce migration, uncertainty associated with climate change, and increasing precariousness for many workers, fragmentation of the CPP would negatively impact workers in retirement now and in the future.”
Read the blog: https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/dignity_in_retirement

Navigating the UCP’s Pension Agenda: A Party Willing to Gamble With Your Money
In the second installment of the series, Bob Ascah explores the UCP’s stance on public pensions, offering context from Alberta’s recent history to frame the discussion of the Alberta Pension Plan proposal. Ascah remarks that “The United Conservative Party has a well-deserved reputation for playing politics with pensions. The latest episode in this trend is their proposal of an “Alberta Pension Plan” (APP) — an idea that’s seeing dwindling support even among UCP voters. But recent history shows that the UCP not only considers pensions fair game but also seems to have no qualms about concealing this stance in its election platforms.”
Read the blog: https://www.parklandinstitute.ca/ucp_pension_agenda

WEAR PURPLE ON BARGAINING DAYS!

CUPE Alberta Women’s Committee

CUPE Alberta is seeking committee members from all areas, sectors, and backgrounds for an ad hoc women’s committee. If you are interested, please see the recruitment letter below for a list of the committee’s areas of work. If you would like to apply to join the committee, please fill out the application form below and email it to Raj Uppal at raj.uppal@cupeab.org.

CUPE Alberta Women’s Committee: Letter of Recruitment

CUPE Alberta Women’s Committee Application Form

Communicator Gifts

Communicators please stay in touch and watch for more dates for pick up. Please drop into the office for some lively conversation, snacks, drinks and pick up your thank you gift!

Thank you to Loretta Strachan, the communicator at Meadowlark Christian School.

United Way Period Promise Campaign

The United Way is launching a menstrual equity campaign, called Period Promise, and it would be great to have CUPE 3550 involved early. We want to end period poverty and promote menstrual equity. Part of this pledge Local 3550 is signing will be to provide free and inclusive access to period products in your union office and advocate for it in workspaces.

Here is the pledge information – on this page you can peruse the toolkit which contains the policy agreement and design items/posters to which you can add your logo to promote the campaign to your membership and run a collection drive if you’d like,

We would like members to tell the story of Period Promise campaign from the worker’s side of things!

Here is a list of the schools currently involved:

Abbott Elementary
Delton Elementary
Eastglen High School
Ivor Dent Elementary Junior High
John A McDougall Elementary
Norwood Elementary
Spruce Avenue Junior High

United Way Coats for Kids Campaign. Local 3550 is a collection site. Please send any coats, warm hats, mitts, scarves, socks, underwear to your union office

CUPE AB Campaign: https://www.weworkforalberta.ca/kids
ATA stand for education campaign: https://standforeducation.ca/
Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL): https://action.afl.org/campaign/home/
AFL: https://action.afl.org/campaign/education/

Have your filled out the CUPE Local 3550 postcard to fight cuts to education? Please only sign 1 postcard and give the other postcards to someone you know that will support the campaign! Contact cupe3550@telus.net to get postcards and hand them out to friends, family, neighbours, everyone! Help us flood the legislature with these postcards to stop funding cuts! Click on this link to send a letter and watch the video featuring Local 3550 members! https://www.weworkforalberta.ca/albertakids

Is your Communicator changing during the year? Please fill out this form and return to the union office to keep your union up to date with any changes. Click here for form.

Communicators Meetings

Counterpoint is CUPE’s national quarterly newsletter. Counterpoint has been designed to bring you news on issues important to CUPE members from a national perspective.

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Tabletalk – your bargaining resource – is published four times a year to provide CUPE local bargaining committees, elected officers and servicing representatives useful information for preparing—and negotiating—bargaining demands.

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Economy at Work is published four times a year by CUPE to provide workers and their representatives with accessible information and analysis of relevant economic developments and to assist in bargaining.

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Global Justice News provides insight into the work CUPE is doing to contribute to the struggle for global justice and to build effective strategies to defend workers’ rights, human rights and the quality of public services in our communities around the globe.

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