CUPE National President Mark Hancock rallied delegates Wednesday to meet the challenging moment we’re living in the way organized labour always has – with clear eyes and steadfast determination.
With US President Donald Trump waging war and sowing economic chaos the world over, and with a pro-corporate and pro-war Liberal government under Mark Carney, the labour movement has its work cut out for it. But Hancock says the labour movement has already fought back during moments of turmoil, and this time is no different.
“We are in for the fight of our lives to defend what we’ve achieved and to protect the future we want and the Saskatchewan we want for our kids and our grandkids,” said Hancock. “We don’t get to be passive, and we don’t get to wait things out or assume someone else will fix it.”
Hancock pointed to the labour movement’s legacy of important breakthroughs during moments of strife in history – from winning legal recognition of unions in the ashes of the Second World War, to universal health care during the upheaval of the 1960s, to paid sick days and federal anti-scab legislation during the Covid-19 pandemic – as evidence that workers can and will win even when the odds are stacked against them.
He called on CUPE members in Saskatchewan to continue pushing back against the Sask Party government’s erosion of health care, privatization of services, and abuse of the Notwithstanding Clause. He also pointed to education workers in Saskatoon forming a united front for fair wages, and CUPE fighting alongside the Saskatchewan NDP for child care, card check certification, and anti-scab legislation as more examples of how CUPE members can make progress in uncertain times.
What matters most in trying times, said Hancock, is continuing to show up and show our solidarity.
“Call it woke or whatever you want,” said Hancock. “But in a moment like this, we need to care about each other more than ever, because our opponents are counting on us to only look out for ourselves. But we won’t do it, my friends, because solidarity is the opposite of selfishness. Solidarity is who we are.”
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