Free Republic

Confessions of an education worker from behind the picket line I never thought I’d be the kinda guy who would expose the absolute failure of organized labour. I’m 26 and grew up in a household of union employees—but the actions of CUPE this week and over the last two and a half years had turned me from a staunch socialist to a liberated libertarian. As a school custodian, I’m 1 of the 55,000 education workers across Ontario that was duped into an illegal strike on Monday, November 7th. Striking was prohibited under the Keeping Students In Class Act, which made...

Guess who's running your city CUPE's Power Handcuffs Mayors Terence Corcoran, National Post, Published: Saturday, July 28, 2007, Page A-1 The taxpayers of Vancouver held hostage. The City of Toronto forced into budget crisis. Calgary teetering on the brink of municipal labour unrest. Montreal headed for a major metro-wide service-destroying city workers' strike later this year. For all this and more we can thank the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the all-powerful radical labour group that uses strike threats and political power to hold real control over most government services across the country. All reform of city services is...

How ironic. Just days after one group of Canadians took sides in the Mideast conflict by publicly and sweepingly backing Israel's enemies, the rest of Canada learned that another set of anti-Canadian Canadians had taken the next logical step and targeted Canada itself. Granted, the membership, leadership and pompous resolutions of the Ontario division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) interest the average Israeli about as much as the World Cup interests the average grandmother. However, the 17-man terror ring arrested last weekend for plotting to detonate Canada's parliament, storm its Broadcast Corporation and behead, among others, Prime...

CUPE's disgraceHow does bashing the Jewish state help Canadian public workers? Martin Peretz and David Sax National Post Wednesday, June 07, 2006 Disbelief seemed the most natural reaction following the anti-Israel resolution passed by the Ontario convention of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) -- the largest provincial block of the largest union in the country -- on May 27. It came on a Saturday, during a sweltering summer weekend, when attentions were focused on baseball games and cottages, and Jewish union members were noticeably absent, celebrating the Sabbath. CUPE's decision, to boycott Israel and implement a divestment...

A message to all CUPE members. Your Ontario region has passed an anti-Israel motion that has made your union internationally notorious. It is so extreme, shrill and one-sided that CUPE is now more opposed to Israel than Fatah, President Mahmoud Abbas and several Arab governments. The vote was held on a Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, and thus no observant Jew could even be present. If they had been there they might have given a basic history lesson to the assembled comrades. The Jewish state, Israel, came into existence more than 1300 years before the birth of Jesus Christ and 2000...

he Anti-Defamation League (ADL) on Thursday labeled as "deplorable and offensive" a call by the Ontario branch of Canada's largest labor unions for a full range of anti-Israel boycott activity. At its annual meeting on May 28, the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) unanimously passed a resolution to "support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions" against Israel. The vote almost directly coincided with the passage on May 29 of an anti-Israel boycott resolution by an academic union in Britain. "Once again, a labor union has voted to take the deplorable and offensive step...

The Ontario divison of Canada's largest union has voted to support an international campaign that is boycotting Israel over its treatment of Palestinians. Delegates to the Canadian Union of Public Employees Ontario convention in Ottawa voted overwhelmingly Saturday to support the campaign until it sees Israel recognizing the Palestinians' right to self-determination. The Ontario group represents more than 200,000 workers. The global campaign started last July and has been supported by many North American churches, 20 Quebec organizations, and others, Canadian Press said. CUPE also condemned what they called Israel's "apartheid wall," saying it is illegal under international law. "Boycott,...