Canadian Union of Public Employees

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)

Full name	Canadian Union of Public Employees / Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique
Founded	1963
Members	627,000 (May 2013)
Affiliation	CLC, ITF, PSI
Key people	Mark Hancock (President) Charles Fleury (Sec.-Treasurer)
Office location	Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Country	Canada
Website	cupe.ca

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE, French: Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique) is a Canadian trade union serving the public sector - although it has in recent years organized workplaces in the non-profit and para-public sector as well. CUPE is the largest union in Canada, representing some 650,000 workers in health care, education, municipalities, libraries, universities, social services, public utilities, transportation, emergency services and airlines. CUPE is still twice the size of the new union Unifor (a merger of the CAW union and the CEP), which represents around 350,000 members versus CUPE's 657,000. Over 60% of CUPE's members are women, and almost a third are part-time workers. CUPE is affiliated with the Canadian Labour Congress and is its greatest financial contributor.

CUPE was formed in 1963 in a fashion resembling industrial unionism by merging the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) and the National Union of Public Service Employees (NUPSE). The first national president was Stan Little, who had previously been the president of NUPSE. Having led public sector unionism through a period where almost no workers had the right to strike, Little has been credited with bringing public sector unions "from collective begging to collective bargaining." By the time of Little's retirement, CUPE had already grown to 210,000 members and had eclipsed Steel as the largest affiliate to the Canadian Labour Congress.

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