Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is Making Literacy a Union Issue

DEBRA HURON AND SYLVIA SIOUFI

SINCE IT WAS ESTABLISHED in July 2000, the CUPE National Literacy Project has been bringing people together within Canada’s largest union to make the kinds of changes that can transform workers’ lives.

“We find that as CUPE moves forward on literacy issues, we are empowering our members to stand up for equal pay, to fight privatization, and to speak up on a whole range of human rights and economic issues that matter to workers,” said Judy Darcy, CUPE’s National President.

Having a national office to coordinate the literacy efforts of such a large and diverse union is very important. The literacy project receives funding support from the federal government’s National Literacy Secretariat (NLS).

“I have found that people are open to the seeds that our project is trying to plant,” says Sylvia Sioufi, the project’s coordinator. “We talk about literacy as an access and equity issue. Workplace literacy programs are key to providing support for members who face technological change, contracting out and demands for certification. So we tell our locals that it’s time to claim our education.”

Literacy Activists Engage Union Members

Raising awareness means talking to people, and Sylvia has done a lot of talking, and travelling, in the last two years. She has national support from a 12-member reference group composed of CUPE literacy activists. Together, they have been getting the message out to CUPE members, by

• speaking to thousands of CUPE members at provincial CUPE conventions and conferences,

• organizing and delivering workshops on union-based literacy and clear language, and

• helping to start new workplace literacy projects all across the country.

Some of the successful workplace literacy projects include CUPE Local 500’s in Winnipeg (see “The City of Winnipeg and CUPE Local 500 Success Story”). In Saskatchewan, where 100 CUPE members from waterworks facilities must pass certification exams, the provincial government has agreed to help the union find out if there’s a need for essential skills training. “We suspect that some of our members will find certification exams to be a great challenge, because they will have forgotten or will not have had the opportunity to acquire some of these essential skills,” said Naomi Frankel, CUPE Saskatchewan’s Waterworkers Project coordinator. Naomi will visit worksites across the province to find out what upgrading workers need and how best to provide it.

CUPE at the Literate Cities Conferences

In September and November last year, CUPE’s Literacy Project helped to plan two Literate Cities 2002 conferences with the Canadian Association of Municipal Administrators (CAMA).