CUPE

Choose CUPE: The Union for Ontario Health atHome Workers

CUPE is Canada’s largest union, representing over 800,000 members from coast-to-coast-to-coast, including over 90,000 healthcare workers in Ontario alone. CUPE members like you are the driving force of our Union, setting the bargaining and organizational objectives from the bottom-up. 

CUPE is a fighting Union. We don’t back down from fighting for our rights, whether it’s at work, City Hall, the Provincial Legislature, or on Parliament Hill.  

Why choose CUPE?

CUPE isn’t a third-party organization; it’s YOU and your co-workers!

CUPE is a bottom-up, grass-roots Union, which means the members set the mandate in their Local affairs, as well as at higher levels.

As Canada’s largest Union, CUPE has one of the healthiest strike funds in the country, meaning you can count on the support of the union to keep fighting until you win!

CUPE is a Fighting Union. That means we will not back down when the bosses and their political allies attack your rights.

CUPE is Canada’s Largest Union. That means you have the strength of over 800,000 CUPE members supporting you and your coworkers.

CUPE’s Bargaining Policy

No Concessions

CUPE members bargain forward, not backward. Your rights are not bargaining chips.

No Two-Tier Agreements

No worker should have lesser benefits or working conditions than another worker, doing the same work, regardless of when they started working.

Local Bargaining

CUPE puts staff resources in place to empower your Local Union to create a strategic plan to win gains at the bargaining table well in advance of negotiations. So, when you get to the table, you are ready to win big.

Regional Plans

CUPE members never bargain alone. Our regional plans ensure Local Unions have the strength of membership, coordination, tools, and resources to fight for your rights, and negotiate strong collective agreements.

CUPE Action

When one Local is standing up for their rights, all CUPE members stand with them. Our members have access to the National Strike Fund, staff resources, member trainings, legal services to help win your fight. We also wage campaigns to challenge laws that make it easier for our member to win strong contracts at all levels of government.

Solidarity Pacts

CUPE Locals support each other because we know an injury to one, is an injury to all. We build strong bonds with other locals, and even other unions, to ensure that we are always bargaining from a position of strength.

Meet CUPE

Meet our Ontario Health atHome Members

Meet our Ontario Health atHome Members

11 Videos

News

Let’s set the record straight

My name is Brett Geneau, and I’m a Member Organizer and front-line worker from the Ontario Health atHome (OHAH) Champlain office in Eastern Ontario. As the OHAH representation campaign continues and other unions send out information about CUPE, I wanted to reconnect with you, correct some misrepresentations made by OPSEU, and give you a rundown of the truth about the CUPE advantage. Let’s cut through the noise and show you why CUPE is the best

Read More »
January 29, 2026

When it comes to Liability insurance, you have options

When it comes to protecting our members, CUPE doesn’t cut corners. While other unions offer plans through their union, they don’t tell you that their plans act as top-ups for the employer plans. If you are found at fault, the employer plan will drop you, and likely your unions plan will, too. That could leave you exposed to full legal and financial liability without a place to turn. CUPE has experience supporting workers who need

Read More »
January 29, 2026

Finding the best language is our expertise

After the PSLRTA, the new bargaining units will need to negotiate new collective agreements for Ontario Health atHome workers. Looking at past agreements is useful to see where we started from, but you will need a union with the knowledge, resources, and experience to find the best collective agreement language from the old agreements to form the baseline for the new one. CUPE has an excellent track record for harmonizing collective agreements after mergers, making

Read More »
January 26, 2026

CUPE is fighting the Return to Office Order for Ontario Health atHome workers

On January 5, 2026, Doug Ford’s short-sighted return to office mandate came into effect for all public sector employees in Ontario. On that same day, CUPE members at Ontario Health atHome held a province-wide day of action, taking their lunch breaks out in the bitter cold to draw attention to the impact this policy has on workers, and on the Ontario public we serve. This was a follow-through from our earlier actions. We held a

Read More »
January 22, 2026

Questions for members to consider

When deciding which union to vote for, there are many points to consider. Here are some questions we encourage you to ask all the unions to ensure you get the best representation possible. Dues — What You Pay How much are my dues, how are they calculated, and how does the Local access those funds? At CUPE, our Locals have the autonomy to set their own dues structure. 0.85% is sent to the National Union

Read More »
January 22, 2026

Hybrid works! Stop Doug Ford’s short-sighted Return to Office Policy

Workers at Ontario Health atHome have been ordered back to the office full time as of January 5th, 2026. Despite a reduction in office space since 2020, Doug Ford is ramming through his poorly thought-out policy, risking patient care and trust. Workers at Ontario Health atHome were moved to a hybrid work model before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down, and it has been working. Patients and their caretakers can rely on a calm, quite call

Read More »
December 19, 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

Your wages will be harmonized upward to the highest rate among comparable classifications, no matter where the rate came from or how many people held it.

If you are a member of another Union and your wages are higher than a comparable CUPE member right now, your wages will stay at that higher level. Further, the new members of the now-provincial CUPE local will have their wages raised to that higher level.

CUPE has an amazing track record during prior mergers of harmonizing wages to the highest rate present across the workplaces involved. No other union has this record. 

CUPE is the largest union in the country, representing over 800,000 workers. CUPE represents 300,000 workers in Ontario alone, including 90,000 health care workers. We are the most well-resourced and powerful union in the country.

Yes. CUPE has already successfully negotiated a first collective agreement with Ontario Health. CUPE represents former LHIN workers who were transferred to Ontario Health. CUPE has dealt with Ontario Health since its inception and has bargained with OH. We know OH inside and out. We are familiar with the benefits, vacation, personal days and pay structures that their 3,000 non-union employees receive.

Each Local decides at the local level, democratically, how grievances move forward. CUPE National representatives and legal counsel are there to support the desires of the member and Local. We make sure we present the strength of the grievance and potential implications of arbitration decisions.

CUPE combines local democratic decision making with support and expertise from CUPE National staff.

CUPE has 1,000 staff across the country who specialize in research, law, human rights, workplace health and safety, bargaining, communications, and other specialties. CUPE has 698 offices across the country with a $138 million strike fund.

Dues allow you and your Union to negotiate and defend your rights and create conditions that will allow for a better workplace. In CUPE, there are two portions. National dues are 0.85 percent of base wages and provide your National Staff Representative and specialist services, including legal, research, communications, health & safety, WSIB, pay equity and more.

The Local portion of your dues provides such things as time for your locally elected representatives to work on your behalf, to take important issues to arbitration and cover the cost of local meetings. CUPE’s dues are tax-deductible.

Stay Connected

Stay up to date with CUPE’s Ontario Health atHome campaign’s monthly newsletter.

Contact Us

We are here to make sure you have all the information you need to choose your union.  If you’d like to set up a meeting with CUPE organizers as an individual or as a group, or have any questions, please reach out any time:

Brett Geneau
memberorganize1@cupe.ca