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 our Ontario Health atHome Members

Meet our Ontario Health atHome Members

11 Videos

News

Newsletter Vol. 17: Your October Update

On October 8th, CUPE members returned to the Labour Board ready to fight for Ontario Health atHome workers’ right to vote and move forward to the bargaining table. From the start, CUPE has pushed for the earliest possible vote, so that workers can finally choose their union and begin bargaining for fair wages, job security, and respect.

Read More »
October 17, 2025

Add Your Voice: Stop the creeping privatization in Healthcare

Healthcare is under attack. Conservative and Liberal governments are undermining our public healthcare system and opening the door to the private delivery of healthcare—weakening and undermining our healthcare system. The latest example is seen through the cancellation of hybrid work models to force workers to Return to the Office, which only benefits private real estate developers not workers or the communities we serve. Add your name to keep our healthcare public! Conservative and Liberal provincial

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September 17, 2025

Government reviewing office space in light of Return to Office order

CUPE’s member organizer Brett Geneau spoke with media about the Ford Government’s short-sighted return to office order. Brett Geneau, with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said the review would find the government needed more space. “The real estate is not there, they have closed offices, they’ve sold off some of the real estate that they owned, they’ve stopped some of their leasing contracts,” he said. “We can barely support the three days a week

Read More »
September 5, 2025

Frequently Asked Questions

CUPE is a democracy. At the local level, you elect your leaders, (the co-workers who will represent you at the bargaining table), vote on proposals going to the table and any agreement made there, and even set the local dues rate. You also elect people to represent you at the National Convention, where decisions are made democratically that affect all members. But everything affecting your workplace is made by you and the members of your local.

Your local is supported by an experienced National Staff Representative and a host of specialist services.

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. All dues are tax- deductible.

CUPE’s record is crystal clear: we don’t accept less. In past mergers and integrations, CUPE has successfully secured wage harmonization to the highest rate among comparable classifications no matter where the rate came from or how many people held it.

That means that all workers can trust that CUPE fights to raise the floor, not lower the ceiling.

With over 800,000 members across the country CUPE is the largest public sector union in Canada with the strength, resources, and proven track record to represent Ontario Health atHome workers. CUPE has 1,000 staff, 68 offices, over $100M strike fund, and full bargaining and legal support across the country. At CUPE the members set the priorities and our staff and resources are here to help you achieve those goals.

CUPE has already successfully negotiated a first collective agreement with Ontario Health. CUPE represents former LHIN workers who were transferred to Ontario Health. That means CUPE has real, first-hand experience at the bargaining table with Ontario Health and a proven record of delivering results with that province wide health care employer. Together we will do the same with Ontario Health atHome.

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