The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) will be joining the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) member community in 2021. On December 11, CLC’s Executive Committee officially approved CAPE’s request to join, making CAPE its 55th member.
CAPE’s 18,500 economists, policy analysts, statisticians, interpreters, translators and terminologists will join more than 3 million workers represented by the CLC across the country. The CLC is the largest labour organization in Canada, bringing together many national and international unions, provincial and territorial federations of labour and community-based labour councils.
CAPE was born out of the 2003 merger of two unions that had joined their efforts for several years, particularly around the sensitive issue of pensions. At the time, the Social Science Employees Association (SSEA) and the Canadian Union of Professional and Technical Employees (CUPTE), which represented the TR group, decided to form what has now become the third largest union in the federal public service of Canada.
In recent years, members have expressed an increased interest in working more closely with the CLC to unite the two organizations’ strengths on issues of common interest.
In December 2020, CAPE members voted in favour of becoming an affiliate, and soon after presented their request to join to the CLC Executive Committee.
“We believe the Canadian union community is more influential and employees’ interests are better protected when bonds between us are stronger,” said Greg Phillips, President of CAPE. “We are thrilled to become a member of the wide CLC family and look forward to a mutually beneficial partnership; the year 2021 will be full of challenges that we can better tackle together.”
“We are very excited to have CAPE join the CLC as a new affiliate in a year that has brought the labour movement together to push for a worker-centred recovery. CAPE members will make the voice of labour stronger,” said Hassan Yussuff, President of the Canadian Labour Congress. “This pandemic has demonstrated the need for collective action repeatedly and Canada’s unions have risen to the occasion by working to ensure federal government support for workers and their families and help protect those who have lost their jobs due to COVID.”
CAPE’s affiliation will be officialised at the CLC’s Canadian Council scheduled in early 2021.
