Mr. Mark Hancock at the Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities Committee

On April 15th, 2024. See this statement in context.

April 15th, 2024 / 5:05 p.m.

National President, Canadian Union of Public Employees

I'll be very quick.

There are no union members out there who want to strike. When they have a strike, they want to find a solution that works for them and their employers. That's the bottom line.

With 740,000 members, we have strikes. We have 2,100 local unions and 4,000 collective agreements, and a very small percentage end up on strike. That's because workers don't want to strike. They want to get a collective agreement that works for them.

On the numbers in 2023, I blame them on COVID. Workers were coming out of COVID. They were frustrated. We were seeing the cost of living skyrocket. That's what 2023 was about.

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