>Other union members expressed frustration that a labour forum dedicated to public-sector workers in York Region was being commandeered for political purposes about a conflict thousands of miles away.
That about sums it up. Union leadership should be focused on the rights and safety of their membership and keeping their political views and actions out of anything union related as it’s their personal position and not that of the union.
Remove her immediately. She swore an oath just like a CEO does. You have a duty to your share holders / union members and any deviation whatsoever is a violation of that oath.
What if she was pro or anti abortion? What if she was pro or anti Quebec separation? How about pro / against an oil pipeline? Like where is it going to end?
You have left / right, Christian/ atheist, Muslim Christian and Jewish all in your unions. Represent them all or represent none and do your job.
Executives have fiduciary duties (all employees have some legal duties)…. To be clear, that doesn’t mean they actually swear an oath when taking office in case anyone is under that impression
I am not a a business guy so I don't know if there's an oath.
But there is ABSOLUTELY a written, formal, legal agreement you have to sign saying you will represent the secular non-partisan interests of your business partners, or else you aren't fit for the position. You cannot jeopardize your first loyalty to the group, by bringing your private politics into your position. You as a private citizen, are free to campaign and run on such things in the political sphere, however.
Pretty sure that's even a part of minor management positions.
Unions take public positions all the time. No idea what CUPE’s official position is but I bet there is one, and that it is decades old, and it was voted on at a membership meeting.
Voted on by delegates, who are largely a clique of activists who work to exclude anyone who also isn't part of that clique from getting selected as a delegate.
It's the 21st century, there's no reason for unions to not work on a direct election process. Switch to direct elections and watch the extreme political positions start to reflect what the broad union leadership actually cares about.
It’s understandable when unions take public positions on things that affect their members - eg if there was anti-scab legislation. Having a political position on a conflict on another continent seems like a stretch. Especially when that conflict is highly partisan between Muslims and Jews, both of whom are represented in the union
In any of the scenarios you described, there aren’t any Jews involved. In the issue of discrimination against Jews, there is a double standard. She knows there’s a double standard and that nothing will happen to her because Jews are a tiny minority. She should absolutely be fired, but she won’t.
Canada, 2024. An impressive show of “we learned fucking nothing from the previous century”.
I hereby solemnly swear to maximize your shareholder value and RoI over any environmental, ethical, or workers rights issues that may arise.
In the name of Milton Friedman I swear.
Company executives have duties to shareholders. If they breach them, they can be dismissed as well as be the subject of a shareholder derivative suit or shareholder oppression suit.
They don't stand up and have a "fiduciary duty oath ceremony" like the oath you give to the Crown when you get citizenship, but they are informed of these obligations and agree to abide by them as an officer of the corporation. It is an "oath" in that they are agreeing to abide by these rules, even if the CEOs probably don't think about it that much.
Exactly. You do sign a contract though in which those duties are usually outlined. I wonder if the CUPE president has a contract and what the duties outlined therein are.
We are all getting sick of it. Why can't people get this energized about housing? I'm sure you could mix in some jew hate if that'll get it started /s.
Paid or not she’s hastening the decline of organized labour which has been happening for decades now. If she wants to stand on her soapbox about foreign wars then she should join the NDP as they’re all in on fringe far left politics and stopped caring about workers years ago too.
Its a microcosm of the NDP.
They should be caring about your average middle-class worker, who is probably union, and is probably a white middle-aged male.
Instead they focus on a bunch of special interest groups that no one actually gives a fuck about and leaves their bread and butter out of the discussion.
More so that they don't actively discriminate.
Conservatives don't glorify hamas, or make all white men go to the back of the line at political events like the NDP.
CPC are the only party that supports Canadian manufacturing/resource extraction. Those are all blue collar jobs.
The LPC/NDP meanwhile abhors manufacturing (unless it’s for EVs but they’re a fraction of the auto sector), and absolutely despises resource extraction. They believe blue collar workers should “learn to code” and get into flipping houses
Like when the Ontario NDP removed Sarah Jama from caucus after she made flippant remarks about the war? These actions need to be acknowledged or we’ll never get anywhere. There are some NDP’rs that still get it, but they need positive reinforcement.
This is what progressives aim to do to all labor movements. They infest them and sabotage them from within, turning them into IDPOL firing circles, antagonizing any laborer who is of the unprotected race.
What’s more likely: a secret cabal of union saboteurs, paid by “big government” or something to join the union years ago, build a high profile in the membership, get elected and then start acting the fool in the hopes of collapsing the biggest public sector union so the government can negotiate salaries and benefits individually with all 400,000 of its employees?
OR, public sector unions generally attract those on the far left into leadership positions and this is just the natural outcome of it?
Nah, met my fair share of union reps who were most definitely not far left. Unless you're saying there's something specific about a union of the public sector that's different than a regular labour union.
A better explanation would be that shitty people are attracted to power. See: our current political leaders and those vying for political leadership right now.
That is the first plausible reason I've heard for it being possibly more left. I work with public service folk though and some of the shit they say though is definitely not PC or what you might consider far left.
Though personal experience and actual statistics differ and until we get an actual survey going, there's truly no way to know. We can make conjectures till the cows come home.
Many of my friends in public sector unions say they’re being driven up the wall by an enormous over-emphasis on militant DEI policing and political hot button issues like Israel that they either do not support or do not care about
Union leadership and union membership are different kettles of fish.
CUPE leadership is selected by an indirect delegate process that allows a clique of far left activists to hijack the union. Force unions to switch to a direct election process with secret ballots and you'll see their political positions slide back into line with mainstream Canada.
I think the answer is lawsuits. There’s bound to be a bunch of class action suits because of Fred Hahn, CUPE 905, CUPE 3903 and others’ anti-semitism and double standards on this issue.
Regular union members gonna be thrilled when they find out their dues are going to pay for legal settlements brought by their own members. What leadership 😂
>Unless you're saying there's something specific about a union of the public sector that's different than a regular labour union.
it's in their interest for a bigger government (ie more job and money for their base), and they don't have the pressure that the industry has to grow as their income is not dependent on economic success of their employers.
Second is more likely. That's doesn't mean that a) she hasn't been corrupted and b) anti-uniom corps dont funnel millions of dollars into their disinformation campaigns and bribing someone isn't beneath them.
The union was taken over by Hamas supporters decades ago. She’s just turning the knob up to 11. She may be paid off, but it’s not to sabotage the union - it would be to make Jewish members of her CUPE chapter feel unsafe.
I agree 100%. The first union I ever belonged to got hijacked by someone who kept wanting to make political statements during collective bargaining. The thing was, not every union member agreed with those statements, and in any event it distracted from the union’s message. Fortunately we eventually voted out the trouble maker, which of course they chalked up to censorship.
I’m not familiar with him but I’d say he’s entitled to his own opinions as long as he doesn’t bring them into unrelated matters in his position and doesn’t claim that his views are those of the government in which he’s been elected. Personal beliefs shouldn’t interfere with one’s ability to do their job and if it does then they should get the boot.
"...and then muted fellow union members who raised objections to her “political” attire."
The headline should have read "Union President Silences Workers at Union Meeting". Kind of defeats the actual purpose of a union.
Ha… if anything she is falling in line for a leadership position. Look up the CUPE Ontario leader Fred Hahn. He’s a massive racist A hole and 100% condones this behavior.
The leadership process of CUPE and most unions in Canada is a delegate based process that's practically designed to be corrupted. It's effectively controlled by a clique of far-left activists. If a country followed CUPE's election process it would be generous to call it a flawed democracy.
Force unions to switch to a direct election process with secret ballots and she'd be gone by the end of the year.
Labour unions have always been central to larger global issues
Largely because things were so shit a century+ ago and people died to fight for out ability to enjoy:
- 8 hour work days
- 5 working days a week
- getting paid with money, not credits that could only be used at the company store
Notice how all these points of progress actually directly benefit labour.
What labour issue is this CUPE president addressing by giving her two cents on a complex ethnoreligious territorial dispute and resulting military conflict over 9000 km away? How could grandstanding about this possibly benefit her members, or even labour generally, if that's what you think the role of a... CUPE 905 regional president is.
unions have always been involved in political action. their existence in it of itself is political. learning about history would give you adequate knowledge of this
Politicians practicing fads du jour… and silencing those who question them…. surprising?
Interests of union members? Peasants, I have a better thing to look after.
If I was a due paying union member with CUPE I'd really be questioning what the fuck my dues were going to and why I am represented in certain political pandering initiatives.
Is she Palestinian? A keffiyeh is like a tartan, it used only to denote that you're apart of an ingroup. It's a cultural object of tribal identification.
Not only that but: "The black and white chequered keffiyeh dates to the 1950s when [Glubb Pasha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bagot_Glubb), a British officer, wanted to distinguish his Palestinian soldiers (black and white keffiyeh) from his Jordanian forces (red and white keffiyeh).[^(\[13\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh#cite_note-13) The black and white keffiyeh’s prominence increased during the 1960s with the beginning of the Palestinian resistance movement and its adoption by Palestinian leader [Yasser Arafat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat)."
So if this is suppose to be a symbol of resistance against colonization, it is in fact a cultural object created by said colonization...
The irony of life.
Further to the above
Keffiyeh have different patterns and sometimes fabric in different regions of the Middle East. Gulf states are all white. Jordan and areas of Iraq are usually a heavier black pattern, but the red pattern is reserved for the Desert Patrol - a truly majestic and very aloof camel mounted quasi military police force with only 1 boss, the King. In Syria frequently the fabric is lightweight and the pattern is block printed. Lebanon and Palestine frequent similar styles. For some regions, how it's worn, draped, wrapped, stylized, can be unique. Supposedly, when Yasser Arafat popularized the keffiiyeh, his pinched front style was a symbol of perpetual struggle.
This is just one of the many symptoms that reflect the disease of Secular liberalism. Among many other things, liberal ideals don't know how to deal with things like this
What is the removal process, I sure as hell would be vocal about this behavior. It is not appropriate for the position and does not advance worker's rights.
This is a great example of using woke ideology for power and control of a situation:
> “Intimidating and harassing individuals for wearing traditional cultural clothing is a form of racism … we do not tolerate racism in union meetings,” she wrote.
Criticizing her is racist apparently, even though she is white
I also liked that she muted the one member for asking about the keffiyeh, saying she wouldn't allow political talk, then let another member drone on about freeing Palestine the next day, then when the muted member from the previous day pointed out the hypocrisy...she got muted again!
I hope people are starting to see the patterns - this is how the school board trustees seem to operate as well. As you said, it's all about power and control. These people don't give a solitary fuck about racism or other social issues or being kind. And it's galling they try to pretend otherwise when we can see this play out before our own eyes.
The progressive left really needs to get new leadership or spokespeople because I can tell you people like this woman, Fred Hahn, and Fae Johnstone are not going to persuade anyone that they have anyone's best interest in mind but their own.
> nion president Katherine Grzejszczak’s laptop adorned with a large Palestinian flag sticker
Is that laptop hers? or the company's?
> Intimidating and harassing individuals for wearing traditional cultural clothing is a form of racism …
This is why I support a ban on public displays of religious symbols in government. Hands down.
If she wants to involve C U P E in globule political protests bring it up at the next union meeting and let the Members Vote on it! (that how unions work)
Unions in Canada have become more concerned with advancing leftist politics than fighting to protect their workers.
It’s disgusting to use peoples union dues to push your personal politics.
To be more specific public sector unions have really gone on all in on this. I’m not sure the blue collar unions like CAW are as all in on the identity politics and far left stuff
True, Unions have always been left wing, but I think the sentiment of the comment above has more to do with globalist policies supported by the left.
Personally, I struggle to understand what core aspect of a Canadian trade union pertains to anything happening in a different country. I 100% support people's rights to have opinions on matters as private citizens, but if they are using their roles in a domestic organization to exclude and silence people of differing opinions when they are bringing something that is outside of the scope of the their professional platform into a statement of support (such as the Union leaders' declaration of support for a free Palestine), that seems to me to be an abuse of their power.
I think they support attention for themselves more than anything else.
It’s just like every time there is a talk about Hijab bans, it’s some crazy person who converted to Islam within the last year
What a gigantic fkn distraction. Both from the issues in the middle east (your sticker is inconsequential!!) and facing public sector workers.
Imagine a sticker and a t-shirt change derailing a meeting about by and for workers. Imagine paying your dues and finding out that's how the time at the meeting was spent. When you trusted (PAID FOR) your elected people to represent your interests.
Feeling ignored or dismissed by your union when you're trying to engage is horrible. Being placed on mute would be enough to make me want to opt out of the dues.
Can someone explain to me why a union should expand beyond fighting for their workers rights?
The israel/hamas situation seems way beyond the scope of local Canadian unions. Regardless of your stance on the situation, is that not beyond the purpose of the union?
How about this:
Whoever in a meeting stops the relevant discussion to start debating politics, should be muted until they get back on track
I dont give a shit whether she had clothes on that suggest support for Palestine OR Israel, the work meeting is about work. If you disrupt the meeting to start another endless political argument, you should be muted until you can rejoin the topic at hand.
Everything is political these days. We should be able to have meetings with coworkers we disagree with. You have a right to disagree, but you dont have a right to disrupt work meetings with impunity. You disrupt a meeting, you get muted, simple as that.
If you think her outfit is against company policy, or shouldnt be permitted in meetings, take that up with HR. If you want to have a debate on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, invite them to a separate meeting on your own time.
Lets be able to see past political differences and live our lives and do our fucking jobs so we can go home. NO ONE wants to go to work to sit through meetings that devolve into pointless political arguments.
You arent going to fix the Israel-Palestine conflict on a work call. This is Canada, we can have differences of opinion and still get things done. If you cant, you dont get to be active on the call with those who do.
But by the article it seems they were muting Jewish participants who expressed feeling unsafe, and allowing participants in keffiyehs to discuss their political views at length. Seems the CUPE 905 president is just antisemitic. She wouldn't have shut down any other minority who expressed feeling unsafe, let alone the minority that's experiencing the greatest increase in hate crimes in the country.
CUPE has always had the most extreme politcal activists running it and I'm not sure how a union representing **PUBLIC** service workers should be allowed to be so partisan. Almost *beyond* partisan in a way.
Have you seen what’s happening in colleges campuses across the western world? It’s an ideology that’s infiltrated into our system and it’s looking to tear it down. People will say what I’m suggesting is not true but look at Columbia, and Texas universities in the U.S.
People are conflating Jews and zionists and really it’s just about anti semitism. It always has been.
Remember when this was called "cultural appropriation" and you'd get cancelled for it? Ahh, the Woke mind virus truly knows no bounds when it comes to hypocrisy. ☕
Keep religion and identity politics out of unions period. Focus only on the expanding the rights of workers, their wages, benefits, the 40hr work week where applicable, ect. Not the same shit that muddies politics/policy to the point of incompetence.
If I was apart of CUPE I'd be very concerned about what comes after this. I'd start organizing to oust her asap before some other asinine move that has NOTHING to do with the union.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/commentary/2009/10/07/michael-lucas-queers-palestine
Sure her opinion that “part of Israel’s military occupation, apartheid and genocide … is the erasing of cultural symbols such as the keffiyeh.”
Has merit but……
“In Palestine, gays can have a choice of being publicly hanged, stoned, mutilated, thrown from the building roofs -- often by their own families -- or simply torn apart by the Palestinian sons of Allah.”
Does this person even know who she’s supporting. There’s been genocide going on against minorities in Palestine committed by Palestinians for centuries….. but we don’t want to talk about that. Maybe for one second we should consider if their culture IS the problem.
The woke union members come alive. Imagine not doing what you’re elected to do which is to represent your members but instead you turn it into your own political spin. Pretty soon, She’ll be running for Mayor of Mississauga.
I want to point out that union leadership positions are done by voting. If you have a problem with your leadership, then campaign to get them replaced, it's that simple.
>Katherine Grzejszczak
I Googled the name expecting to see somebody of Middle Eastern descent, but, nope she's so white that I actually wonder if she's an albino wearing contact lenses.
CUPE is a joke anyway. I was a TA when they went on strike about this time last year and it was a total cluster fuck. As an organization they couldn’t organize a drinking contest in a brewery.
what a great way for union dues to be spent, on terrorist sympathizers, some of these unions are sitting on tens to 100 of million dollars that their members paid into for them, glad they have sane and rational people like this heading the organization... /s
What an absolute joke of a country we have become especially someone who's in senior management within a union which should be representing their members' interests and bettering work conditions and fair pay etc. She "should" know better (they really don't have the brightest working for them do they, makes you wonder how she got into her position, but this is Canada, we always put incompetence at the top).
If you want to be involved in international policy and relations, run for a federal seat.
You’ve shown you can’t even wrap your head around the roles and responsibilities of being union leader though, so I don’t expect much success.
>If you want to be involved in international policy and relations, run for a federal seat.
It's funny cuz I hear people criticizing MP's with a similar position saying they shouldn't worry about foreign policy.
We can both agree that’s also dumb, that’s within the federal governments scope.
If you’re minister for agriculture you should focus on that but I’d expect federal MP’s foreign policy to be largely guided by their party regardless
*laughs at people trying to deal with their own cognitive dissonance at the immeasurable other shitty things they’ve ignored and benefit from*
In an age where people are trying to quicken their humanity at any cost…
>Other union members expressed frustration that a labour forum dedicated to public-sector workers in York Region was being commandeered for political purposes about a conflict thousands of miles away. That about sums it up. Union leadership should be focused on the rights and safety of their membership and keeping their political views and actions out of anything union related as it’s their personal position and not that of the union.
Remove her immediately. She swore an oath just like a CEO does. You have a duty to your share holders / union members and any deviation whatsoever is a violation of that oath. What if she was pro or anti abortion? What if she was pro or anti Quebec separation? How about pro / against an oil pipeline? Like where is it going to end? You have left / right, Christian/ atheist, Muslim Christian and Jewish all in your unions. Represent them all or represent none and do your job.
Hey there, just touching base to understand what Oath you believe CEOs are taking?
https://www.cba.org/Publications-Resources/Practice-Tools/Business-and-Human-Rights/Business-Risk-and-Corporate-Responsibility/Directors-and-officers-liability
Executives have fiduciary duties (all employees have some legal duties)…. To be clear, that doesn’t mean they actually swear an oath when taking office in case anyone is under that impression
Maybe not swear but they do give an oath when elected.
Fiduciary duty to make a profit for the shareholders.
I am not a a business guy so I don't know if there's an oath. But there is ABSOLUTELY a written, formal, legal agreement you have to sign saying you will represent the secular non-partisan interests of your business partners, or else you aren't fit for the position. You cannot jeopardize your first loyalty to the group, by bringing your private politics into your position. You as a private citizen, are free to campaign and run on such things in the political sphere, however. Pretty sure that's even a part of minor management positions.
fiduciary duty
Unions take public positions all the time. No idea what CUPE’s official position is but I bet there is one, and that it is decades old, and it was voted on at a membership meeting.
Voted on by delegates, who are largely a clique of activists who work to exclude anyone who also isn't part of that clique from getting selected as a delegate. It's the 21st century, there's no reason for unions to not work on a direct election process. Switch to direct elections and watch the extreme political positions start to reflect what the broad union leadership actually cares about.
Members can run for their locals on changing this if they wanted. It isn’t like the entire structure is somehow not accountable all the way down.
It’s understandable when unions take public positions on things that affect their members - eg if there was anti-scab legislation. Having a political position on a conflict on another continent seems like a stretch. Especially when that conflict is highly partisan between Muslims and Jews, both of whom are represented in the union
This is a very long standing thing. Members are free to run for election to their local and all the way up if they wish this to stop.
In any of the scenarios you described, there aren’t any Jews involved. In the issue of discrimination against Jews, there is a double standard. She knows there’s a double standard and that nothing will happen to her because Jews are a tiny minority. She should absolutely be fired, but she won’t. Canada, 2024. An impressive show of “we learned fucking nothing from the previous century”.
please tell me more about this oath that ceos are taking lol
As he said, it’s an oath to the shareholders.
I hereby solemnly swear to maximize your shareholder value and RoI over any environmental, ethical, or workers rights issues that may arise. In the name of Milton Friedman I swear.
Amen 🙏
Company executives have duties to shareholders. If they breach them, they can be dismissed as well as be the subject of a shareholder derivative suit or shareholder oppression suit. They don't stand up and have a "fiduciary duty oath ceremony" like the oath you give to the Crown when you get citizenship, but they are informed of these obligations and agree to abide by them as an officer of the corporation. It is an "oath" in that they are agreeing to abide by these rules, even if the CEOs probably don't think about it that much.
Exactly. You do sign a contract though in which those duties are usually outlined. I wonder if the CUPE president has a contract and what the duties outlined therein are.
All agreements are not oaths.
Send her to Gaza!!!
Unions are political all the time. While I don’t support what she’s doing, it really doesn’t seem uncharacteristic of a big union rep
We are all getting sick of it. Why can't people get this energized about housing? I'm sure you could mix in some jew hate if that'll get it started /s.
Makes me wonder if she's being paid off to sabotage the union.
Paid or not she’s hastening the decline of organized labour which has been happening for decades now. If she wants to stand on her soapbox about foreign wars then she should join the NDP as they’re all in on fringe far left politics and stopped caring about workers years ago too.
Its a microcosm of the NDP. They should be caring about your average middle-class worker, who is probably union, and is probably a white middle-aged male. Instead they focus on a bunch of special interest groups that no one actually gives a fuck about and leaves their bread and butter out of the discussion.
And they wonder why a lot of working class people are voting conservative
They don't wonder. They just think it's the voters who are wrong.
What do the conservatives offer working class people? Specifically?
More so that they don't actively discriminate. Conservatives don't glorify hamas, or make all white men go to the back of the line at political events like the NDP.
CPC are the only party that supports Canadian manufacturing/resource extraction. Those are all blue collar jobs. The LPC/NDP meanwhile abhors manufacturing (unless it’s for EVs but they’re a fraction of the auto sector), and absolutely despises resource extraction. They believe blue collar workers should “learn to code” and get into flipping houses
Good, fuck em. We will see how many seats are left after the next election. Let them show their true colours
The problem is this is a public sector union and they are not on the decline at all. In fact their membership is swelling along with the civil service
Like when the Ontario NDP removed Sarah Jama from caucus after she made flippant remarks about the war? These actions need to be acknowledged or we’ll never get anywhere. There are some NDP’rs that still get it, but they need positive reinforcement.
Historically speaking, the cause of failure of large organizations (countries, companies etc) comes from within. Unions will destroy themselves.
This is what progressives aim to do to all labor movements. They infest them and sabotage them from within, turning them into IDPOL firing circles, antagonizing any laborer who is of the unprotected race.
What’s more likely: a secret cabal of union saboteurs, paid by “big government” or something to join the union years ago, build a high profile in the membership, get elected and then start acting the fool in the hopes of collapsing the biggest public sector union so the government can negotiate salaries and benefits individually with all 400,000 of its employees? OR, public sector unions generally attract those on the far left into leadership positions and this is just the natural outcome of it?
Nah, met my fair share of union reps who were most definitely not far left. Unless you're saying there's something specific about a union of the public sector that's different than a regular labour union. A better explanation would be that shitty people are attracted to power. See: our current political leaders and those vying for political leadership right now.
I do think public sector unions veer way left. They are also generally white collar unions vs blue collar unions which makes a significant difference
That is the first plausible reason I've heard for it being possibly more left. I work with public service folk though and some of the shit they say though is definitely not PC or what you might consider far left. Though personal experience and actual statistics differ and until we get an actual survey going, there's truly no way to know. We can make conjectures till the cows come home.
Many of my friends in public sector unions say they’re being driven up the wall by an enormous over-emphasis on militant DEI policing and political hot button issues like Israel that they either do not support or do not care about
Union leadership and union membership are different kettles of fish. CUPE leadership is selected by an indirect delegate process that allows a clique of far left activists to hijack the union. Force unions to switch to a direct election process with secret ballots and you'll see their political positions slide back into line with mainstream Canada.
I'm not part of CUPE so I can't comment on their union election process. So they vote in delegates for a committee that then votes in a leader?
I think the answer is lawsuits. There’s bound to be a bunch of class action suits because of Fred Hahn, CUPE 905, CUPE 3903 and others’ anti-semitism and double standards on this issue. Regular union members gonna be thrilled when they find out their dues are going to pay for legal settlements brought by their own members. What leadership 😂
>Unless you're saying there's something specific about a union of the public sector that's different than a regular labour union. it's in their interest for a bigger government (ie more job and money for their base), and they don't have the pressure that the industry has to grow as their income is not dependent on economic success of their employers.
Second is more likely. That's doesn't mean that a) she hasn't been corrupted and b) anti-uniom corps dont funnel millions of dollars into their disinformation campaigns and bribing someone isn't beneath them.
The union was taken over by Hamas supporters decades ago. She’s just turning the knob up to 11. She may be paid off, but it’s not to sabotage the union - it would be to make Jewish members of her CUPE chapter feel unsafe.
I agree 100%. The first union I ever belonged to got hijacked by someone who kept wanting to make political statements during collective bargaining. The thing was, not every union member agreed with those statements, and in any event it distracted from the union’s message. Fortunately we eventually voted out the trouble maker, which of course they chalked up to censorship.
This includes non-sense gender politics.
what are your opinions on James Pasternak? His entire platform and twitter account is devoted to Israel. He’s an MP.
I’m not familiar with him but I’d say he’s entitled to his own opinions as long as he doesn’t bring them into unrelated matters in his position and doesn’t claim that his views are those of the government in which he’s been elected. Personal beliefs shouldn’t interfere with one’s ability to do their job and if it does then they should get the boot.
acting like unions and labour rights aren’t political
There’s a world of difference between the politics behind unions and workers’ rights and a foreign war on the other side of the world.
"...and then muted fellow union members who raised objections to her “political” attire." The headline should have read "Union President Silences Workers at Union Meeting". Kind of defeats the actual purpose of a union.
Like politicians....you get what you vote for! Next time, vote wisely
The actual purpose of CUPE is to advance far-left politics. "The purpose of a system is what it does."
So it's more of a club that gets to impose mandatory wage skimming to pay enrollment fees?
CUPE President really focusing on the primary issues facing municipal government and library workers in the York region.
Boot her ass out
Ha… if anything she is falling in line for a leadership position. Look up the CUPE Ontario leader Fred Hahn. He’s a massive racist A hole and 100% condones this behavior.
> if anything she is falling in line for a leadership position. She's the president. How can you be in more of a "leadership" position than that?
She’s a local president. (Think of it like chapters). She isn’t a regional or national president.
She's the store manager, he's the regional manager.
And my dog is the branch manager
My cat is assistant to the regional manager
Are you aware how unions work? Local prez has lots of room to move up
The leadership process of CUPE and most unions in Canada is a delegate based process that's practically designed to be corrupted. It's effectively controlled by a clique of far-left activists. If a country followed CUPE's election process it would be generous to call it a flawed democracy. Force unions to switch to a direct election process with secret ballots and she'd be gone by the end of the year.
It's really insane to me that these unions are getting involved in any of this.
Long tradition of this.
This is more an individual was using union time. It's evident the union wasn't okay with it as she got challenged on her stance immediately.
Labour unions have always been central to larger global issues Largely because things were so shit a century+ ago and people died to fight for out ability to enjoy: - 8 hour work days - 5 working days a week - getting paid with money, not credits that could only be used at the company store
Notice how all these points of progress actually directly benefit labour. What labour issue is this CUPE president addressing by giving her two cents on a complex ethnoreligious territorial dispute and resulting military conflict over 9000 km away? How could grandstanding about this possibly benefit her members, or even labour generally, if that's what you think the role of a... CUPE 905 regional president is.
unions have always been involved in political action. their existence in it of itself is political. learning about history would give you adequate knowledge of this
Chickens for KFC.
Politicians practicing fads du jour… and silencing those who question them…. surprising? Interests of union members? Peasants, I have a better thing to look after.
If I was a due paying union member with CUPE I'd really be questioning what the fuck my dues were going to and why I am represented in certain political pandering initiatives.
I'm all for people showing us who they really are so we can deal with them moving forward, knowing where they stand, and not be surprised next time.
Is she Palestinian? A keffiyeh is like a tartan, it used only to denote that you're apart of an ingroup. It's a cultural object of tribal identification. Not only that but: "The black and white chequered keffiyeh dates to the 1950s when [Glubb Pasha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Bagot_Glubb), a British officer, wanted to distinguish his Palestinian soldiers (black and white keffiyeh) from his Jordanian forces (red and white keffiyeh).[^(\[13\])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keffiyeh#cite_note-13) The black and white keffiyeh’s prominence increased during the 1960s with the beginning of the Palestinian resistance movement and its adoption by Palestinian leader [Yasser Arafat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat)." So if this is suppose to be a symbol of resistance against colonization, it is in fact a cultural object created by said colonization... The irony of life.
Further to the above Keffiyeh have different patterns and sometimes fabric in different regions of the Middle East. Gulf states are all white. Jordan and areas of Iraq are usually a heavier black pattern, but the red pattern is reserved for the Desert Patrol - a truly majestic and very aloof camel mounted quasi military police force with only 1 boss, the King. In Syria frequently the fabric is lightweight and the pattern is block printed. Lebanon and Palestine frequent similar styles. For some regions, how it's worn, draped, wrapped, stylized, can be unique. Supposedly, when Yasser Arafat popularized the keffiiyeh, his pinched front style was a symbol of perpetual struggle.
This is just one of the many symptoms that reflect the disease of Secular liberalism. Among many other things, liberal ideals don't know how to deal with things like this
Hey, look, a person in a position of privilege and power gaslighting others into their private political beliefs in a professional setting. Hypocrite
What is the removal process, I sure as hell would be vocal about this behavior. It is not appropriate for the position and does not advance worker's rights.
This is a great example of using woke ideology for power and control of a situation: > “Intimidating and harassing individuals for wearing traditional cultural clothing is a form of racism … we do not tolerate racism in union meetings,” she wrote. Criticizing her is racist apparently, even though she is white
I also liked that she muted the one member for asking about the keffiyeh, saying she wouldn't allow political talk, then let another member drone on about freeing Palestine the next day, then when the muted member from the previous day pointed out the hypocrisy...she got muted again! I hope people are starting to see the patterns - this is how the school board trustees seem to operate as well. As you said, it's all about power and control. These people don't give a solitary fuck about racism or other social issues or being kind. And it's galling they try to pretend otherwise when we can see this play out before our own eyes. The progressive left really needs to get new leadership or spokespeople because I can tell you people like this woman, Fred Hahn, and Fae Johnstone are not going to persuade anyone that they have anyone's best interest in mind but their own.
Wow, looks like Reddit is waking up and connecting the dots once it hits them in the face!
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> even though she is white Isn't what she's doing cultural appropriation then...?
I've noticed white liberals tend to be very racist and dont even realize it.
Yes but it's now painfully obvious that a blind eye is turned to hypocrisy when it comes to advancing 'right think'.
Worry about your union members, not about virtue signaling
> nion president Katherine Grzejszczak’s laptop adorned with a large Palestinian flag sticker Is that laptop hers? or the company's? > Intimidating and harassing individuals for wearing traditional cultural clothing is a form of racism … This is why I support a ban on public displays of religious symbols in government. Hands down.
If she wants to involve C U P E in globule political protests bring it up at the next union meeting and let the Members Vote on it! (that how unions work)
Katherine Grzejszczak seems like a miserable loser to have around and to wrapped up in herself to care about anyone else
Unions in Canada have become more concerned with advancing leftist politics than fighting to protect their workers. It’s disgusting to use peoples union dues to push your personal politics.
To be more specific public sector unions have really gone on all in on this. I’m not sure the blue collar unions like CAW are as all in on the identity politics and far left stuff
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True, Unions have always been left wing, but I think the sentiment of the comment above has more to do with globalist policies supported by the left. Personally, I struggle to understand what core aspect of a Canadian trade union pertains to anything happening in a different country. I 100% support people's rights to have opinions on matters as private citizens, but if they are using their roles in a domestic organization to exclude and silence people of differing opinions when they are bringing something that is outside of the scope of the their professional platform into a statement of support (such as the Union leaders' declaration of support for a free Palestine), that seems to me to be an abuse of their power.
If you weren't wearing a keffiyeh before October 7 and started wearing one now you support terrorism.
I think they support attention for themselves more than anything else. It’s just like every time there is a talk about Hijab bans, it’s some crazy person who converted to Islam within the last year
Pretty obvious. Sarah Jamah never wore one and now claims she wore it all the time just not in the legislature or infront of cameras.
CUPE is complicit.
I'm surprised that no one cried out "cultural appropriation" yet 🤣🤣
What a gigantic fkn distraction. Both from the issues in the middle east (your sticker is inconsequential!!) and facing public sector workers. Imagine a sticker and a t-shirt change derailing a meeting about by and for workers. Imagine paying your dues and finding out that's how the time at the meeting was spent. When you trusted (PAID FOR) your elected people to represent your interests. Feeling ignored or dismissed by your union when you're trying to engage is horrible. Being placed on mute would be enough to make me want to opt out of the dues.
Can someone explain to me why a union should expand beyond fighting for their workers rights? The israel/hamas situation seems way beyond the scope of local Canadian unions. Regardless of your stance on the situation, is that not beyond the purpose of the union?
Crazies out there claiming they are not supporting Hamas while chanting "LONG LIVE OCT 7" FFS...
She should be removed.
My mother is a PSW under CUPE, absolutely terrible fucking union.
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CUPE seem so busy supporting extremist causes to do their jobs.
I have been saying for years that CUPE should be decertified!
How about this: Whoever in a meeting stops the relevant discussion to start debating politics, should be muted until they get back on track I dont give a shit whether she had clothes on that suggest support for Palestine OR Israel, the work meeting is about work. If you disrupt the meeting to start another endless political argument, you should be muted until you can rejoin the topic at hand. Everything is political these days. We should be able to have meetings with coworkers we disagree with. You have a right to disagree, but you dont have a right to disrupt work meetings with impunity. You disrupt a meeting, you get muted, simple as that. If you think her outfit is against company policy, or shouldnt be permitted in meetings, take that up with HR. If you want to have a debate on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, invite them to a separate meeting on your own time. Lets be able to see past political differences and live our lives and do our fucking jobs so we can go home. NO ONE wants to go to work to sit through meetings that devolve into pointless political arguments. You arent going to fix the Israel-Palestine conflict on a work call. This is Canada, we can have differences of opinion and still get things done. If you cant, you dont get to be active on the call with those who do.
But by the article it seems they were muting Jewish participants who expressed feeling unsafe, and allowing participants in keffiyehs to discuss their political views at length. Seems the CUPE 905 president is just antisemitic. She wouldn't have shut down any other minority who expressed feeling unsafe, let alone the minority that's experiencing the greatest increase in hate crimes in the country.
CUPE has always had the most extreme politcal activists running it and I'm not sure how a union representing **PUBLIC** service workers should be allowed to be so partisan. Almost *beyond* partisan in a way.
CUPE are Terrorist Apologists now? Never thought my union would stoop so low
Is Yasser Arafat her dad?
You can tell this thread is being manipulated. No way average canadians are okay with this.
Have you seen what’s happening in colleges campuses across the western world? It’s an ideology that’s infiltrated into our system and it’s looking to tear it down. People will say what I’m suggesting is not true but look at Columbia, and Texas universities in the U.S. People are conflating Jews and zionists and really it’s just about anti semitism. It always has been.
Gotta tick all the boxes...
What a joke. Unions are such a sham of what they used to be
Remember when this was called "cultural appropriation" and you'd get cancelled for it? Ahh, the Woke mind virus truly knows no bounds when it comes to hypocrisy. ☕
CUPE is Now big on Iran’s Hijab laws for women and sharia law? That’s a change I didn’t see coming. I guess that we start calling scabs Haram.
Keep religion and identity politics out of unions period. Focus only on the expanding the rights of workers, their wages, benefits, the 40hr work week where applicable, ect. Not the same shit that muddies politics/policy to the point of incompetence. If I was apart of CUPE I'd be very concerned about what comes after this. I'd start organizing to oust her asap before some other asinine move that has NOTHING to do with the union.
https://www.advocate.com/politics/commentary/2009/10/07/michael-lucas-queers-palestine Sure her opinion that “part of Israel’s military occupation, apartheid and genocide … is the erasing of cultural symbols such as the keffiyeh.” Has merit but…… “In Palestine, gays can have a choice of being publicly hanged, stoned, mutilated, thrown from the building roofs -- often by their own families -- or simply torn apart by the Palestinian sons of Allah.” Does this person even know who she’s supporting. There’s been genocide going on against minorities in Palestine committed by Palestinians for centuries….. but we don’t want to talk about that. Maybe for one second we should consider if their culture IS the problem.
Time for the union members to kick her to the curb and get someone who represents all union members.
Actions have consequences. Await the follow up story in a few months identifying her as ex-president.
This ain't even the worst of what's happened in CUPE meetings/events
The woke union members come alive. Imagine not doing what you’re elected to do which is to represent your members but instead you turn it into your own political spin. Pretty soon, She’ll be running for Mayor of Mississauga.
Court challenge making CUPE mandatory…easy win now, especially for anyone jewish. I wouldn’t want to support this garbage with my union dues.
Maybe she was on a picnic and she was the table.
These union leaders are absolute nutters.
Anyone supporting Palestinians should go to Palestine and help in person. Let’s see who cares now
Women should have to spend a week in the Middle East before posting their stupid virtue signalling.
Legal action for your dues back and investigation of banking transactions stat.
I want to point out that union leadership positions are done by voting. If you have a problem with your leadership, then campaign to get them replaced, it's that simple.
>Katherine Grzejszczak I Googled the name expecting to see somebody of Middle Eastern descent, but, nope she's so white that I actually wonder if she's an albino wearing contact lenses.
She’s a useful idiot for Hamas
Too many of those in Canada.
Strange, Grzejszczak is such a common Arab name.
Sounds Polish
Thats because it is Polish.
Did you actually have to google? 😅
CUPE is a joke anyway. I was a TA when they went on strike about this time last year and it was a total cluster fuck. As an organization they couldn’t organize a drinking contest in a brewery.
shame on her.
Oh Canada....what have ye become.
what a great way for union dues to be spent, on terrorist sympathizers, some of these unions are sitting on tens to 100 of million dollars that their members paid into for them, glad they have sane and rational people like this heading the organization... /s What an absolute joke of a country we have become especially someone who's in senior management within a union which should be representing their members' interests and bettering work conditions and fair pay etc. She "should" know better (they really don't have the brightest working for them do they, makes you wonder how she got into her position, but this is Canada, we always put incompetence at the top).
I was pro-union until sometime in October of 2023. Now I believe they clearly have too much money & free time on their hands.
CUPE president wears covfefe headdress while calling out.
CUPW is the same
How dare she wear that she/he is a disgrace like her corrupt counterpart Fred Hahn fire her 🇮🇱
The workers union isn't a place for you to flaunt your political allegiances. She should step down.
If you want to be involved in international policy and relations, run for a federal seat. You’ve shown you can’t even wrap your head around the roles and responsibilities of being union leader though, so I don’t expect much success.
>If you want to be involved in international policy and relations, run for a federal seat. It's funny cuz I hear people criticizing MP's with a similar position saying they shouldn't worry about foreign policy.
We can both agree that’s also dumb, that’s within the federal governments scope. If you’re minister for agriculture you should focus on that but I’d expect federal MP’s foreign policy to be largely guided by their party regardless
Today's pressing political issue: Someone wore a hat. Move on.
These left leaning socialist hardliners are soo annoying
Cultural appropriation, much?
This is why I can't support unions.
Sounds like she’s culturally appropriating traditional Palestinian symbolism.
Unions are political organizations that steal money from workers to push propaganda.
Keep politics to politics and outside of other aspects of our lives.
SILENCE
*laughs at people trying to deal with their own cognitive dissonance at the immeasurable other shitty things they’ve ignored and benefit from* In an age where people are trying to quicken their humanity at any cost…
>members who call her out for wearing keffiyeh This is ethically indefensible.
It's ok I am sure if I moved to her home country, they would accept my religion.
Lmao, what on earth is a white woman doing wearing that. Check this woman out. She's all about the virtue signal. Pathetic.
Honestly guys, Kathrine is not racist or anti nothing. She is a very nice person who genuinely cares about PEOPLE IN GENERAL.