1. CUPE Equality History Project
After many hours of digging through old journals, hunting for photos and pulling together the stories, the union has published a web-based timeline of equality activism over the last 52 years.
The timeline lists more than 200 events that mark significant advances in equality – in our union, our workplaces, and our communities.
Advances that improve the lives of : women, LGBTTI, racialized and Aboriginal members and members with disabilities. They’re about bargaining, political action, organizing, education and all the ways we make change.
The stories extend internationally, over five decades of global solidarity work.
The full timeline is on the cupe web site. You can scroll through it online. In the next ten minutes, we’ll show you some highlights.

2. “If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.”
Audre Lorde
Everyone in this room has fought for equality.
We know the hurdles and how to overcome them. We know the importance of telling our stories, in our own voices.
And we know there are many more stories of equality activism to be told. We’ll share some over the course of this evening, and we’ll add more to the timeline in the coming months.

3. CUPE Equality Timeline
The equality timeline is a digital display - on the cupe web site - of 216 events over 52 years. There is a one or two sentence summary of each event, often with photos, articles and video links.

4. CUPE has been and remains a leader on pay equity
CUPE has been and remains a leader on pay equity. There are examples in the timeline of local fights like the one in London Ontario in 1967 where CUPE put an end to separate collective agreements for men and women.

5. And one in Vancouver in 1981, when 10,000 municipal members went on strike for equal pay.

6. There are also stories of province-wide mobilizing, like this one from 1965 where about three dozen hospital locals in Saskatchewan ran a year-long campaign for a living wage and provincial bargaining.

7. In 1971 CUPE women in Edmonton won the right to wear pants to work.

8. and we continue to fight for living wages and pay equity.

9. CUPE has also been a leader among unions on disability rights
CUPE has also been a leader among unions on disability rights. We’ve won better hiring, duty to accommodate and accessibility.

10. We’ve promoted the social model of disability and more representative workplaces.

11. And we’ve made our events more accessible to members with disabilities.
On this as in every equality effort, the work continues.

12. Our history of action against racism also spans decades and shows diverse strategies.
It includes fights for employment equity, representation in leadership, and solidarity at the international level.

13. Education and building our power – these are themes throughout the timeline.

14. Aboriginal rights have also been on the forefront of CUPE equality since the 1960s.

15. As with every struggle, we make progress inside our union as well as outside, where we work and live.

16. CUPE led one of the biggest wins for Aboriginal rights in Canada: the employment equity partnership agreement in Saskatchewan.

17. And we’ve been a union leader in fighting alongside Aboriginal activists for safe drinking water, security for women and girls and other human rights.

18. CUPE is also recognized as a trailblazer on LGBTTI rights.
We’ve won landmark rulings on same sex pensions and benefits.

19. and we’ve set the best standard for transgender rights in collective agreement language.

20. CUPE is loud and proud in challenging homophobia and transphobia in all areas of life and in every part of the country.

21. Our national membership survey and our human rights conference in 2015 identified challenges we to face as equality-seeking groups.

22. We can be proud of our equality history, though we still have much work to do.

23. “It always seems impossible until it’s done.” Nelson Mandela
Knowing our history reminds us what’s possible when we organize, educate and resist.
This was a glimpse of the timeline. Please check it out on cupe.ca.