Our History

On April 21, 1951, 23 delegates representing 9 local unions, met in the Calgary Labour Temple to discuss their common needs and aspirations. Those locals were:

•     Local 8, Calgary General Hospital Employees
•     Local 30, Edmonton Civic Outside Employees
•     Local 37, Calgary Civic Outside Employees
•     Local 38, Calgary Civic Inside Employees
•     Local 41, Royal Alex Hospital Employees of Edmonton
•     Local 46, Medicine Hat Civic Employees
•     Local 52, Edmonton Civic Inside Employees
•     Local 70, Lethbridge Civic Employees
•     Local 182, Calgary Department of Public Health.

These nine locals recognized the pressing need for joint action to promote the welfare of civic, hospital, school board and health department employees on the provincial scene and the importance of a union to organize exclusively in this jurisdiction. The delegates at that first convention passed two resolutions.

The first resolution passed was to approach the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada to request that a union be chartered to organize specifically in the civic field. The second resolution established an annual convention provincially in order to evaluate what they had accomplished in the past year and plan for the years to come.

In 1952, the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada agreed to charter a national union for civic workers. They issued a challenge: produce 17,000 members before the 1953 Toronto Convention of the TLC and a Charter creating such a Union would be issued.

When the 1953 Convention was held 23,000 members were clamoring for the formation of a truly civic union and the TLC chartered the National Union of Public Employees, one of the two Unions which merged to form the Canadian Union of Public Employees in 1963.

The nine original locals have met together annually since 1951, first as the Federation of Public Employees, then as the National Union of Public Employees, Alberta Division and finally under its present name CUPE Alberta.