Why all the rules?
When you attend a general meeting, you will notice the rules of order we use to move the meeting forward. We have an agenda to follow and there are set rules for how and when that agenda may be modified. These can be found in our Bylaws, and are pretty standard as meetings go. As you attend more meetings, you get used to the standard order which always begins with respect: reading the Recognition of Territory, reading the Equality Statement, and the Environmental and Health and Safety statements, the latter of which may change depending on location.
In addition to the Equality Statement from CUPE National which is read aloud at each meeting, we are also bound by CUPE’s Code of Conduct which was adopted in 2009 and which, since the 2021 convention, now applies to all CUPE gatherings at all levels. Since the full Code of Conduct includes a framework for dealing with conflicts, we will only be reading a short statement at our meetings, but the full code is available online (download a PDF or see the full text at CUPE National).
In the face of increased conflict, hateful speech, racism, transphobia and homophobia around us, we must make the effort to keep CUPE spaces free from such, as much as we can. As unionists, our core values include solidarity, equality, democracy, integrity, and respect, and these are echoed in both the Equality Statement and the Code of Conduct.