The membership voted unanimously at the November 15th SGMM to adopt a local-specific internal policy that addresses sexual assault and sexual violence between members – the Internal Sexual Violence Policy (pdf).
CUPE 3903 believes unions have an imperative to act as a resource and support for members experiencing sexual violence. Unions must have a way to address how members interact in their spaces when sexual violence has occurred.
To this end, we pushed the CUPE Ontario and National bodies to support the development of local-specific Sexual Violence Policies. In 2017 we were successful in forcing CUPE Ontario to pass a resolution to support locals in developing their own policies. It quickly became clear that support was not going to be provided.
Therefore, CUPE 3903 decided to take the lead in developing its own local-specific policy. In 2017 a working group within the Trans Feminist Action Caucus (TFAC) began working on the policy, and in 2019 the draft policy was sent to the Executive Committee for final edits. The Internal Sexual Violence Policy was put to the membership for a vote on November 15th and was passed unanimously with thoughtful amendments from the membership.
We are now the first CUPE local in Ontario to adopt a local-specific internal policy that addresses sexual violence between members.
The membership also directed the Executive subcommittee working on the Sexual Violence Policy to bring a further addition to the policy addressing appeals of the Formal Resolution Process to the December GMM.
Countless hours of research, policy drafting, and consultations with the membership and external experts went into drafting the policy. We acknowledge and thank all members who have participated in this process.