Mark Hancock

Mark Hancock is a Canadian trade union activist who is currently the National President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). He was elected as the sixth National President of CUPE in 2015.^[1] CUPE is the largest trade union in Canada, with 750,000 members.^[2]

Hancock got his start with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in 1984^[3] and served as president of CUPE Local 498, representing employees of the City of Port Coquitlam,^[1] a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia for 15 years. Hancock was elected president of his local in 1993 and was subsequently elected to the executive board of CUPE British Columbia, where he served for 12 years, initially as a General Vice-President,^[4] then as Secretary-Treasurer starting in 2005 and ^[4] finally as President of CUPE BC beginning in 2013. Simultaneously, he served on CUPE's National Executive Board beginning in 2005 as Regional Vice-President for British Columbia.

On November 4, 2015, Hancock was elected as the sixth National President of CUPE National after defeating the President of CUPE Ontario Fred Hahn at the biennial CUPE National Convention.^[5] Hancock has since been re-elected four times as National President, most recently in 2023 at CUPE's National Convention in Quebec City.^[6]

Hancock is an adamant supporter of Canada's New Democratic Party saying he is "100-per-cent committed" to supporting the federal NDP.^[1] He lives in Coquitlam, British Columbia.^[7]

In 2016, under Hancock's leadership, CUPE renewed its national bargaining policy to take a firm and proactive stance against concessions and two-tier contracts. "We bargain forward, not backward," Hancock said in explaining the policy.^[8]

The policy aims to empower local unions to take a strong stance during negotiations, knowing they will have the political, material and financial support of their national union to make progress at the bargaining table on wages, benefits, job security, and workplace health and safety.

Called a "blueprint for solidarity", the policy includes templates, training and strategic resources for local unions.

The policy has resulted in CUPE locals successfully fending off concessionary demands and winning significant wages increases in the turbulent post-COVID economy. Notable examples include the 2022 Ontario education workers strike, the 2021 CUPE general strike in New Brunswick, and in 2024 when 12 municipal local unions in Alberta broke the provincial government's wage mandate, winning wage increases well above the government's 2.75% wage cap.^[9]

In November 2022, 55,000 school board workers in Ontario represented by CUPE defied the Ford government's Bill 28, a law that used the Notwithstanding Clause to impose a contract and make their planned strike illegal. Despite the potential for financial penalties of up to $220.5-million per day, CUPE vowed to continue its walkout for "as long as it takes".^[10] Under Hancock's leadership, CUPE mobilized public and private sector unions from across Canada, and plans for a general strike were underway. The move paid off, as the Ford government repealed Bill 28 just days later - the fastest repeal of a government bill in Canadian history. "The [Ford] government blinked," said Hancock, calling it a major win for education workers and the broader labour movement in Canada. ^[11][12]

On October 7, 2023, the day Hamas attacked Israel, in which Hamas terrorists killed 1,200 people and took scores captive, Fred Hahn, general vice president of CUPE, tweeted: "Palestine is rising, long live the resistance."^[13] 80 Jewish members of CUPE took Hahn and CUPE Ontario to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, saying they felt “isolated, unwelcome, scared, silenced, discriminated against, threatened and harassed” by the way their union had responded since the October 7 attack.^[13]

In August 2024, Hancock said that Hahn had been asked to respond to a request from the union’s national executive board that he resign due to a social media video post by Hahn that Hancock called "antisemitic."^[13] Hahn, for his part, said that he was refusing to step down.^[13] Richard Marceau, vice president of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), opined that CUPE should remove Hahn.^[13] Carrie Silverberg, one of the people who signed on to the human-rights complaint against CUPE, called Hahn's video “blatantly anti-Semitic”.^[13] Ontario’s labour minister, David Piccini, confronted Hahn and asked him to stop being anti-Semitic, and Premier Doug Ford said that Hahn's post was "bigoted".^[13][14] Hancock said that if Hahn does not resign on his own, "that’ll be new ground again for CUPE and me as a national president. I will review options available to me."^[15]