Canadian Union of Public Employees. Local 5 (Hamilton, Ont.)

Local 5 members are employees of the City of Hamilton, the Regional Municipality of Hamilton-Wentworth, Royal Botanical Gardens, Flamborough, Glanbrook, Mount Hope Airport, and Third Sector Recycling.

City of Hamilton workers were first organized in 1918 as part of the American Federation of Labour. In April 1933 the organization moved to the Trades and Labour Congress of Canada as the Civic Maintenance Association, number 33. It joined the Canadian Congress of Labour on 25 April 1943, as the Hamilton Civic Employees Union, without a local number. It received its local designation 5 when it joined the National Organization of Civic Utilities and Electrical Workers on 1 January 1945. Local 5 joined with the National Union of Public Service Employees (NUPSE) on 11 September 1953 which in turn joined with the National Union of Public Employees (NUPE) to form the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) on 24 September 1963. In 2000 Local 5 joined with Local 167 to form Local 5167.

For a more extensive history, see Ed Thomas, The Crest of the Mountain: The Rise of CUPE Local Five in Hamilton (1995). The book has been catalogued for Research Collections; a second copy can be found in the fonds.

2015-05-26

A. Wilson