RVS education workers are signing union cards to join CUPE.
When workers organize unions, it is common for the boss to use a few tactics to try and scare workers.
MYTH: “The union” will come between us and hurt your positive relationship with the administration”.
TRUTH: A union doesn’t get in the way — it levels the playing field.
It ensures you have rights, protections, and a real voice at work.
If your relationship with admin is truly positive, it shouldn’t depend on you having fewer rights or going without support. A respectful employer will respect your right to unionize.
With a union, you don’t lose the ability to collaborate — you gain the ability to set clear, enforceable boundaries and protect what matters.
MYTH: The union” will make changes to your job in ways you don’t want, and you won’t have a say; you will lose your ability to negotiate one-on-one.”
TRUTH: You are the union — and so are your co-workers.
CUPE isn’t a third party; it’s a democratic organization run by the members themselves.
Right now, your working conditions can be changed without your input. With a union, you and your co-workers decide together what to fight for, and you elect your own bargaining team to negotiate on your behalf.
That’s not losing a voice — that’s amplifying it
MYTH: “You will pay dues and lose more than you gain”
TRUTH: Union dues are an investment in your power at work.
Union dues are also 100% tax-deductible.
When you unionize, RVS education support workers will join CUPE Local 40, an established local with a proven track record of fighting — and winning — for education workers.
Local 40 dues are set at 1.85% of regular wages.
That small amount fuels the legal support, bargaining power, and organizing strength needed to win better pay, stronger benefits, and safer, more respectful workplaces.
You’re not giving something up — you’re taking something back.
MYTH: “The union can’t promise anything”
TRUTH: This just isn’t true.
The union promises what you don’t have right now: a voice, protections, and power at work.
While the terms of your first contract are negotiated democratically by you and your co-workers, CUPE brings guaranteed representation, protection from unfair treatment, and the legal right to bargain for better than what you have now.
Unionized workers gain “just cause” protection — meaning you can’t be disciplined or fired without a fair and valid reason.
Right now, management makes the rules — and can change them whenever they want.
With CUPE, you help write the rules — and your employer must follow them.
MYTH: “Unionizing will result in wage reductions or layoffs”
TRUTH: Wages don’t go down when workers unionize — they go up. In fact, unionized education workers consistently earn more than their non-union counterparts.
Unionized workers also gain job security protections, including clear seniority rights and fair layoff and recall language — protections that non-union workers simply don’t have.
The idea that organizing leads to layoffs is a scare tactic. The truth is a union gives you more power to protect your job — not less.
MYTH: “Unions force workers to go out on strike”
TRUTH: Workers never go out on strike without a vote – it’s a collective decision to use union power to win and there are legislative parameters in the Alberta Labour Relations Code that need to be met before workers can engage in job action. Strikes are a last resort, but one we use if and when we need to win a hard battle.