Executive and stewards
CUPE 5536 Executive Team
Tara McGlone – President
Andy Healey – Vice President
Dhruv Dhawan – Secretary Treasurer
Carmel Edmonds – Communications Officer
Sera Craigen Ecsy – CBA Unit Chair, Lower Mainland
(Vacant) – CBA Unit Chair, Vancouver Island
(Vacant) – NBA Unit Chair
Jackson Dallas – Health and Safety Chair
Freddy Thomas – Indigenous Worker Representative
Doug Everitt – Peer Worker Representative
Justin Larocque – Young Worker Representative
CUPE 5536 Job Stewards
PHS - Vancouver
Devin Lefebvre - Lead Steward
Sera Craigen Ecsy - CBA Unit Chair, Lower Mainland
Bobby Kachalami - Trustee
Tanisha Chandler
Doug Everitt - Peer Worker Representative
Meris Goodman
Philippa Wood
PHS - Victoria
Cameron Lindsay
Ladysmith Resource Centre Association
Tiffany De Ruyter De Wildt
Our History
Since the inception of the Portland Hotel Society (PHS) in 1991, workers at PHS have been CUPE members. When PHS began and its workers left the Downtown Eastside Residents Association (DERA) to establish PHS, they did so under the umbrella of CUPE 1004, the Vancouver Civic Employees’ Union.
As PHS continued to expand and transform, it eventually rebranded as PHS Community Services Society. Similarly, the members of PHS within CUPE 1004 made a significant decision in 2023 and voted to establish their own independent union, CUPE 5536.
With an eye on the future, they adopted the name BC Harm Reduction Workers to underscore the foundational principle of harm reduction that underpins all their work, and to include their members in both the Lower Mainlandand Vancouver Island.
Our Collective Agreements
CUPE 5536 members are covered by three separate, provincial health care sector collective agreements, and are members of their associated bargaining associations:
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The Community Subsector Association of Bargaining Agents
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The Nurses’ Bargaining Association
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The Health Science Professionals’ Bargaining Association
CUPE 5536 defends these collective agreements to ensure our members’ rights are upheld.
A Commitment to Justice and Solidarity
Within the broader labour movement, we advocate for the issues that matter to CUPE 5536 members and the communities they serve. We are committed to promoting economic and social justice for all workers everywhere.
All that we do is based on CUPE’s fundamental values of:
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Solidarity
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Equality
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Democracy
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Integrity
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Respect
“These thousand crosses speak to us resoundingly, collectively,
to warn us that to abandon
the wretched,
the miserable,
the scorned,
the scapegoated,
makes a legitimate place for abandonment in our society,
and this abandonment will go right up the social ladder
but to truly care for lives at the bottom
will make a place for care
and this caring will ensure that no one be abandoned”— Bud Osborn, 1998, "Oppenheimer Park"
Equality statement
Union solidarity is based on the principle that union members are equal and deserve mutual respect at all levels. Any behaviour that creates conflict prevents us from working together to strengthen our union.
As unionists, mutual respect, cooperation and understanding are our goals. We should neither condone nor tolerate behaviour that undermines the dignity or self-esteem of any individual or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.
Discriminatory speech or conduct which is racist, sexist, transphobic or homophobic hurts and thereby divides us. So too, does discrimination on the basis of ability, age, class, religion, language and ethnic origin.
Sometimes discrimination takes the form of harassment. Harassment means using real or perceived power to abuse, devalue or humiliate. Harassment should not be treated as a joke. The uneasiness and resentment that it creates are not feelings that help us grow as a union.
Discrimination and harassment focus on characteristics that make us different; and they reduce our capacity to work together on shared concerns such as decent wages, safe working conditions, and justice in the workplace, society and in our union.
CUPE’s policies and practices must reflect our commitment to equality. Members, staff and elected officers must be mindful that all persons deserve dignity, equality and respect.