CUPE Local 5734 represents the nearly 100 Paramedics of Cornwall SD&G Emergency Medical Services. The membership is composed of both casual part-time and full-time employees with either Primary Care (PCP) or Advanced Care (ACP) Paramedic certification.
We are a young local founded in 2009 but we have been members of CUPE since 2001. On January 1st 2001, the government of Ontario downloaded Emergency Medical Services onto the municipalities. At that time the members of CUPE Local 3251, representing members working in social services, by-law, engineering, water & waste water, finance, aquatics, and information & technology departments employed by the City of Cornwall, agreed to accept the Paramedics of Cornwall SD&G EMS into their local. In 2004, the local and the employer agreed that it was in the best intrest of all parties to have the Paramedics bargain separately from the other members of the local. Two separate bargaining units were then established: “CUPE Local 3251-PARA” (Paramedic) and “CUPE Local 3251-Non-PARA” (Non-Paramedic). Although distinct and separate in bargaining, the two entities continued to share the same executive and local number. In 2009 the local, as a whole, agreed that Paramedics should separate from CUPE Local 3251 and create their own stand-alone local. Thus, CUPE Local 5734 was created.
The number of the local also has meaning to its members. “5” represents the union region number and “734” represents the Ontario ministry service number for Cornwall SD&G EMS.