Canadian Union of Public Employees
Jeff Rose began his career as a city planner in the City of Toronto. It wasn’t until 1976 that he became active with his local union, CUPE Local 79. Four years later, he would be elected president of the Local, and would spend the following two years negotiating collective agreements. These agreements featured across-the-board wage increases that totalled nearly 27%. These significant victories gave Rose widespread recognition and in 1983, with support from a vast variety of Locals, he was elected national president of CUPE.
Over his time as president, CUPE saw its national membership grow to over 407,000 members, in addition to stronger staff, skills, and infrastructure. Under Rose’s leadership, CUPE also focused on improving working conditions and pay for women.
After declining to run for a fifth term in 1991, Rose was named national president emeritus of CUPE and was appointed deputy minister of Intergovernmental affairs in the Ontario NDP government under Bob Rae. There he was the lead negotiator and senior policy strategist for Ontario while working with other provincial governments as well as the federal government. Rose retired in 2002.