Katherine Grzejszczak

Katherine started organizing in the early 2000s as a student. She joined the anti-war movement opposing the US invasion of Iraq. She’s been active in CUPE since 2012, shortly after coming on as a Paramedic with a GTA municipality. She was elected President of CUPE 905 in 2018

During 6 years as president of a large municipal local she organized 2 strikes - showing up on picket lines every day and strategizing with workers. Bradford West Gwillimbury Public Library (BWGPL) unionized with CUPE 905 when the Library Board hired a new CEO. He was disrespectful to the female-dominated workforce and cut wages. In 2023, after a heated 8 week strike the workers were forced back to work by a Labour Board decision on first collective agreement arbitration. But labour relations change after strikes, and the workers kept organizing. A year later the CEO left BWGPL. BWGPL workers finally won the demand that saw them organize a union in the first place - management that recognized the value of their work.

In 2024, Richmond Hill municipal workers walked off the job demanding their wages catch up with inflation. Militant rotating picket lines went up at secondary locations like neighbouring operations yards supplying contract workers to do struck work and Councillor’s community events. After 2 weeks the workers won wage adjustments in most classifications on top of an across the board increase. The theatre department, which had been added to the bargaining unit more recently, was written into an LOU that excluded them from provisions of the collective agreement and saw them working permanent contract positions. With the solidarity of their entire bargaining unit they now had full contract rights and permanent positions.

While president Katherine also organized many campaigns, with two notable wins for workers. In the first one transit enforcement pushed back on a department policy of ticketing quotas, imposed under threat of performance management. Workers united to deliver a petition to the department director and voiced their displeasure with a manager who had implemented the policy. The policy was rescinded and the manager moved to another department.

When arena operators approached her with a change of shift she knew that filing a grievance was not the answer. The employer had bargained in an 8-hour shift in the last contract negotiations. Instead she organized a march on the boss and workers delivered a petition signed by the entire department asking to go back to a 10-hour shifts. After a meeting between the workers and management it was decided that the 10-hour shift was beneficial for everyone and it was reinstated. In both campaigns the wins were the result of the entire affected workforce standing united in their demands in the face of management. When employers are faced with a vocal majority of their employees, they cave.

Katherine ran for the CUPE Ontario Executive Board in 2024 and has served as a member at large. In 2025 she was wrongfully terminated for supporting a CUPE Ontario Facebook post about an anti-war rally. She fought her termination publicly because workers cannot give up the right to organize against injustice. Employers buy our labour in exchange for a paycheque, not our conscience. Katherine’s grievance is going through the arbitration process and she is looking forward to being re-instated as a front-line paramedic.

Katherine is running for 3rd Vice President because she wants a CUPE Ontario that will build solidarity for workplace issues, across bargaining units and sectors.

“We’re losing ground because we face an employer class that is united and organized, not just across Ontario but globally. Yet we treat every attack as an individual issue that only impacts directly affected workers, rather than an attack on the entire working class. To be effective CUPE Ontario must connect members in their workplaces across the entire province. When our members decide that the status quo is no longer working for workers, and we act with the power of 300,000 members, we will win every single demand.”