Judy Darcy - Union Activism

Union Activism

In her youth, Darcy was active with the Workers' Communist Party of Canada, a Maoist group, and was a candidate for the party in the 1981 Ontario provincial election in the Toronto riding of St. Andrew—St. Patrick. By 1985, she had left the party and joined the New Democratic Party saying of her earlier radicalism ""I'm older, I don't think we're going to remake the world, but we've got to change what we can."

In 1983, she became a regional vice-president of the union's Ontario division and was also working at the Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library.

By the mid-1980s, she was president of the Metro Toronto Council of CUPE.

In 1986, she ran for the position of Ontario president of CUPE challenging 10-year incumbent Lucie Nicholson. She was unsuccessful, losing by a margin of 318-240, her defeat blamed on a red-baiting campaign by the union's leadership. Darcy, however, did manage to retain a spot on the union's executive board topping the slate of "member at large" positions.

By 1988, she was first vice-president of CUPE's Ontario division as well as a vice-president of the Ontario Federation of Labour. In 1989, she successfully ran for the position of national secretary-treasurer of CUPE, the union's number two position. saying that said she stands for strong leadership to help CUPE cope with "some of the incredibly difficult challenges we'll see in the next few years, especially in light of free trade."

In the 1988 federal election, Darcy was the NDP's candidate against Liberal Frank Stronach and Progressive Conservative John E. Cole in York—Simcoe placing a "distant third" in the suburban Toronto riding.

In 1991, she was elected CUPE national president taking over the 406,000 member trade union. By the time she retired 13 years later the union had grown to 525,000 members.