Canada's full-service labour campaign agency

The value of a unionis in the work.

We help unions prove that value — in bargaining, organizing, strikes, member awareness, public relations, and community campaigns.

Tell us what you're facing Examine the evidence

Bargaining · Strikes · Organizing · Member awareness · Public pressure · Campaign production

Union trades, on the jobUnionized · In-house · End to end · 25+ years

The Record

i.

A police officer keeping watch while the neighbourhood sleeps.

ii.

A teacher staying late for one more student.

iii.

A nurse starting a second shift no one will hear about.

iv.

A construction worker leaving behind something the city will stand on.

This is what union members do — quietly, daily, everywhere. The case for a union is more than an argument. It is a record.

We do not build campaigns around noise.
We build them around proof.

The kind members believe, the public understands, employers cannot ignore, and decision-makers have to answer — campaigns that build support, shift perception, and create pressure when it matters most.

A police officer keeping watch while the neighbourhood sleeps.
A teacher staying late for one more student.
A nurse starting a second shift no one will hear about.
A construction worker leaving behind something the city will stand on.
Selected past campaigns and labour organizations featured on this site. CUPE Local 416 OPSEU / SEFPO CUPE 3906 CFLPA CUPE 4400 · TEW

Canada’s only full-service unionized campaign agency with in-house print and production — strategy, creative, digital, mail, signage, and campaign materials built under one roof.

Toronto Starcited our Local 416 community campaign among the ways the city improved Historic scalehelped support one of the largest organizing drives in Canadian history 4–5×growth in weekly public engagement over one campaign See the evidence →

Chapter 01 — The Moments

When the stakes are high, unions call us.

After twenty-five years alongside labour, there are few campaign moments we have not helped a union through. These are the moments we are built to answer.

Dispatch 01

When bargaining is opening

Members need clarity. Leadership needs alignment. The public needs context — before the employer defines the terms.

Dispatch 02

When a strike mandate is approaching

Every member matters. Every message matters. Every piece of material has to move quickly — and hold together.

Dispatch 03

When the employer controls the narrative

The campaign has to reframe the story before the public accepts the wrong one.

Dispatch 04

When workers are ready to organize

Growth begins with trust — showing people precisely what they would be joining, and why it is worth belonging to.

Dispatch 05

When public support matters

Neighbours, councils, and communities move when the quiet contribution becomes visible.

Dispatch 06

When members need to feel seen

Appreciation, pride, and belonging are campaigns too — and they hold everything else up.

Also answered: Member awarenessPolitical & policy campaigns Employer accountabilityCommunity support Union pride …and every moment between → tell us what you're facing

Chapter 02 — The Firm

Proving union value since before it was a strategy.

From local campaigns to province-wide mobilizations, we meet unions where they are — and build what the moment requires.

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Years alongside labour

Hundreds of campaigns for locals, federations, and associations across Canada — through every kind of moment a union can face.

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Unionized roof, end to end

Strategy, creative, digital, print, mail, and signage — all in-house, all union-made, Canada Post certified. No handoffs. No dilution.

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Audiences, one case

Members, employers, governments, communities, and future members. Every campaign makes the same case in a different room: the work is worth something.

Chapter 03 — The Practice

Five audiences. One case to make.

We do not organize our practice by department. We organize it by the people your union must reach — and what proving your value looks like to each of them.

Local 416 members
I.

To your members

The union's value should never be a mystery to the people who make it possible. We build the recognition, appreciation, and internal communications that remind members what their union delivers — the wins, the benefits, the milestones, the belonging.

Member recognitionMilestones & winsInternal communicationsAppreciation events
II.

To employers

A strong union is not an obstacle to a better workplace — it is often the reason one exists. We help unions show the value their members bring to safety, quality, retention, professionalism, and continuity, so employers are compelled to recognize the work behind the workplace.

Workforce value narrativesSafety & quality recordsBargaining-table materials
III.

To governments & policymakers

Unions do not merely represent workers — they understand the systems communities depend on. We craft the public-affairs materials, policy briefs, stakeholder campaigns, and public narratives that position your union as a serious voice in decisions that affect work, services, and communities.

Public affairsPolicy briefsStakeholder campaigns
IV.

To communities & the public

Every community runs on union work — it simply does not always know it. We tell that story where neighbours actually are: local events, transit, mail, media, and main street, turning quiet contribution into public trust.

Community eventsTransit & outdoorLocal mediaPublic perception
V.

To future members

Growth does not begin with a fight — it begins with an invitation. We build organizing and recruitment campaigns that show prospective members precisely what they would be joining, and why it is worth belonging to.

Organizing drivesSign-up campaignsVote campaignsWelcome programs

Chapter 04 — The Method

Listen. Frame. Build. Prove.

Positive does not mean passive. Every engagement follows the same golden thread — campaigns built with discipline, not noise.

01 — Listen

Begin with the members

Before a single word is written, we sit with the people doing the work. What they are proud of — and what is at stake — becomes the campaign's foundation.

02 — Frame

Shape the story that is already true

We do not invent narratives; we surface them, then give them language and identity that honour the work — warm, plainspoken, impossible to mistake for spin.

03 — Build

Produce everything under one roof

Design, video, web, mail, signage, apparel — made in-house by union hands, Canada Post certified, on union timelines.

04 — Prove

Move every audience, then show what changed

Members' inboxes, employers' boardrooms, policymakers' desks, neighbourhood parks. One story, translated for each room — measured, reported, proven.

Chapter 05 — The Evidence

Campaigns that changed perception.

Not a portfolio. A record of value made visible — drawn from documented campaign files.

Exhibit AToronto Civic Employees Union · CUPE Local 416 · Community & Public Trust

In Your Neighbourhood, At Your Service.

Toronto skyline at dusk with the CN Tower lit red, a Local 416 Family Movie Night screen glowing on the lawn below
Members & volunteers · Family movie night, Toronto parks

The moment

After a difficult 2009 strike: public resentment, hostile coverage, and a new mayor moving to privatize the very services members provided.

The pressure point

The Toronto public that had stopped believing — and the City Hall reading that public.

The proof

Free movie nights in city parks. Environment Days trading compost for hazardous waste. Storm cleanups before dawn. Twelve weeks honouring twelve divisions.

The build

Campaign identity, 40,000 community maps, a rebuilt website, social systems, event kits, and press materials — all produced in-house.

The result

Within a year, the same public arrived with lawn chairs. By December 2013, the Toronto Star cited the movie nights among the ways Toronto improved that year.

Local 416 Solid Waste members clearing storm-damaged debris during a July garbage rollout Local 416 members posing with a resident in front of the inflatable movie screen at a Family Movie Night Local 416 members at a spring Environment Day station Local 416 members handing out free compost to residents at a June Environment Day
40,000Community maps circulated in a single season
15Free outdoor movie nights across Toronto parks
280Average attendees per movie night
4–5×Growth in weekly public engagement over the campaign
Exhibit BOPSEU / SEFPO · Part-time college workers · Growth & Organizing

#SignUp / #Adhérez! — organizing as invitation.

Illustrated LEVEL UP! campus world built for the #SignUp / #Adhérez! organizing drive
Sign-up kiosk characters from the LEVEL UP! campaign inviting part-time workers to join
Crystal Blast, one of the LEVEL UP! arcade games built to reward participation
LEVEL UP! progression badges, from Frosh Week through Advocate for Change
#SignUp campaign world · OPSEU / SEFPO, Ontario colleges

The moment

Thousands of part-time college workers across Ontario without fair pay, benefits, or job security — and organizing at a scale never attempted.

The pressure point

The workers themselves. Belief had to come before signatures.

The proof

A dignified question — Do you deserve more? — answered in workers' own voices, on their own campuses, in both languages.

The build

Bilingual identity, CollegeWorkers.org, the LEVEL UP! gamified world, mailers, eblasts, campus events, and a three-phase sign-to-vote system — all in-house.

The result

Helped support one of the largest union organizing drives in Canadian history — built on invitation, not confrontation.

2Languages — fully bilingual from the first day
3Phases: sign, mobilize, vote — one continuous story
100%In-house: strategy, web, video, mail, events & materials
Exhibit CToronto Education Workers · CUPE Local 4400 · Public Awareness

What budget cuts mean for our students and staff.

Office Administrator subway car ad: What budget cuts mean for our students and staff, Toronto Education Workers campaign
Caretaker subway car ad: What budget cuts mean for our students and staff, Toronto Education Workers campaign
International Language Instructors subway car ad: What budget cuts mean for our students and staff, Toronto Education Workers campaign
Adult Education subway car ad: What budget cuts mean for our students and staff, Toronto Education Workers campaign
Special Needs Assistants subway car ad: What budget cuts mean for our students and staff, Toronto Education Workers campaign
Head Caretaker subway car ad: What budget cuts mean for our students and staff, Toronto Education Workers campaign
Lunchroom Supervisor subway car ad: What budget cuts mean for our students and staff, Toronto Education Workers campaign
Office Administrator · TTC subway car creative, Toronto

The moment

In 2012, Bill 115 stripped teachers and education workers of the right to bargain collectively — while budget cuts moved through Toronto's schools. Contracts were imposed in January 2013; the bill was repealed the same day.

The pressure point

A city of commuters — the parents, neighbours, and voters deciding what those cuts meant, and who education workers are.

The proof

Role by role — caretakers, lunchroom supervisors, special-needs assistants, office administrators, language instructors — the campaign showed riders exactly what disappears from a school when the budget does.

The build

A 52-week awareness campaign across the Toronto transit system: print in every subway car, streetcar, and bus; animated spots on platform screens at all 63 stations; screens in 380 residential buildings — creative, production, and placement in-house.

The result

For a full year, more than a million daily riders met the people behind Toronto's schools — by name, by role, and by what their work gives students.

52Weeks of continuous citywide awareness
1M+Daily TTC commuters reached at saturation
63Subway stations carrying platform ads across the GTA
380Residential buildings with in-elevator screens

Exhibit D · CUPE 3906

#BetterMac

A contract campaign framed as an act of care for the whole campus: members making McMaster stronger, together.

Exhibit E · CFLPA

#1PLAYAWAY

Honouring the reality that a life-changing event is one play away — and players deserve protection worthy of the game.

Figures drawn from documented campaign records.

Chapter 06 — The Floor

Where the message becomes material.

The only unionized agency in Canada with full in-house production. Follow a campaign across our floor.

i.Strategy enters.

Member listening, audience research, and message development grounded in what is true.

ii.Creative takes shape.

Campaign identities, design, photography, and video with dignity at the centre.

iii.Print hits the floor.

Canada Post certified printing, large-format signage, finishing, and union-decorated materials.

iv.Mail leaves the building.

Member kits, campaign mailers, and appreciation pieces — addressed, sorted, and gone by union hands.

v.Digital moves the message.

Websites, member tools, gamified experiences, and social systems built by our own technology team.

vi.Reporting proves the result.

Engagement, turnout, coverage, and perception — your union sees the value we set out to prove.

Chapter 07 — The Doctrine

The philosophy behind the work.

Whose Side Are You On? — Building Trust & Collaboration in Workplaces, Communities, and Government, by Shy Jacoby

Our founder wrote the book on it — literally.

In Whose Side Are You On?, founder Shy Jacoby distills twenty-five years of labour campaigns into a single conviction: union campaigns are strongest when they make the value of members impossible to dismiss — at the bargaining table, in the workplace, in government, and in the communities their work serves.

The question was never whose side you are on. It is what you are for — and whether the people around you can see it.

Get it on Amazon

When It Matters

Tell us what your union is facing.

Bargaining is opening. A strike mandate is coming. Members are disengaged, an organizing drive is underway, or the employer is controlling the narrative. Whatever the moment — bring it to us. We will bring twenty-five years of proof.

The record is on your side. Let's make it visible.

Plan a campaign start@unioncampaigns.ca