‘Honoured and humbled’: CUPE Alberta elects new president days after strikes end
Posted March 24, 2025 12:09 pm.
Last Updated March 24, 2025 12:11 pm.
A former mortgage broker and union president in Edmonton was elected president of CUPE Alberta on Friday.
Raj Uppal, 41, defeated incumbent Rory Gill to become the new leader of the 40,000-member Alberta chapter of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
“I’m honoured and humbled to gain the trust of CUPE activists,” Uppal said in a news release. “I’m excited to get started and to keep building our union as a strong force for working people.”
The health-care worker was previously president of CUPE 41 since 2019, representing members at Grey Nuns and Edmonton General Hospitals. She has also served on CUPE Alberta’s executive board for two terms as the diversity vice-president.
Uppal’s election comes days after a major strike in Alberta came to an end – what CUPE Alberta has described as the largest in the union’s history. Thousands of educational support workers are back on the job after their unions struck deals with school divisions across the province.
