In 1992, the New Brunswick government had tried to break signed contracts with several CUPE locals. Then Liberal Premier Frank McKenna thought he could push around workers to impose his austerity agenda. An eight-day province-wide illegal strike by CUPE members forced the Government of New Brunswick to back down and honour signed collective agreements.
After much digging in our old VCR archives, the full CUPE 1992 general strike video is finally on Youtube. Watch it here. For more on the 1992 General Strike, read labour historian David Frank’s commentary here.