On behalf of the Association of Part-time Undergraduate Students (APUS) at the University of Toronto, which represents the thousands of part-time University of Toronto students, we wish to express our solidarity with, and support for, the education workers of CUPE 3902, library workers of CUPE 1230, and service workers of CUPE 3261 and their unified demands for respect, dignity, and a living wage. Together, these three locals represent more than 8,000 workers across the University of Toronto’s three campuses, including teaching assistants, caretakers, course instructors, postdoctoral fellows, cafeteria workers, and grounds workers.
We congratulate CUPE 3902 and the historic Strike Mandate vote results for Unit 1 and Unit 5:, in which 94.4% voted YES to authorize their Local to call a strike if necessary in order to reach a fair work contract. We also congratulate CUPE 3261 on their strike vote, in which 93% of them voted YES to authorize a strike if strategically necessary. We hope this sends a strong message to the University to take their demands seriously.
As students, we know that the University administration tries to pit us against workers, especially education workers, for exercising the right to strike, and we reject the narrative that our education is being compromised or threatened by education and service workers. We know that the quality of our education relies on healthy workers and workplaces, and that our own struggles for the University administration to stop penalizing students for illness are connected to the struggles of education for fair working conditions. Our members are current and future workers, and we recognize that every fight for secure and healthy working conditions helps us all.
The education that we receive at U of T relies on the labour of thousands of workers whose jobs and livelihoods are increasingly precarious and who are disproportionately impacted by massive inflation and living costs. Their working conditions are our learning conditions. Their fight for respect, dignity, and a living wage is also a fight to maintain excellence in the provision of education and critical services at U of T.
In Solidarity,
Jaime Kearns
President