Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has tweeted, “Solidarity with York CUPE strikers!”
CUPE 3903 at York University is on strike over the poverty wages paid to teaching, graduate and research assistants.
They explain, “On the current wages striking parents and caregivers receive, many struggle to provide basic necessities for their children, while the thought of one day affording tuition at the very institutions where they teach seems unattainable”
And they’ve highlighted that, “[The strike is] also about the future of post-secondary education in Ontario. We can continue down the current path of treating knowledge as a commodity and post-secondary education as a business – taking a low-road approach that is built on low wages and precarious working conditions – or we can build an accessible, democratic, and equitable model that treats students and their instructors with the dignity and respect they deserve.”
CUPE Ontario president Fred Hahn, Toronto & York Region Labour Council president (and Council of Canadians Board member) John Cartwright, and Janice Folk-Dawson, who chairs CUPE’s universities sector, will be speaking at a rally at Queen’s Park today to call on the province to end the chronic underfunding at the root of labour disruptions at York University and the University of Toronto.
The strike began on March 2. More than 2,700 teaching, graduate and research assistants at York University are on strike.
For more information on how you can support them, please see the CUPE 3903 website here and their Facebook page here.
