More than 8,000 academic and support workers are preparing to go on strike at the University of Toronto on Monday.
The workers are represented by three different bargaining units of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and include about 1,000 maintenance workers, caretakers, groundskeepers, veterinary technologists, casual workers, student residence and foodservice staff, along with another 7,000 contract educators, contract instructors, teaching assistants, and post-doctoral researchers.
Officials say along with specific demands that apply to each of the bargaining units, all three unions are demanding that the university accept proposed wage increases above Bill 124, which capped public sector wage increases to one per cent per year but was recently ruled unconstitutional.
“We do the vast majority of teaching at the University of Toronto, but get paid less than other educators teaching the same courses,” said Eriks Bredovskis, president of the CUPE 3902 which represents the academic workers. “Instructors and the workers who teach labs, mark papers and foster the university’s world-class learning environment can’t even afford to live in the city they teach in.”
The unions are also calling on the university to pay the same wage to workers who do the same work, and access to free public transportation for contract education workers.
“We want workers to be able to focus on students – whether they’re in cafeterias, residences or classrooms – instead of long, stressful commutes and juggling multiple jobs,” said Bredovskis.
In its last update posted Feb. 23, the University said its bargaining teams were working hard to reach tentative agreements with each of the respective unions.
“We remain hopeful that tentative agreements will be reached and ratified in all cases, but we continue to prepare for possible strikes as several significant issues remain unresolved.”
The University points out that there are more than 20,000 unionized employees organized in 25 separate bargaining units and represented by 10 different unions at the school and that each of the 25 bargaining units has its own collective agreement and negotiates its agreement separately with the University.
One week ago, almost 3,000 academic workers at York University began a strike citing similar issues of affordability when it comes to the cost of living in Toronto.
