YUGSA Statement of Solidarity: York U Graduates Stand With Ontario’s Education Workers

The York University Graduate Students’ Association (YUGSA) stands in solidarity with CUPE - Ontario School Boards’ Council of Unions (OSBCU) and their members as they insist on their charter protected right(s) to protest against unjust attacks on workers’ rights. The Government of Ontario's proposal to pass a legislative contract which forces education workers back-to-work under precarious financial circumstances is explicitly undemocratic and violates workers’ hard-fought collective bargaining rights.

While its nomenclature suggests a pro-education stance, Bill 28’s Keeping Students in Class Act is really about ‘Keeping Education Workers in Schools’ despite living on the margins of poverty. Over 55,000 library workers, secretaries, custodians, educational assistants, tradespeople, IT professionals, and many more make-up CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU), and they are the lowest paid cohort amongst education workers in Ontario. The simple fact that “$39,000 is not enough” demands that we stand in solidarity with the more-than 50% of education workers who are forced to get a second job to earn a decent living wage, ⅓ of whom are relying on food banks to survive. And this forced contract disproportionately affects women and racialized education workers, reasserting the pay equity gap.

The Ministry of Education’s blatant disregard for public education was already made apparent in the wage cuts and maintained class sizes that negatively impacted the students, who are supposedly the priority in Bill 28. The declining funding for education and the dire financial conditions of education workers necessarily detract from the students’ experience in class and students as well as education workers deserve more. 

Doug Ford’s invocation of the notwithstanding clause to pre-emptively halt labour action and block education worker’s charter protected collective bargaining rights is an abuse of power. The Conservative Government’s move to set a precedent for provincial employment legislation to supersede the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms is a threat to unionised and/or education workers’ rights across Canada. This is yet another act by the government to strip public education of necessary human resources and financial support, to the detriment of students and workers alike. 

Education workers deserve the right to fight for liveable wages and better working conditions without the threat of fines and reprisals to coerce them into compliance with exploitative contracts. The action(s) we take during this historical moment is about the kind of politics that we, as a community of working individuals, hold in relation to the Government of Ontario’s proposed erosion of our charter rights. We stand in solidarity with CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) as they fight the Government of Ontario for a living wage and to protect their rights, and you can too. To stand in solidarity with CUPE Ontario and OSBCU, you can:

Find and Join a Picket Line Near You Today:

https://cupe.on.ca/dontbeabully/ 

Send a Message to the Government of Ontario:

https://cupe.on.ca/dontbeabully/ 

Wear Purple in Solidarity with CUPE:

• Wear your purple shirts on Saturday, November 5, 2022 to show your solidarity with striking education workers! Tag CUPE Ontario in your content to show the Government of Ontario that support is growing and far reaching!
  
  

  • Facebook: @CUPE Ontario

  • Instagram: @CUPEOntario

  • Twitter: @CUPEOntario

In solidarity,

The YUGSA Executive Committee.