Canada Global(Web News) About 8,000 academic and support workers at the University of Toronto are preparing to go on strike starting Monday.
These workers are represented by three separate bargaining units of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUP) and include approximately 1,000 maintenance workers, janitors, groundskeepers, veterinary technologists, casual workers, student accommodation and food service. including 7000 staff as well. Educators, Contract Instructors, Teaching Assistants and Post Doctoral Researchers.
Officials said that in addition to the specific demands of each bargaining unit, the three unions demand that university allowances be increased beyond what is proposed in Bill 124. It may be noted that Bill 124 had set a limit of one per cent increase in public sector allowances every year, but it has since been declared unconstitutional.
Eriks Bradovskis, president of the academic workers union CUPE 3902, said he teaches a lot at the University of Toronto but is paid less than teachers who teach the same course. It is not financially possible for the instructors who teach in the labs and the workers who mark the papers to live in the city where they teach. The unions are also demanding that the same allowance be given to workers doing the same job, along with free public transport to contractual education workers.
In its last post, updated on February 23, the university said its bargaining teams were working hard to reach an agreement with each union. Union leaders said they hoped an agreement would be reached soon, but were fully prepared to strike if not.
