Location
A brief overview of the working conditions at the University of Toronto shows that something is just not right: most contract faculty members have virtually no job security; largely racialized food-service workers are paid less than a living wage; post-doctoral fellows have zero input in the drafting of their contracts; female administrative staff members receive less pay than their male counterparts; and non-tenured professors fear termination for voicing opinions on contentious political issues.
Meanwhile, students at the U of T are also engaged in pitched battles to keep post-secondary education accessible and equitable. Campaigns to eliminate ever-increasing tuition fees, to defend equity-based programs under threat of extinction, to challenge autocratic room booking policies, and to overturn unrepresentative and unaccountable governing bodies are just some of the issues that they organize around everyday. What’s more, many of them must protect their diminishing right to education while taking up part-time employment, forcing them to endure similar kinds of abuses as do full-time workers.
In short, there is a whole host of injustices that plague both workers and students on this campus. As a working group of the newly-formed University of Toronto General Assembly, Student-Worker Solidarity (SWS) seeks to challenge this state of affairs by bringing different campus workers together to speak with students about their issues, while also providing students with an opportunity to relay their concerns to workers.
We believe that conversation is the precondition to building sustained and effective solidarity; by informing each other about our goals, both workers and students stand a better chance of developing strategies to achieve them. With this forum, SWS hopes to begin the conversation in order to create new ways of thinking about and participating in the struggles of those who make our University what it is.
Speakers will include members of the following:
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3902
United Steelworkers (USW) Local 1998
UniteHERE Local 75
University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA)
University of Toronto General Assembly (UTGA)
Refreshments will be provided
Email utgeneralassembly@gmail.com for more information
Facebook Event Page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=106004519482708&pending#!/event.php?eid=106004519482708
This event is endorsed by OPIRG-Toronto
