Update: These workers have just reached a tentative agreement, as of very early on February 3rd!
On Friday, January 10th, five CUPE bargaining units representing workers at Queen’s University filed for no boards, meaning potential strike action on February 3rd. CUPE 3903 offers its support and solidarity to CUPE 229, CUPE 254, and CUPE 1302 in their challenging current bargaining cycle.
Collectively, these units represent more than 1,000 workers, who are concerned about the growing cost-of-living crisis, chronic understaffing, and serious job stability issues. It is crucial for these workers to make meaningful gains in bargaining, especially as Kingston (where Queen’s University is located) has declared food insecurity an emergency, impacting 1 out of every 3 people in the area.
The workers confronting these challenges include fundamental and often underappreciated parts of our universities: tradespeople, custodians, and caretakers in CUPE 229; two units of foodservice workers employed by Aramark under contract with Queen’s, plus classroom and laboratory technicians in CUPE 254; and library technicians in CUPE 1302.
Queen’s University has failed to bring worthwhile offers to the table. In fact, these workers are seeing some of the worst offers in the sector in Ontario, including zero corrective measures for the Bill 124, which unconstitutionally limited their monetary gains in their last contracts to 1% per year during a period of rapid inflation. At CUPE 3903, we also know the struggle of facing less than we deserve at the bargaining table, and we salute efforts to organize collaboratively to fight back against this treatment.
CUPE 3903 stands with CUPE 229, CUPE 254, and CUPE 1302 in their struggle for a fair deal that better meets the needs of their members. The wins they achieve have ripple effects that impact all of us as fellow university workers. We offer our solidarity to these unions who are united in collectively pushing for better outcomes, ones that go beyond the inadequate proposals that have been presented so far.