The Martlet

The Ontario government passed back-to-work legislation on Jan. 29, aimed at undercutting the rights of workers.

The ruling ordered the members of CUPE 3903 to return to work, and refused them the right to bargain. The members of CUPE 4163 at UVic stood by these workers in calling on the government of Ontario to allow the constitutionally protected tradition of collective bargaining to continue, and to instead require the administration of York University to return to the bargaining table.

Yet a number of issues remain unresolved. These issues are present throughout the university system, including the one here in Victoria. We hear constantly that we live in a time of economic uncertainty. As belts tighten, corporations and governments are looking for ways to save money, to cut corners and to trim costs. We must resist the urge to let them do so over the bodies of workers.

By undercutting the rights of these workers, this back-to-work legislation threatens all of us. This attack on workers’ rights must be fought.

This legislation will have far-reaching consequences.

The university’s knowledge that they may have final recourse to back-to-work legislation in the face of determined workers allows them to avoid negotiating entirely, and they can simply wait for an imposed settlement.

The argument is made that it is the rights of students which should be thought of in this case. Students were out of the classroom for 85 days, and the Ontario government argued that they must not be made to pay the price of this conflict. The best interests of students must indeed be held foremost by all parties, but to return them to classes without a resolution is not in their interests at all.

The fact that this resolution does not place students first is further reinforced by the reality that graduate student TA’s, who are also being prevented from attending class as a result of this strike, voted almost two to one to support the union in continuing this action in the absence of a just offer.

Strikes by educational workers are not undertaken lightly, so why did these students remain off the job for so long? The truth of the matter is that there is a growing crisis in our university system. We face what has been described as an attempt to introduce the policies of Walmart to our system of higher education. Each year, a larger proportion of the teaching and research at universities is undertaken by workers who are given little pay, and even less security.

These contract faculty do not know, from one term to the next, whether or not they will even be teaching. Imagine the pressure this places on teachers, and the effects this uncertainty has on the students who rely on them for their education. This situation is not in the interest of these workers, and it is certainly not in the interest of students.

It is this crisis which is at the heart of the struggle at York, and it is an issue which back-to-work legislation attempts to force out of sight, and out of mind. For the sake of the workers and students currently at York, and for the sake of future workers and students at universities across this country, this crisis needs to be addressed. It needs to be addressed through the system of collective bargaining, a system which the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled is a constitutionally protected practice, in a ruling which came in response to the last attempt, here in B.C., by a provincial government to enforce back-to-work legislation.

But this is not just an issue that affects workers. It is an issue which is of the utmost importance for students at every post secondary institution where this process is at work. Universities continue to raise tuition fees, charging students more and more for the education they provide. In exchange, it is time that students demanded that the quality of their education match these costs.

Contract faculty work long hours, with little security, to provide that education. It’s time that students and workers stood together and demanded that these workers receive the security and support they need to continue to provide the education which students deserve.