02/29/2024
Osgoode Hall Law Union: Statement of Core Principles in support of CUPE 3903 (February 29, 2024)
The Osgoode Hall Law Union categorically supports the members of CUPE 3903 in their ongoing strike action. The education workers are striking for increases to wages, health benefits, and other supports needed to meet record-high inflation and the skyrocketing cost of living; stronger protections against harassment and discrimination in the workplace; and job security measures that provide the stability and predictability necessary for education workers to create ongoing inclusive learning experiences at our school.
We understand that the working conditions of York’s contract faculty workers, graduate assistants, teaching assistants, and library workers are integrally linked to our learning conditions at Osgoode and to the quality of education throughout York University. Any precarity that adversely impacts these workers necessarily impacts our learning conditions. For us the question, asked by our comrades in CUPE 3903, “Who can afford to work at York?” raises another question: who can expect to receive a quality education at a university where instructors are overworked, underpaid, and underresourced?
CUPE 3903’s members are also our fellow students, and we recognize that our struggle as law students committed to fighting for social justice is inextricably linked to our peers in CUPE 3903’s struggle to secure equitable and accessible education for all. Our struggles are bound together, and as long as CUPE 3903 members are on strike, the Osgoode Hall Law Union will stand in steadfast solidarity.
For the duration of the strike, OHLU plans to support CUPE 3903 with an approach informed by three core principles:
1. Advocacy
a. Our members will advocate on behalf of Osgoode students impacted by the strike. We will maintain communication with the Osgoode administration and will work to ensure that labour disruption students’ academic and political rights are respected and that the accommodations and remedies arising from those rights are equitably implemented. This includes accommodations for students continuing to participate in academic activities but refusing to cross picket lines, as well as remedies for students refusing to participate in academic activities for the duration of the strike.
b. Our members will advocate in support of CUPE 3903’s strike action. We will express our support for the strike, as well as our endorsement of CUPE 3903’s proposals and demands, to the York University administration on an ongoing basis.
2. Support
a. Our members will work to support Osgoode students throughout the strike by ensuring students are informed about the issues underlying the strike as well as students’ rights related to the strike. This may include publishing Know Your Rights materials on OHLU socials, communicating directly with students seeking information about the strike or related issues, or amplifying information published by CUPE 3903.
b. As the strike continues, our members will organize socials or OHLU Tea Parties at off-campus locations where students can get together in person to discuss issues and events, share experiences, and plan our solidarity efforts.
3. Solidarity
a. Our members will not cross picket lines for the duration of the strike, and will ensure that all OHLU events are held off campus for the duration of the strike.
b. OHLU Members will take up positions on the pickets as much as we are able, and will encourage our peers at Osgoode to do the same.
c. Our members will show up to support CUPE 3903 events and rallies, and may work to act as legal observers or facilitate legal support at CUPE 3903 actions, depending on organizers' wishes.
Finally, we are deeply dismayed at the York University administration’s refusal to negotiate in good faith with CUPE 3903 on critical issues such as fair wages, job security, and protections against discrimination and harassment, throughout the bargaining period leading up to this strike. We remember the strike in 2018. We remember how the York University Administration stonewalled striking workers for months, showing contempt for the interests of students and workers alike until Premier Ford legislated CUPE 3903 back to work. Because of this hostile and uncompromising approach, the underlying issues that led to the strike in 2018 were never resolved, and following years of stagnant and unconstitutionally restricted wages, York’s community has once again reached this breaking point. We implore the York administration to do better this time around. Return to the table and negotiate a fair deal with the members of CUPE 3903, so that workers can return to the job of educating students.
OHLU welcomes all progressive-minded law students looking to get involved in strike support efforts. Email [email protected] to get connected and check out our linktree (linktr.ee/osgoodehalllawunion) for more information.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OYwrNg6pD-cxxnAQMKwHB98k1mLmvIBlkMa32W3zan4/edit?usp=sharing
