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Joint Special Membership Assembly
April 4 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm
“Queen’s is an important partner in Kingston’s local and regional community. Our students, faculty, and staff learn, work, and live here, contributing to a strong economy, vibrant arts and culture, and increased health and wellbeing.”
-Queen’s University Local Impact statement
Dear QUFA Members,
We, the joint Executive Committees of a substantial majority of all unionized workers at Queen’s University, are writing to invite our members and the Queen’s Community to join us at a Joint Special Membership Assembly on April 4th, at 12:00 pm, in the ARC main gym. At this historic event, we will be making an important announcement together.
This year, Queen’s is facing a budget deficit as a result of years of provincial government underfunding and tuition freezes. As we all know, budgets are political documents, and it is not lost on us that the current “crisis” suddenly appeared when Queen’s is either actively bargaining or preparing to bargain with nearly every unionized worker on campus. Like many of our neighbours in Kingston and across Ontario, we(1) recently had our wages illegally suppressed under Bill 124. That these are the first contracts to be negotiated following that unconstitutional law’s repeal is also not lost on us.
The more we all see and learn about how Queen’s decides to present its financial situation and prioritize its spending for the coming years, the more we doubt the administration’s claims and motivation. Their responses to the budget deficit threaten to cause immediate and long-lasting economic damage, not only to our members and their families, but to the broader Kingston community — our community — by way of layoffs, a hiring freeze, non-renewals, and loss of real-wages in a continuing, and very real, cost of living crisis. Queen’s University is the largest employer in Kingston. United, the members of our unions represent almost 5,000 workers in this community. We will not let Queen’s address its deficit crisis on our backs: an injury to our members is an injury to the entire Kingston community.
As the majority of our members prepare to enter bargaining, we stand together to declare that as workers and community members we cannot and will not be the ones to finance the budget shortfall by continuing to sacrifice our purchasing power and our jobs. Queen’s has to engage with the unions to ensure our members, their workers, can afford a reasonable standard of living and can continue to contribute to a vibrant Kingston community.
Our solidarity is our strength, and we plan to demonstrate that on April 4th and every day until we all get a fair contract.
Sincerely,
CUPE 229, CUPE 254, CUPE 1302, ONA 067, OPSEU 452, PSAC 901, USW 2010, QUFA
(1) QUFA was one of the few unions in Ontario to avoid the unconstitutional wage moderation imposed by Bill 124.
After the Assembly, please join us for a social at the University Club at 4pm.