By: David Heap
When I was a kid, my dad worked as a printer-slotter in a cardboard box factory, and when he was on day shifts, I knew he would be home around the time I got back from school. At one point, he started coming home later as well as leaving earlier in the morning, and he explained to me why: there was a strike by another union (operating engineers) at the same factory, and while his union (Canadian Paperworkers Union) could not strike during their contract, he would arrive 30 minutes early and stay 30 minutes after his shift, to picket with the other workers who were on strike and show them that they were not alone. Picketing together helped members of the other union achieve a better settlement sooner, and building solidarity between the two unions would help his union the next time they bargained.
This early lesson has stayed with me: when any group of unionized workers takes the initiative to strike to improve their conditions and defend their rights, joining their picket line is a concrete act of solidarity that makes a real difference. Since then I have made it my habit to join striking workers on their picket lines, sometimes on my own, and sometimes with others from the London & District Labour Council, where I am UWOFA’s official observer (the LDLC is a great place to learn about local labour struggles). Lately, I haven’t had to go far to find picket lines, since our Employer at Western has precipitated three strikes in less than 11 months.
Last October I joined members of the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) as they picketed at Western in defense of their right to a fair contract. Their local bargaining unit has only 12 members, so extra picketers were useful in convincing bus drivers from the Amalgamated Transit Union (Local 741) to get London Transit Commission buses detoured from campus, which in turn contributed to the quick settlement of the IUOE strike.
When the Graduate Teaching Assistants of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC Local 610) struck for a fair contract at Western earlier this year, many UWOFA Members joined their lines in solidarity. Some, like the librarian and archivists bargaining unit and FIMS faculty, organized group pickets with their colleagues to support the GTAs, while others turned up on their own to join PSAC lines, and at support rallies with UWOFA, CUPE 2361 and others. While that strike lasted longer (from April 11 to 29) than the IUOE strike, it was clear that seeing UWOFA members join them on the line helped keep morale up for striking PSAC members.
As the cleaning, groundskeeping, skilled trades and arena workers of CUPE 2361 face the fourth week of their strike at Western, it is more important than ever to join their picket lines. I can tell you from direct experience that these employees, whose work keeps our workplaces safe and clean, are often pleasantly surprised to see faculty, librarians and archivists who care enough to walk the line with them, even for a short time. CUPE 2361 picket shifts start as early as 7am and run as late as 6pm: locations vary but there is usually a group picketing along Western Road, at Philip Aziz Drive (Sarnia Rd) and/or at the Springett parking lot entrance.
We have all seen the increased traffic congestion around campus, so as we walk and talk with CUPE 2361 picketers, we can recognize that our Employer has made things worse by closing the roads through campus. And most importantly, our support helps their demands for a fair and timely contract at Western.
I began writing this reflection on the train returning from a CAUT “flying picket” at the McGIll law school strike in Montréal. As UWOFA members, we all contribute dues to the Canadian Association of University Teachers Defense Fund, which provides strike pay and other benefits to member associations when and if they decide to strike. The Defence Fund also brings colleagues from faculty associations across Canada to support striking faculty associations as “flying (or driving) pickets”, once a week as long as a strike lasts. Our UWOFA librarians and archivists benefited from this support when they struck for two weeks in 2011. Our colleagues in the Association of McGill Professor of Law are striking now (the continuation of a strike they began in the spring and paused over the summer) for recognition of their union: their intransigent Employer has yet to even come to the table to negotiate a first collective agreement. Facing what appears to be an Employer bent on breaking their union before it starts, our striking colleagues welcome the support from faculty associations from across Canada, as well as from members of other unions in the Montréal area.
As James Compton, FIMS faculty and past UWOFA president as well as past president of the Canadian Association of University Teachers, says “Joining a solidarity picket is an act of enlightened collective interest. We are all stronger together, and, therefore, more capable of pressing for, and achieving our legitimate goals as workers. ”
James adds “When joining CAUT Flying Pickets, as I’ve had the honour of doing many times, there is a joy in greeting colleagues from around the country who are genuinely elated to experience the solidarity brought to the picket line. In Montréal this past week I joined solidarity pickets for striking law professors at McGill and for striking support staff at Concordia. Unions from around the city came together and marched through the downtown core between the two campuses in a display of shared collective interest. This is what solidarity looks like.” Amanda Gzryb, also of FIMS, comments on her experiences as part of CAUT Flying Pickets: “For me, solidarity picketing with striking faculty members at other universities is fundamentally about recognizing about how our struggles – to protect academic freedom, to fight for an end to precarious labour and exploitation of sessional instructors, to challenge the increasingly neoliberal policies of university administrations – are linked across the country. Their fight is also our fight.”
Peter Chidiac, UWOFA steward in the Pharmacology and Physiology Department (Schulich) explains why he attended last Friday’s downtown rally in support of CUPE 2361 strikers: “It puzzles me why Western’s upper management chooses to have adversarial relationships with labour groups that contribute to the mission of the University. Though Shepard et al. are nominally academics, I feel that I have more in common with our colleagues who ensure the functionality, cleanliness and safety of our campus, and I sympathize with their desire to earn a fair wage with reasonable benefits.” Kim Verwayen of Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies who also attended the rally Friday, adds that: “It’s hurtful to see our friends and co-workers from CUPE 2361 having to fight so hard simply for the basics of fair wages and a fair deal. ALL of us who work and study at Western rely on their services!”
Whether you join CUPE at a community solidarity rally or on one of their picket lines, or if you have the opportunity to join another picket line in our community or elsewhere, you should remember this: our collective interests are tied to theirs. Helping win better contracts for other unions at Western and for other faculty unions across Canada helps further the interests of UWOFA’s faculty, librarians and archivist Members.
David Heap is UWOFA’s Mobilization Chair and a faculty member in the Department of French Studies and the Interfaculty Linguistics Program