A thousand workers at the University of Toronto, including maintenance workers, caretakers, groundskeepers, veterinary technicians, residence and foodservice staff, and others voted 93% in favour of a strike if their employer does not take action to address the rising cost of living and provide a living wage.
“The cost of rent keeps going up. The price of food, of gas, of transit are all going up. More and more, we can’t afford to live in the city we work in and have to work multiple jobs to make ends meet,” said Luke Daccord, President of CUPE 3261, which represents about 1,000 blue-collar workers at the university.
The vote follows a similar decision by 7,000 academic workers in CUPE 3902, meaning 8,000 University of Toronto workers will be in a legal strike position in early March.
“So often we’re the people who see students every day and are a constant in their lives as they’re ad justing to living away from home for the first time,” said Daccord. “Working at a university isn’t like working for a corporation. But the university contracts out our work as if we’re disposable and people’s pay for the same work lower in some buildings than others. There should be equality, fairness and at least a living wage for everyone who works at UofT.”