(This article is from the WLUFA Advocate October 2016 5.1.)
Kimberly Ellis-Hale
CF Sociology
Beginning with the highly successful Rally for Decent Work at Queen’s Park and ending with Fair Employment Week, October is an important month for those who believe that fair employment is worth fighting for.
This summer witnessed CUPE’s determined Super 16 struggle to ensure that in their union, all jobs were good jobs. While some may choose to see the failure to halt the contracting-out of custodian positions as theirs, in reality it was ours -all of us.
How can we, in good faith, extoll the virtues and benefits of a post secondary education when we fail to actively engage in ensuring decent work for our colleagues, graduates and those in the communities that support us?
We, Laurier, lost the CUPE 926 fight to our worst, most self-centred selves. Let us not repeat that history with our Contract Faculty.
This Fair Employment Week (October 24-28):
- wear a button in support of CF
- post supportive CF materials outside your office
- acknowledge CF’s contributions to your department
- educate others regarding the precarity of CF
- use social media in support of CF
- offer to assist with CF information tables: Oct 25th Waterloo/Concourse or Oct 26th Brantford/RCW
- attend the Oct 26th screening of Contract Faculty: Injustice in the University at the Princess Twin in Waterloo
- write a letter in support of CF to the editor of a local paper
By actively showing support for CF and opposition to precarious employment, we can prevent history from repeating itself.
For more information and a wealth of resources (including buttons and print materials), please go to www.wlufa.ca or contact WLUFA directly by emailing wlufa@wlu.ca or calling 519-884-1970 Ext. 2603.
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