-

Academic staff at University of Toronto vote in support of strike action

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Saying that the University of Toronto is failing to provide a living wage, contract educators, contract instructors, teaching assistants, and post-doctoral researchers have voted 94.4 percent in favour of a strike if their employer does not take action to address the rising cost of living.

“We do the vast majority of teaching at the University of Toronto, but get paid less than other educators teaching the same courses. Instructors and the workers who teach labs, mark papers and foster the university’s world-class learning environment can’t even afford to live in the city they teach in,” said Eriks Bredovskis, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3902.

Nearly 8,000 academic workers, along with maintenance, caretakers, groundskeeping, residence and foodservice staff represented by CUPE Local 3261, will be in a legal strike position in early March.

Academic workers are seeking improvements to compensation that had been restrained for years by the Ford government’s unconstitutional Bill 124. As well, CUPE 3902 is pressing the university on inequalities faced by groups of workers who are paid less even though they do the same work as others on campus.

The union members are also demanding the university be a leader in Toronto by providing its most precarious workers with affordable sustainable access to transit – something that exists at most Canadian universities.

“Public transit is vitally important for working people, especially as the difference between our incomes and the cost of living are pushing us to live further and further from our workplace,” said Bredovskis. “What we are advocating for benefits workers and students alike. Our working conditions are their learning conditions.”

:PC/COPE491

Contacts

For more information, contact:
Craig Saunders, CUPE Communications | 416-576-7316 | csaunders@cupe.ca

Industry:

CUPE

Release Versions
English

Contacts

For more information, contact:
Craig Saunders, CUPE Communications | 416-576-7316 | csaunders@cupe.ca

More News From CUPE

Unionbusting and safety concerns continue at Rockcliffe Flying Club as CIRB delays certification

Ottawa, ON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Workers at the Rockcliffe Flying Club filed to join CUPE in December 2025 after raising concerns about workplace culture and aircraft safety. Instead of respecting those concerns and letting workers exercise their right to join a union, the employer has responded with delay, pressure, and retaliation. What should have been the straightforward certification process is still not finished, nearly four months later. In that time, workers say the employer has used the de...

TCDSB Ends Beloved Language Program After 50 Years, 77 Jobs Lost

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--On Thursday the Toronto Catholic District School Board announced that they will completely eliminate its long-standing International Languages Program, resulting in 77 dedicated language instructors losing their jobs. “This is a devastating and short-sighted decision,” said Val Di Gregorio, President of CUPE 3155, representing the language instructors. “For decades, this program has enriched students’ lives, strengthened communities and supported cultural connections....

“Cold-blooded decision on hospital funding,” says CUPE in response to Ford government’s 2026 budget

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The real dollar hospital funding cut announced in the 2026 provincial budget will intensify the crisis in Ontario’s hospitals, which are already funded at the lowest rate in the country, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees. “The government increased hospital funding by four per cent - a real cut of two per cent when measured against the six per cent increase in costs related to an ageing and growing population. This funding shortfall compounds a two per cent cu...
Back to Newsroom