MEDIA ADVISORY
For immediate release
Unions at Queen’s University to make major announcement on April 4
Kingston, ON. – Assembly April 4, 2024 (11:45am – 1:00pm)
Unity Council at Queen’s University
Leaders of several unions representing almost 5,000 employees of Queen’s University and Aramark will host a public assembly for their members on Thursday, April 4, at 12pm at the Main Gym, Queen’s Athletic Recreation Centre (ARC), 284 Earl Street, Kingston.
Posters around campus invite all unionized and non-unionized workers on campus, to a “Joint Members Assembly” at which a “pre-bargaining announcement” will be publicized.
An email sent to union members yesterday questioned the timing of the university’s claims of a budget crisis. That the budget woes appeared just as most unionized workers on campus are about to enter bargaining “is not lost on us,” the email said.
“We, the workers of Queen’s University and Aramark,” another email to workers said, “are united in our desire to build and maintain a world-class public university.”
Queen’s short-sighted budgeting decisions – including a hiring freeze and cuts to core programs and courses – jeopardize that goal.
“In order to adequately support Queen’s mission,” the email to workers says, “we need proper staffing, and we need our workers, representing thousands of members of the Kingston community, to be paid enough to live comfortably and with dignity. Queen’s workers are united. We will fight for what is right for Queen’s workers and students. We will fight for what is right for Kingston.”
WHO: CUPE 229, CUPE 254, CUPE 1302, PSAC 901, QUFA, USW 2010 & 2010-01, Queen’s Employees
WHAT: Unions at Queen’s University to make major announcement
WHERE: Main Gym, Athletics and Recreation Centre (ARC), Queen’s University, 284 Earl Street, Kingston
WHEN: Thursday, April 4, 2024, 11:45am – 1:00 p.m.
Media and the public are welcome to the assembly next Thursday, where leaders of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), and United Steelworkers (USW) will address their members and signal their intentions for the upcoming round of bargaining with the university.
For further Information:
- Steve Senechal, President CUPE Local 229 (Custodial/Maintenance Workers), 343.363.0336, president@cupe229.com
- James Adams-Moore, Vice-President, CUPE Local 229-1 (Food Services Workers, Aramark), 613.453.7803, jimmyonescoop@gmail.com
- Jake Morrow, Bargaining Committee, PSAC Local 901 (Graduate Student Workers), 647.574.0516, jake.r.morrow@gmail.com
- Kelly Orser, President, USW Local 2010 (Support Staff & Academic Assistants Workers), 613.539.8210, president@usw2010.ca