CANADIAN LABOUR-TORONTO:

SUPPORT U. OF T. SESSIONAL INSTRUCTORS:

The following appeal for solidarity comes from the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

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Tell the University of Toronto to treat sessional instructors fairly.:
Sessional instructors at the University of Toronto, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 3902, Unit 3, will be in a legal strike position on Monday November 9.

On average, U of T sessional instructors earn only $15,000 a year, and have to re-apply for their jobs every four to eight months. They are fighting for increases in line with other university workers in the Toronto area, and for a better system of hiring that would allow senior sessionals some security and the ability to better plan their working and financial lives.

Please send University of Toronto provost Cheryl Misak and University of Toronto president David Naylor a short e-mail, asking them to make sure that a fair deal is reached this week.

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THE LETTER:

Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to the Administration at the University of Toronto.

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I'm writing to ask you to offer sessional instructors at the University of Toronto a reasonable contract. They are some of the poorest paid workers at the University and yet provide invaluable services to students while enriching campus life. They deserve to earn a fair wage on par with their colleagues at other institutions in the GTA and in the university community itself. Offering them less than 2% per year is unconscionable when University of Toronto student instuctors got 3.5% in their most recent contract and York sessionals continue to make 5-12% more per course for doing equal work with equal qualifications.

The University should be doing everything possible to retain the skills of these professionals and that includes paying them decently while offering them some form of job security. The current practice of having them laid off every academic term is demoralizing for them and a potential waste of valuable human resources for the University and its 40,000 undergraduate students. I urge you to offer sessional employees a fair deal at the table in the coming days.