A message from the Camosun College student society: November 28th, 2012

Magazine Issue Campus November 28, 2012

Respect the picket lines

I have chosen not to cross the picket line at Camosun. Students and faculty members have stood in solidarity with the members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) LĽocal 2081, support staff at Camosun College, during their strike for a renewed contract with 0-0-2-2-percent wage increases over four years.

I choose not to cross picket lines because I respect, and am grateful for, the history of the union movement. Many Canadians have risked and often lost their lives in order to ensure that workers have basic rights such as fair wages, safe work environments, and fair treatment by employers.

While mistreatment by employers happens much less today than it did at the beginning of the union movement, it’s only been four years since the deaths of three workers at a non-unionized mushroom farm in Langley due to the lack of plans to protect workers from toxic gases, and many other workers face discrimination and abuse at the hands of their employers daily.

Unions today cover the kinds of jobs that students hope to obtain: jobs that provide decent wages (need to pay off student loan debt, anyone?), jobs that have access to benefits, and jobs that allow us to contribute meaningfully to society and to the economy. Unfortunately, only about 26 percent of the civilian labour force in Canada is unionized.

Should the CUPE strike at Camosun College continue, the student society hopes that students and their professors will choose to respect the picket line and pressure the government of British Columbia to fund a fair settlement.