CUPE 3902 and 3903 Strike Action- a call for support and solidarity

[Sasha Kovacs]

March 16th 2015 
Dear CanDrama members and CATR/ACRT colleagues,

We write this to you from the picket lines across Toronto, where many members of the CATR/ACRT graduate student constituency now walk. As you may know, close to 10,000 teaching assistants and course instructors at two of Canada’s largest universities are currently on strike. As members of CUPE 3902 and CUPE 3903, their bargaining calls vary, but overall the demands from these union members are as follows: increased support to offset tuition fees in years when students are out of the funded cohort (UofT), tuition indexation (York), recognition of LGBTQ status as equity group (York), minimum funding for master’s students (York), improved support to the minimum funding package, specifically with the goal that this package reach the poverty line and be indexed to inflation (UofT).

Many CanDrama subscribers are members of CATR/ACRT, have long relationships with the student workers that now strike, and are aware of the immense contributions they make to the development of a robust culture of theatre research within Canada. It is these teaching assistants, research assistants, and course instructors that are principally, at these larger institutions, responsible for the education of undergraduates in the fields of drama, theatre, and performance studies. These individuals also represent the future of the association—their research, publication, artistic activity, and service enhances its reputation and professional status. 

In most cases though, these are also individuals who live below the poverty line, and without the hope for a future that includes job security, decent pay, and proper working conditions. Inevitably, this reality affects undergraduate learning conditions, but also plays a great part in the erosion of the mental health of workers and emerging scholars across the country. The strikes at York University and University of Toronto are a blunt response to these conditions and their adverse effects.

They are also a retort to widespread developments in higher education that effect the future of our field. The marginalization of the humanities, the rise of precarious employment, the widespread hostility towards organized labour, the austerity agenda (incongruous with a reality of ballooning administrator salaries)— we, as a group, must confront these conditions and circumstances at our own institutions and within our own organizations. It seems the discourse and formative action of Dickeson’s “prioritization” model (discussed so robustly amongst the CATR membership at the last annual meeting) is not limited to just “programs,” at the administrative level—it extends also to the prioritization of people. 

As elected graduate student representatives of CATR/ACRT, we encourage all CanDrama subscribers as well as Association members to stand with graduate students in solidarity. You can do so by developing an open letter of support from your department (see examples below), by writing a personal letter to one of the emails listed below, or (if you are in town) by offering some amount of time in the coming weeks to join graduate student workers on the picket line at either University of Toronto or York. We also invite those of you that are alumni of either the UofT or YorkU to consider adding your name to the open letters that were drafted by those departments (see links below).

We recognize that not all CanDrama subscribers or CATR/ACRT members may support the decision of CUPE 3902 and CUPE 3903 to strike. We hope, however, that everyone will consider this an opportunity to join a conversation about the effects of increased corporatization at our universities, and the future of our field.

We thank you in advance for your actions and considerations.

In solidarity,


Sasha Kovacs & Helene Vosters

Graduate Student Representatives, Canadian Association of Theatre Research/Association Canadienne pour la Recherche Théâtrale


sashakovacs at gmail.com

helenevosters at gmail.com


Read/Add Your Name to Statements of Support:

Letter of Support from the University of Toronto Centre for Drama, Theatre, and Performance Studies: https://dramacentreuotstatement.wordpress.com

Open Letter of Support from York University’s Theatre and Performance Studies: http://theatreandperformanceyorkstatement.com




Send a Message to York University

Mamdouh Shoukri, President and Vice-Chancellor/ president at yorku.ca


 	Rhonda Lenton, Vice-President Academic & Provost/ provost at yorku.ca

Senate Chair: Roxanne Mykitiuk, Osgoode Law School/ rmykitiuk at osgoode.yorku.ca

Senate Vice-Chair: George Comninel, Liberal Arts & Professional Studies/ comninel at yorku.ca

Senate Secretary: Maureen Armstrong, University Secretary & General Counsel/ maureena at yorku.ca

	“A Better York is Possible Campaign” Organized by CUPE 3903 online: http://betteryork.ca/about-us/



Send a Message to the University of Toronto:

Alex Brat, Director of Labour Relations/alex.brat at utoronto.ca/ +1.416.946.7186

Professor Angela Hildyard, Vice President for Human Resources & Equity/ angela.hildyard at utoronto.ca/ +1.416.978.7156

	Office of the Vice-President, Human Resources and Equity Room 112, Simcoe Hall, 27 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1

Professor Cheryl Regehr, Provost/ provost at utoronto.ca/ +1.416.978.2122

Office of the Vice-President and Provost University of Toronto Simcoe Hall, Room 225, 27 King's College Circle, Toronto, ON M5S 1A1



Develop Your Own Statement of Support:

Open Letter from UofT Faculty Member in English Department: http://cupe3902unit1strikeblog.tumblr.com/post/113123276237/an-open-letter-from-prof-paul-downes-to-his

Open Statement of Support from YUFA Members: http://www.scribd.com/doc/257885766/Open-Statement-of-Support-From-YUFA-Members#scribd 

Statement of Support from York Undergrads: https://www.change.org/p/york-university-senate-executive-committee-statement-of-solidarity-with-cupe-3903-york-university-undergraduates?just_created=true




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