Striking cafeteria workers visit Queen's Park, calling for Premier's assistance in ending poverty-wage jobs on Toronto University campuses
TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 21, 2017) - Striking cafeteria workers working for a sub-contractor at the University of Toronto Scarborough Campus and York University visited Queen's Park today, part of their campaign to end poverty-wage jobs on Toronto's university campuses.
As the provincial government considers a number of measures to address the explosion of precarious work in Ontario -- low-wage jobs with little job security -- almost 5,000 people signed petitions calling on the universities and the Liberal government to make a commitment to good jobs, so no worker on campus earns a wage that keeps them in poverty.
"We know that Premier Wynne thinks that the people serving food to Toronto's university communities deserve better than this," says UNITE HERE Local 75 President Lis Pimentel. "It's outrageous that any worker on a university campus should be making $11.50 an hour, and hiding those jobs behind a sub-contractor is no excuse."
"It's impossible to make ends meet on $12.21 an hour," says Anne Cuevas, a food service worker working for Aramark at York University. "How can we support our families on poverty wages?"
Striking workers at U of T's Scarborough Campus have also spoken out against the inequality they face in their particular situation. "While most of us are struggling in Scarborough making $11.50 an hour, cafeteria workers working directly for the university at the downtown St. George campus are making upwards of $20.00 an hour," says Rayappu Jesudasan, a cafeteria worker at the Scarborough Campus. "Scarborough workers and the Scarborough Campus aren't second class."
The visit to Queen's Park is part of a co-ordinated week of action this week, which is "reading week" on university campuses. The striking workers plan on a series of outreach actions at a number of prominent locations across the city core, including the University of Toronto's main downtown campus and City Hall.
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