A post in support of CUPE
Everything Is True
Ada Hoffmann's author newsletter
I'm going to uncharacteristically veer into politics this week because I'm so relieved about something that just happened here in Ontario.
I've been following the CUPE strike here with intense and worried interest. For those of you who are not from here, CUPE is a union representing, not teachers, but other people who do essential work in K-12 schools such as secretaries and janitors. They generally have very low wages and very high levels of pandemic-related stress. CUPE had been trying to negotiate with the provincial government for better wages. When the negotiations weren't progressing, and CUPE started talking about job action, the government passed emergency legislation to make it illegal for them to go on strike.
This legislation was really scary. It imposed fines so heavy that one day of striking would cost more than the average CUPE worker's whole monthly salary. It was also in violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which protects the right of unions to go on strike, among many other human rights; but in Canada there are legal shenanigans a provincial government can do to get around the Charter if it's important enough to them.
I have been watching these events unfold not only with a general interest in right and wrong but also with some specific concerns about my own job. As an academic, I am not a member of CUPE but of a different union; however they are both public sector unions in the field of education, and they both contain some drastically underpaid, exploited workers (greetings, fellow adjuncts). My union is going through its own increasingly frustrating series of negotiations with the university administration, and what happens to CUPE will set a precedent that will affect what happens in any similar situation with any similar union.
Anyway, CUPE called the government's bluff and went on strike immediately, and there were widespread protests. After a couple of days, the government folded and withdrew the legislation.
This is not the end of CUPE's troubles - they are still in negotiations and still trying to get better wages! - but it's a relief for now, and a necessary step.
I am aware there is also a big election in the US today (it is quite difficult to miss the American news, regardless of where one is in the world). As I often do, I have stepped back from places like Twitter for a few days so that I can get the news in measured amounts, from actual news outlets, instead of by doomscrolling and getting caught in a wave of despair. (Everyone's talking about whether or not they'll stay on Twitter anyway, so it's no big loss.) If you are in the US, I do wish you well, and I hope voting goes quickly and easily and gets results that are compatible with your wellbeing and survival.
There's been this increasing feeling for the past several years - the better part of the past decade, I suppose - that the world is slowly tipping into a dystopia. That feeling is more intense and unremitting in some places than others, but we have our own quiet version of it in Canada.
I don't really have it in me today to turn this into a rousing message of hope, but it is nice to know that even now, the bad guys still don't always win. Sometimes, people rise up together and it actually affects something - sometimes even quickly. That's all I can give you today.