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TORONTO, Ont. As students across Ontario take part in a Day of Action’ for a poverty-free Ontario, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario Sid Ryan issued a call to Premier Dalton McGuinty to implement the simplest anti-student poverty measure possibleputting a stop to unreasonable tuition hikes.
We have members in Hamilton who are on strike right now at McMaster University, and one of the key sticking points has been the university’s insistence on raising tuition and student fees far above the rate of inflation, said Ryan.
Members of CUPE 3906, representing more than 3,000 teaching assistants (TAs) and research assistants (RAs) at McMaster, went on strike earlier in the week. Among the outstanding issues on the table is the University Board of Governors’ recent approval of tuition increases ranging from $250 for undergraduate teaching assistants to $753 for international graduate student teaching assistants.
This is not the direction Ontario’s universities should be taking. If anything, our universities should be reducing tuition fees and the province should be taking steps to eliminate them outright, said Ryan.
Ryan, who attended Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario Day of Action events in Toronto, also called on students and union members to show their support for striking McMaster teaching and research assistants by joining them this afternoon on the picket line. Striking TAs and RAs will be joined by their supporters this afternoon at McMaster University’s Stirling entrance at 4:30 p.m.
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For more information contact:
Sid Ryan, CUPE Ontario President: 416-209-0066
Kevin Wilson, CUPE Communications: 416-821-6641
