Media Advisory – “SFU: Where is the money?” SFU workers to protest over living wage promises
Mass rally to take place Monday 2PM at SFU Burnaby Campus, Dining Commons
On Monday, December 11, dining workers, represented by UNITE HERE Local 40, and members of the Simon Fraser University (SFU) community will stand together to protest the university’s failure to pay dining workers a living wage.
As SFU administrators collect annual bonuses on top of their six-figure salaries, much of the dining staff earns less than $20 per hour. SFU has promised to pay a living wage to contracted dining workers, even budgeting $1.6 million for the increase. Yet, workers – many of them racialized women – have not seen a dime. Dining staff are not earning nearly enough to afford the cost of living in Metro Vancouver. The estimated living wage for a bare bones budget rose to $25.68 last month.
Many cafeteria workers only work nine months out of the year, which makes the call for living wages even more urgent. Family-supporting wages and year-round work could provide greater stability for SFU dining workers.
Contract workers are overworked and continue to be denied a living wage — more than a year after SFU said it would become a Living Wage Employer. The university treats contracted workers like they are second-class by denying them access to library services, barring their kids from on-campus daycares, and excluding their spouses and children from tuition discounts provided to faculty members.
Meanwhile, food and cleaning workers at UVic and UBC, who are university employees, are spared from holiday layoffs, while enjoying better pay and benefits than their SFU counterparts.
On Monday, students, faculty, professors, union leaders and community members will stand with contract workers to remind the SFU Administration that they cannot continue to ignore the workers who make the university work every day.
WHAT: Mass Protest at SFU Burnaby Campus
WHEN: Monday, December 11th at 2:00PM
WHO: SFU contracted dining staff joined by students, faculty, professors, union leaders and community members
WHERE: SFU Burnaby Campus, Dining Commons (8888 University Dr W, Burnaby)
VISUALS: Workers chanting, marching, and speaking with colourful signs and bullhorns
Media Contact: Kai Sharpe, 604-889-6960, kai@unitehere40.com