Lire la déclaration en français
The Communist Party of Québec expresses its full solidarity with the Concordia Research and Education Workers Union (CREW-CSN), on strike as of March 12 in pursuit of fair working conditions and a liveable wage.
The more than 2000 employees unionised by CREW-CSN, which represents Concordia University’s Research Assistants (RAs) and Teaching Assistants (TAs), have been without a collective agreement since May 2023. After negotiations stalled in February 2025, the union voted for a strike action by an overwhelming 95%. When a tentative collective agreement was subsequently rejected by the membership, CREW-CSN began the first strike of TAs and RAs in Concordia’s history.
The Communist Party fully supports the demands of the union members in their struggle for decent working conditions. TAs and Ras work is essential to the functioning of the university, and they deserve a living wage with cost of living adjustment. They deserve a guarantee of minimum contract hours and reasonable workloads. They deserve an end to the exploitative pattern of poorly-paid contracts whereby workers are expected to perform vast amounts of labour in just a handful of paid hours. The PCQ supports the union’s sorely needed demands which will contribute to create stable positions and decent work for TAs and Ras.
This is all the more true at a time when access to higher education in Québec and in Canada is under attack like never before. In recent years, the linked impacts of austerity and the commodification of education have seen programmes defunded, jobs eliminated, and fees increased. The brutal financial restructuring at Laurentian University, which resulted in the elimination of 69 academic programmes and the summary termination of almost 200 staff members in 2021, is just one example of this phenomenon. More recently, the York University has also closed a swathe of programmes, and the same private company involved in both the above cases is now working on a restructuring plan for McGill University.
Furthermore, we denounce the Legault Government’s complicity in this concerted attack against a free, public and quality postsecondary education. Recently, under the fallacious pretext to protect Québec’s right to French-language education – which we defend – he substantially increased tuition fees for students coming from outside Québec. Disguised by this populist manoeuver, the end-goal is to increase tuition fees across the board in a more global perspective to decrease public funding not only for education, but for all public services. The mandate given to Martine Biron, head of Santé Québec, to cut $1.5 billion in health spendings stands as an eloquent example.
The systematic cutting of labour costs by forcing TAs and RAs to work harder for less money is another face of the very same process. We urgently need a united, militant and class-conscious labour movement to stand up to the commodification of education and the immiseration of those who work in it. Along with labour, students have to intensify the fight for access to free, public and high quality education provided by well-remunerated employees. The Communist Party stands in unwavering solidarity with CREW-CSN as they carry this struggle forward.