Dispatch from the Front Line: So ... virtual school again, eh? Awesome!
Lots of Ontario! The NWC. Chrystia Freeland: Minister of Oblivious Elitism. The right-wing turns into the left-wing (in a bad way). POEC, bad cops, and more.
Happy Saturday to our Line readers, and especially those in the parts of the country enjoying unseasonably beautiful weather. We hope you’re taking some time to get outside, even if it’s just to rake some leaves in the sun. We all know full well this won’t last — it’s already over in some parts of our fair dominion, so enjoy it while you can.
Enjoy, as well, this week’s dispatch meeting video.
If you’d rather just listen, check out the podcast!
We're going to start off this dispatch by noting that we have a lot of sympathy for the education workers who are now conducting an illegal strike in Ontario. Calling them such may be a bit of a misnomer; the teachers, which is what most people think of when they think of education, are represented by other unions. The group now striking comprises educational assistants, custodians, secretaries, early childhood educators, IT workers, library staff, and maintenance workers — the people that keep the schools running while the teachers teach.
They are also, on average, the lowest-paid workers in the educational hierarchy, which ought not to surprise anyone given the job descriptions. According to their union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, these workers make, on average, $39,000. This is a bit cute — that includes part-time workers, so that awfully low number is maximally favourable to CUPE’s PR efforts. Many of the workers represented by CUPE make much more reasonable wages.