Communiqué #7
Your Bargaining Team's Email to Mattew Evans
March 26-1
Statement RE_ BargTeamAppearance
Grad Student Research Builds this University
A Letter to Graduate Student Workers in Response to Bob Lemieux, Interim Dean of Arts and Science
Dear PSAC 901 Members,You know who you are. You know the work you do for this university. You are the ones who develop Queen’s most innovative research. You create the knowledge that moves this institution. You publish articles and papers with Queen’s University name next to yours. You attend conferences, apply for grants, participate in the committees that shape this university.
You are this university.Whether as workers or as students, this university is built on our labour.
You are what makes Queen’s work. We are what makes Queen’s work.There are grey areas that the employer will use to their advantage to weaken our collective power in an attempt to divide us. When we ask for an adequate funding package, they say we have to work for it. When we fight for a fair work contract, they tell us our responsibilities as students.PSAC 901’s stance has never been ambiguous: we fight for an equitable funding-to-labour ratio and tuition minimization, ensuring we can put food on the table while nurturing our intellectual growth as researchers. We are tired of the divide between our student and worker identities. It’s time for Queen’s to treat us as graduate student workers, accepting the reality: We are not either/or, but both.We are writing today to specifically address the misinformation spread by Bob Lemieux, the Interim Dean of Arts and Science, on March 11, 2025. An email sent by Interim Dean Lemieux suggested that graduate students should go about ‘business as usual’ – should attend and even teach classes, cross our own picket lines, and surveil and report on our peers. This message is out of touch with the reality of the strike and out of touch with the reality of graduate student work. It reflects an administration that does not understand and does not care to understand the work that we do. It seeks only to undermine your legal right to strike and threaten PSAC 901’s rightful labour action.As a union, withholding labour is not only legal but also a rightful expression of our collective bargaining power. Creating neccessary disruptions, such as picketing, is essential to remind Queen’s upper administration: pretending ‘business as usual’ is delusional when your student-workers cannot afford rent. We encourage all graduate student workers, whether you are in a contract or not, to stop attending graduate courses, events held on campus, and research done outside of TA, TF, and RA contracts, in your capacity.Bob Lemieux’s messaging is designed to lure you into scabbing – performing the work of striking workers, such as grading assignments, giving lectures, and answering student emails. Any threat or effort to retaliate against your participation in union activity is a violation of your rights to Freedom of Association, Freedom of Assembly in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – it is a violation of your right to participate in your own union’s legal activity as outlined in the Ontario Labour Relations Act. This is true whether you are a domestic or international student. Do not let Queen’s tell you otherwise. It is disgusting that Queen’s has spent all these efforts to undermine your rights instead of treating you and your demands with respect.Your Union has created a Strike Breaking Report Form for you to report any attempts by Queen’s employer representatives to pressure or mislead you and undermine your strike action. We’ve also prepared a sample reply for your reference when expressing your disagreement with this misinformation spreading from your department/ school/ program.We call on you and everyone in Kingston’s community to join us for an ALL OUT Solidarity Action by showing up on Friday, March 14, at 11 AM, outside Stauffer Library, to demonstrate our unity.See you on the picket lines!
You are this university.Whether as workers or as students, this university is built on our labour.
You are what makes Queen’s work. We are what makes Queen’s work.There are grey areas that the employer will use to their advantage to weaken our collective power in an attempt to divide us. When we ask for an adequate funding package, they say we have to work for it. When we fight for a fair work contract, they tell us our responsibilities as students.PSAC 901’s stance has never been ambiguous: we fight for an equitable funding-to-labour ratio and tuition minimization, ensuring we can put food on the table while nurturing our intellectual growth as researchers. We are tired of the divide between our student and worker identities. It’s time for Queen’s to treat us as graduate student workers, accepting the reality: We are not either/or, but both.We are writing today to specifically address the misinformation spread by Bob Lemieux, the Interim Dean of Arts and Science, on March 11, 2025. An email sent by Interim Dean Lemieux suggested that graduate students should go about ‘business as usual’ – should attend and even teach classes, cross our own picket lines, and surveil and report on our peers. This message is out of touch with the reality of the strike and out of touch with the reality of graduate student work. It reflects an administration that does not understand and does not care to understand the work that we do. It seeks only to undermine your legal right to strike and threaten PSAC 901’s rightful labour action.As a union, withholding labour is not only legal but also a rightful expression of our collective bargaining power. Creating neccessary disruptions, such as picketing, is essential to remind Queen’s upper administration: pretending ‘business as usual’ is delusional when your student-workers cannot afford rent. We encourage all graduate student workers, whether you are in a contract or not, to stop attending graduate courses, events held on campus, and research done outside of TA, TF, and RA contracts, in your capacity.Bob Lemieux’s messaging is designed to lure you into scabbing – performing the work of striking workers, such as grading assignments, giving lectures, and answering student emails. Any threat or effort to retaliate against your participation in union activity is a violation of your rights to Freedom of Association, Freedom of Assembly in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – it is a violation of your right to participate in your own union’s legal activity as outlined in the Ontario Labour Relations Act. This is true whether you are a domestic or international student. Do not let Queen’s tell you otherwise. It is disgusting that Queen’s has spent all these efforts to undermine your rights instead of treating you and your demands with respect.Your Union has created a Strike Breaking Report Form for you to report any attempts by Queen’s employer representatives to pressure or mislead you and undermine your strike action. We’ve also prepared a sample reply for your reference when expressing your disagreement with this misinformation spreading from your department/ school/ program.We call on you and everyone in Kingston’s community to join us for an ALL OUT Solidarity Action by showing up on Friday, March 14, at 11 AM, outside Stauffer Library, to demonstrate our unity.See you on the picket lines!
Solidarity forever!
PSAC 901