On Monday, union leaders from across Ontario descended on the University of Toronto campus, vowing to physically defend the students.
“Our job is to put our bodies in between you and whatever the administration brings to you,” JP Hornick, president, Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU), told a rally by the protesters and their allies. “If the police come, we will be your human shields. We will be your line of defence. And I promise you that we will be here for as long as it takes to make sure that you are safe.”
Laura Walton, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), pledged not only her union membership in defence of the protesters, but her own maternal instinct.
On Saturday, in response to the university’s trespassing notice, the OFL’s Walton issued a call to all unions to support the encampment, and on Monday she was joined by four past and present union leaders, including Sid Ryan, former head of CUPE; Fred Hahn, current president of CUPE; and Carolyn Egan, president, United Steelworkers (USW) Toronto Area Council.
Walton said that, in her mind, support for the protesters is undeniably linked to labour issues. “If the university administrators can get away with trampling on your rights to protest and dismissing your legitimate demands, then employers everywhere will feel emboldened to do the same,” she said.
They have to speak up and defend those that are standing up for the rights of others … because that is what unions are for!
Good for them and I’m so happy to see them up there fighting for the freedom of people.
Right wingers will chant freedom in the streets without ever being fully aware of what freedom means or just generalizing their message of freedom to only being about their own personal freedom to be idiots.
Unions are the real freedom fighters in our world … they fight for freedom … they fight for everyone’s freedom, especially for those who don’t have it or have lost their freedom.
Unions are representing the people in our country more powerfully and morally that our government is. They are the real leaders in our country. Those in power only represent power and money … unions represent the people - all people - everywhere!
This makes me so happy to see. Good for them!