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Brandon Rhéal Amyot, National Chairperson
Canadian Federation of Students
Dear Brandon,
As Canada’s largest private sector union, representing 315,000 members across Canada, we write to express solidarity with you as you organize for a National Day of Action. We are proud to endorse your Fight the Fees Day of Action and share your vision for affordable, accessible post-secondary education for all. We support your organizing efforts to see this vision become reality in Canada.
The working people represented by our union work in many economic sectors, including manufacturing, communications, services, transportation and resources. They work in all regions and for some of the largest corporations in this country. Our members, just like yours, feel the pressures of Canada’s current affordability crisis on a daily basis.
It is why our union believes that universal public services, including health care and education, are the best way to provide working people with the social supports they need to learn, live, and provide or care for their loved ones.
Our union believes that post-secondary education is a right, not a privilege granted only to those who can afford it. Unfortunately, many Canadian provinces have moved to make post-secondary education increasingly out-of-reach for working people and their families.
We support your calls for lower tuition fees, for the elimination of interest on student loans, for greater public funding for post-secondary education, for increased investment in affordable housing for students near campuses and public transportation; and for increased access to intersectional mental health supports on campus. We support your calls for fairness for international students, and for Indigenous learners to ensure that a quality education is an achievement available to everyone.
We encourage our own Unifor local unions and members to stand in solidarity with students, to consult the list of events and to participate in a National Day of Action event near you.
Publicly-funded and affordable post-secondary education is critical to the progress of a just and equitable society for everyone. Please know that you can count on Unifor’s support, and we look forward to seeing you on the ground, organizing and keeping up the fight, during your National Day of Action and beyond.
In solidarity,
Lana Payne
National President
cc. Niki Lundquist, Roxanne Dubois, Laura Sullivan, James Casey
