UofT Must Protect Workers Impacted by Trump’s Cuts!

The second Trump administration has quickly set to work dismantling research funding in the United States. Many of our own members, working at the University of Toronto, are at risk of being impacted by these cuts, or have been already, because they collaborate on grants funded by affected US agencies.

We are calling on the University of Toronto to protect its workers by guaranteeing funding for current postdocs and research assistants. The University has a duty to protect its workers, all the more when our livelihoods and research are threatened by politicians who are opposed to any work advancing social and ecological justice, and who are dismantling all public research funding to give tax breaks to the wealthy.

The University of Toronto made headlines after Trump’s election by hiring star professors from Yale who wanted to “flee” fascism. It would be far more consequential for the university to support the research the Trump administration aims to silence, and to support its own researchers, who are at risk of losing their jobs and in many cases their ability to stay in Canada.

The University of Toronto’s commitment to academic freedom is not genuine if it extends only to the most prestigious and well-off scholars. CUPE 3902 will continue to fight for guarantees from the university to support all our members, whose present and future financial stability, and--for all international postdocs--immigration status depend on it.

Many of our members count on their employment to avoid returning to far worse situations in their countries of origin, and in a time of global political turmoil, the university bears an even greater responsibility to ensure our safety and academic freedom.