Photograph By Mark Rogers and Murray Mitchell
The first day of strike action by support staff at Thompson Rivers University Thursday ended with a mid-campus rally that drew a crowd of about 150 unionized workers and supporters.
Picket lines went up around the empty facilities building, and later around the Clocktower building that mainly houses administrative staff, said Lois Rugg, president of CUPE 4879 which represents 600 TRU support workers.
Those two sites were chosen because they weren t expected to disrupt classes, she said.
Members of TRU s student union and faculty association also joined in, as did representatives from the United Steel Workers and B.C. Government and Service Employees Union.
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And meanwhile, the union s president is highlighting the situation as symptomatic of excessively high tuition. It s unacceptable that people are preying on students who are financially vulnerable, said TRU union president Dustin McIntyre. No student should have to be forced to sell their body to pay for education.
In a letter sent Tuesday to B.C. colleges and universities, Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto warned that adult entertainment industry representatives may try to attend post-secondary job fairs this fall in jurisdictions across Canada.
The warning was prompted by a recruitment drive for strip clubs in Windsor, Ontario offering to pay tuition for pretty girls attending the city s university if they would strip.