Resources for Strikes and Bargaining
Click the red links below to learn more about strikes and bargaining.
Strike FAQs - your important strike questions answered
ESAs - Essential Services Agreements and how they affect strikes
The bargaining process - timeline from notice to action
Resources for the Strike Line
Click the red links below to learn more about what it's like to be on strike.
Strike Line Code of Conduct - what to expect when you're out on strike
Strike Line Locations - find the AUPE strike line nearest you
Become a Strike Captain - every strike needs volunteers to keep things going
Show Your Solidarity, Never Cross a Strike Line!
There is no more powerful feeling than to be part of a group of workers standing together and supporting each other. Sometimes this means having to go on strike.
Going on strike can be a tough decision, and nobody takes it lightly, but it is also when the feeling of collective strength and solidarity is at its most powerful.
Solidarity is the key to success during a strike. It is what brings us together as workers and unites us in demanding what we need from our bosses. We must support each other, recognize each other’s fear and uncertainty, and celebrate our strength and solidarity.
It is important to have honest discussions with anyone we know who might be considering not supporting a picket line. Acknowledge their fears and reassure them that their union family has their back.
Our success is severely undermined when we cross our own picket lines. Crossing your own picket line is also called “scabbing.” Scabbing weakens a strike, and also results in bad feelings, lack of respect, and loss of trust between workers who may have known each other for years. These feelings do not go away.
Even long after a strike has ended, everyone remembers a scab who abandoned their colleagues, turned their backs on the fight for better wages and working conditions, and undermined the solidarity and strength needed for success. Where there is solidarity, a strike is more effective, powerful, and ends sooner and more successfully.
These all the reasons why we all need to support our own picket lines, but there is another, equally important reason.
Crossing a picket line without union authorization is also a serious violation of the AUPE Constitution and may result in union discipline or sanctions.
At the end of the day, it will be our collective strength that unites us to overcome the massive challenges that lay ahead. Strike line solidarity is the only way we can win those challenges. So, Never Cross the Line!