I am a subscriber and loyal reader of the newspaper The duty. Since the start of the Common Front, FAE and FIQ strike movements, I have noticed the extent of the media coverage given to the teachers and health unions, but you very rarely, if ever, talk about those who are at the base of these institutional and governmental pyramids. I named the support workers.
I am an administrative support agent, main class, in a CEGEP. My colleagues and I are suffering just as much from the lack of manpower, the overload of work, the requests from everyone which, naturally, should have reached us yesterday, and all this for an annual salary well below that granted federal, private and municipal. However, in the written, television and radio media, only those who are at the top of the pyramid, those who are numerous, those who speak loudly and clearly have the right to a platform. Even our union leaders, when they speak publicly, do not mention us.
However, when I had to stop due to burnout at the beginning of the fall, we had to hire two people to replace me, two people to
succeed in carrying out all the tasks that make up my daily life. But no one talks about that. Why am I staying? Why don’t I go for a better paying job? Because I too have the success of our students at heart, because each time a student comes to my service counter, I do everything to welcome them, to listen to them and to respond. to his needs.
During the last graduation evening, I was there at the welcome table, I was there behind the scenes to redirect them to the room, to see the pride in their eyes, I was there too at the very end to give them their diplomas and congratulate them. There were a large number of us, the support workers, at this evening to make them experience this unforgettable moment. We were proud to see this beautiful youth.
Of course, we are not in the classroom, we work in the shadows, but we also held our respective services at arm’s length during the pandemic. We too suffer from the lack of manpower in our educational establishments, we also denounce our working conditions to our union, our immediate superiors, but it seems that, as always, we never talk about all these people which are at the base of the pyramid and which hold it upright.