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Another round in the epic battle between university admin and CUPE.

University of Toronto students have always found a sense of pride in not being York students. The announcement of a vote in favour of strike action by our teaching assistants caused many students to pause for a moment and wonder if this sense of pride could possibly… maybe… almost be unfounded! An undergrad town hall on collective bargaining with representatives from CUPE 3902 and UTSU answered questions and heard concerns about the potential strike. So stop putting your transfer application for Windsor, McGill or McMaster together: everything is going to be just fine, or so we’ve been told.

Find out more after the jump.

The Facts

1. CUPE 3902 represents TAs and course instructors on the all three U of T campuses.
   The vast majority of their members are graduate students working towards Masters or Doctorial degrees.
2. The TAs and course instructors have been without a contract since April 2008.
3. The current bargaining process started in July.
4. 700 of the 11000 people represented by 3902 voted in favour of a strike.

What exactly do they want?
According to CUPE 3902’s website:

Meaningful childcare assistance for our members to ensure women and families can access education.

An end to the outrageously expensive, private for-profit University Health Insurance Plan (UHIP), currently forced on international students and their families, and a commitment from the employer to cover the premiums in the meantime.

Measures that address ballooning tutorial and lab sizes and thus maintain the quality of education for our students.

Finally, a fair financial package including wages that keep up with cost of living and tuition inflation, health benefits that keep up with rising medical expenses, tuition assistance for a small group of unfunded students, and adjustments to the guaranteed funding package that bring our members closer to the U of T’s own published estimates of the minimum funding necessary to survive in Toronto.

Until recently union demands didn’t have that “gimme, gimme, gimme” quality unions bargaining can sometimes have; their requests were practical and beneficial. But this didn’t last very long. At some point a disgruntled TA claimed that the $36.50 per hour wages for a part-time job put TAs near the poverty line. The image of the TA fighting for the good of the students as well as themselves quickly became the TA knocking on the university’s doors with an outstretched hand. Looking past this seemingly ridiculous claim of poverty to see the merit of the other requests and feel some sympathy for the plight of the TA (while dining on Kraft Dinner for the third night in a row) is difficult for the average, minimum wage earning, “poor” undergrad student.

Why we’ll never be York (allegedly)

At the undergrad town hall held on January 14 the union and student government reps present promised that U of T would not find itself in York’s current predicament. These reps repeatedly cited Angela Hildyard, VP Human Resources and Equity as guaranteeing that our university will not close it doors during a strike.

CUPE 3903, the union representing contract faculty and TAs at York, has been without a contract since the spring 2008 and is now preparing to enter a third month of strike. The deadlock in bargaining between the university administration and union has put the education of thousands on hold and the union is adamantly against binding arbitration. With an entire year nearly lost for York students, not even the faintest glimmer of an agreement is in sight.

The Path to Strike

1. Contract ends leaving union members floating in limbo when it comes to their benefits, wages, job security, etc.
2. Collective bargaining begins. This begins the attempts to create a new contract stipulating requirements and benefits for employees. If and when this fails proceed to the next step.
3. Union coordinates a strike vote. The strike vote provides a little motivation to come to an agreement, and quickly.
4. Collective bargaining continues now with the added incentive of the strike mandate looming. Should the bargaining unit and admin fail to reach an agreement, they can apply for a third party facilitator.
5. Conciliation with a facilitator is an optional and last ditch attempt to avoid strike. If new contract terms are still not agreed on at this point the union is in a legal position to take action. That means…
6. STRIKE!

The plight of the TA is a compelling one. The CUPE representatives at the town hall stressed the importance of student support to apply pressure to the university. Student voices are needed in order to avoid the strike and come to a peaceable agreement sooner rather than later. Maintain your U of T pride by taking a few moments before your next trip to Robarts to visit cupe3902.org or utsu.ca for more information.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 at 2:04 pm and is filed under General, On Campus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.