The arguments, publications, statements, demands, and generally this entire strike scenario is enough to make my g*d*m* head spin.
York employees who are members of CUPE 3903 are among the highest paid employees in Ontario. And you’re striking why, might I ask? TAs work 10 hours a week and make $14,000 over 8 months? Heaven forbid.
As for the contract faculty. Yes, it saddens me to hear that people who have devoted so much of their working lives to a career lack a corresponding salary… However, you need to shake the cobwebs out of your head. You have NO TENURE. Yes, you might have an equal amount of publications, do they enrich your field to the same extent as your tenured colleagues? I highly doubt it. Yes you design courses and oversee their execution each and every year, day after day, over and over (not much change in there is there?..), but what differentiates you from the likes of say someone employed in the public education system? The 4 months off per year instead of 2? The missing education degree? Or perhaps the absence of hormonally imbalanced teenage students?
Who is here to represent the students other than the parents? I’m surprised this message board isn’t full of death threats and derogatory comments. For the most part, they are the ones footing the bill for most of the students to survive while their well laid out financial plans go down the toilet. What union to the students belong to other than the Students Union? Can that union go on strike for better wages? From what I gather, they would need to work in excess of 60 hours week at minimum wage to pull in the same salary as a TA.
Unions were originated to protect working class from essentially being owned by their employers. People were being worked to death, chewed up by machines, starving, and diseased. Basically imagine the worst possible scenario sweatshop, and you had working class life in Canada. Yes, I understand things have changed, and unions take on a different context in today’s society. I also understand that people have a right to unionize and a right to strike. That doesn’t mean that a strike is justified. CUPE 3903 has gone on strike before and achieved their mandate…Power to the people… Why not do it again? Refuse arbitration, why? Because you know you’re in a position to have the cookie jar you’ve been snatching out of since 2001 taken away from you.
As for increasing the ranks of the 3903 by 30%? That’s your own stupid fault for letting people in. Increase the union dues, stop taking in members. You can’t blame that on anyone other than your own.
The administration’s 112% pay increase? Yes it’s a slap in the face. But it’s a slap in the face to everyone at the university, not just the 3903. That should be considered an outrage and be dealt with harshly. BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU DESERVE A SLICE OF THE PIE THEY’VE TAKEN.
This strike is about a union who has a history of holding out for something better, even though it’s not that bad, and others have it worse. Like a single obese, spoiled child crying in a restaurant when there’s no dessert. While a multitude of other lean, lesser off, mild mannered children observe as they genuinely enjoy what little they can afford.
