Article by Eric McMillan, reposted from http://www.vaughantoday.ca/story.php?id=1406
Although I’m an editor with this newspaper, I am also a doctorate student at York University, which means I am a teaching assistant and part of the strike that has shutdown that institution..
Unlike most of my colleagues there, I’m not entirely reliant for income upon my work and studies at York. But I do have some knowledge of the situation of my fellow teachers and researchers to pass on to readers.
For a start, the strike is not just about wages. The media, taking their cue from the university administration, continually harp on the wage demands. But from what I gather, the difference between what is offered and what we would settle for is small. No worker I’ve talked to has said they would have taken the strike this far over the wage issue alone.
More important is what is loosely called “job security for contract faculty”. I wish the union would stop using this phrase, though. It invites the yahoo responses of “Don’t they know there’s a recession?” and “Nobody has job security these days!”
People, this is not a demand for guaranteed cushy jobs for life.
Rather, it’s recognizing the university has been shifting its teacher funding from full-time professors on staff, with all the benefits and research opportunities, to workers on short-term contracts without the same benefits and research budgets. These contract teachers have to apply every year for each course they teach, never knowing whether or not they’ll be getting a load they can live on. Some have been kept hanging on like this for 10, 15 or 20 years.
Another key demand is reinstatement of benefits and funds to 2005 levels. These are mostly monies established to get teachers and grad students through difficult times and to aid their professional development — something that should be seen as benefiting the entire university community.
No outrageous increase is being sought, only the reversal of a long slide.
I can outline here only the bare bones of the issues. But I encourage politicians and bloggers who want to express moral indignation over the strike to investigate and consider these issues more deeply before proclaiming “Fire them all!” or “Force them back to work!”
But, you ask, what about the poor students who are getting behind in their schoolwork or who might miss their summer jobs because the university is dysfunctional? Don’t those greedy strikers care?
We talk about this among ourselves too. We all want to get back to our teaching and our own studies. We’ve all been students ourselves and we sympathize.
But when we weigh the inconveniences created for students against the long-term problems affecting the livelihoods of our people in their careers. . . . Well, we have to ask: Doesn’t the university care about us or students? Why do they continually walk away from the bargaining table?
These are all reasons why this week, in a forced ratification vote, a solid majority of all sections of our union turned down the last offer, effectively continuing the strike.
You may or may not agree with our decisions. Even within the union, a full range of opinions are expressed. I have to say this is one very educated, intelligent, passionate and socially committed local.
Some commentators have implied this is another so-called case of big unions bullying its members and dictating to the public. Apart from the absurdity of equating the power of unions to that of big business, especially given the current economic mess created by multibillion-dollar corporations, the process that’s occurred in this case belies that rhetoric. If anything, these events have shown in these difficult times we need unions more than ever to preserve the interests of ordinary people.
A group of 3,500 thoughtful and well-intentioned employees at the university have been led to take collective action we feel is needed to protect ourselves, as well as to help other workers, students and the educational system in general.
Agree with us or not, recognizing this should at least give you pause to consider the possibility that we may have a point.