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TEACHING ASSISTANTS BATTLE RICHEST UNIVERSITY
(This article is from the Jan. 16-31/2000 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, Canada, V5L 3J1.)
By Hassan Husseini
TEACHING ASSISTANTS at the University of Toronto, members of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3902, braved the rain and the cold Jan. 10 to begin picketing in their strike and lockout. The union demands center around the following: fair hiring criteria; more and better TA training; minimum job security; dental benefits; and wage parity with other universities. Their most crucial demand is the graduate tuition waiver.
TA's at the U of T make less in wages than many of their counterparts on other Ontario campuses, despite the fact that their employer is the richest of them all. For example, TA's at York University not only have much better wages, but have also won a summer fellowship and a tuition waiver of over $1000.
The 2500 members of Local 3902 gave their Bargaining Committee a strong 82% strike mandate in early November. Just before Christmas, when the University made an offer (adding an additional year of TA-ship to PhD students, plus a modest increase in dental benefits and a 1.5% wage increase), the original strike date was delayed to consult the membership, who once again overwhelmingly rejected it.
According to CUPE 3902 chief negotiator, Mikael Swayze, "What I've heard from the members is, tuition, tuition, tuition!" This sentiment was certainly widespread on picket lines across campus. According to David Goutor, member of the local's information committee, "The question of wages in our case, without any guarantees on tuitions, could be rendered meaningless very easily, since they will take it all (wage increases) back through tuitions."
Support for the strikers is coming from many individuals, groups and organizations on campus and from the community. The Graduate Student Union is very supportive, and according to Goutor "this is very important for us, because the Administration is trying to claim that we - the union - are trying to get a special deal for some graduate students while leaving the rest behind."
This is not the case, since the union is also involved with the CFS in organizing the Feb. 2 Day of Action and calling for lower tuition fees across the board. According to other TA's on the picket lines, the administration's divide and conquer strategy will likely backfire in this case. The U of T Faculty Association is also supportive of the TA's, and some faculty members are taking part in the Strike Support Committee.
CUPE 3902 is encouraged by the news from McMaster University, where after four weeks on the picket line, TA's won better wages and a tuition freeze for their members, despite the initial refusal of the university to sit down until the union took the issue of tuition off the table.
Other unions at U of T have already taken strike votes, and are ready to walk out if the administration denies them what they are entitled to in wages, benefits, job security, and a stop to contracting out and cutbacks to their hours of work. By the next issue of PV we may be reporting on a wider scale shutdown involving any or all of the following unions: CUPE 3261 (service workers), CUPE 1230 (library workers), CUPE 3907 (graduate students at OISE), and OPSEU Local 578 (OISE/UT research officers).
Local 3902 needs both support on the picket lines, and pressure on the University Administration to go back to the negotiating table. Readers in the Toronto area, especially U of T students, are encouraged to support the striking TA's by walking the picket lines. For more information on strike support, pickets, rallies and updates on the strike, please call CUPE at 593-7057 or visit their web site at: www.cupe3902.org.
You can also call or write the University of Toronto Administration: President Robert Pritchard, 416-978-2121 or e-mail him at: president@utoronto.ca.
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