Advertisement

News

A deal just in time

Rating: NNNNN


it was touch and go there for a while, but York University’s striking teaching assistants hung tough and pulled out a decisive victory this week. Seventy-five days of picket line shivering were rewarded with a two-year contract, including the all-important tuition protection, a 2-per-cent wage increase in each year and benefits.

But perhaps even more significant is that the victory also gives Ontario’s sagging labour movement a much-needed shot of youth and energy. Twenty- and 30-somethings haven’t exactly been flocking to big labour lately. But here they were, calling the shots at the bargaining table, shutting down the campus, bringing out the rejection vote and working the media.

Indeed, those CAW and Steelworkers members who joined the pickets at York Monday for the final push looked like the tired old guard.

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3903 managed to hold out, play the hardball game of labour brinkmanship and win.

But it was no cakewalk. Unfortunately, thousands of undergrads served as the pawns in this high-stakes chess match. And the university went into negotiations with no intention of compromising.

At first, York refused to budge on tuition protection for TAs, and it became the deal-blocker. “That’s an issue of principle,” says university VP of finance and admin Phyllis Clark.

(The union has alleged that Clark also played hardball in the protracted 1996 Ontario Public Service Employees Union strike against the province. Although she was assistant deputy minister at management board and in charge of the government’s bargaining unit at the time, she says she resigned from the government prior to the strike and wasn’t involved in negotiations as they progressed.)

Union spokesperson Joel Harden says management had no intention of making a deal. He says they were only at the table for seven days and insisted on forcing a vote that the union told them would be rejected.

“When they gave us the offer that we told them would be rejected by our membership, because we put it before a general meeting, they went ahead with the (forced) vote and wasted 23 days that could have been used for bargaining,” says Harden, a PhD student.

The university hoped that a vote forced by the province, with the fate of thousands of undergrads’ school year hanging in the balance, would pressure grad students to buck their union and accept the offer. Or, if the members didn’t firmly reject the offer, at least the results could weaken the union’s bargaining position.

“It was very risky, but we felt we had to take the risk on behalf of our students,” says Clark.

It wasn’t a fool’s gamble.

Of the three bargaining units, the contract faculty (that is, untenured professors) did end up voting to accept the university’s offer.

Of 690 contract staff affected, 238 voted to accept York’s offer, 169 voted no, 23 ballots were not counted and three spoiled. The rest didn’t vote.

And despite the spin about campus solidarity, not all full-time faculty were behind the strikers. There were rumours of off-campus classes.

According to the administration, prior to the vote last weekend over 700 union members had already signed declarations agreeing to go back to work and accept payment under the old contract.

And of the approximately 1,170 teaching assistants, only about half (564) voted to reject the offer, 256 voted to accept and 14 ballots went uncounted. The rest of the membership just didn’t cast ballots.

Of the 430 graduate assistants, only 288 voted. Of these, 181 rejected the offer and 50 accepted, with 55 ballots not counted.

“The (contract staff) vote enabled us to put some pressure on the union, and the undergraduates were definitely putting pressure on us to get back,” says Clark. “So I think that enabled us to get to a deal.”

That the impasse went on for so long was also in part due to outside pressures on both sides. The administration had to deal with provincial funding cuts and other universities looking in and hoping York didn’t fold and agree to an Alex Rodriguez deal, setting a pricey precedent when York TAs are already among the highest-paid in the province.

“(University) managements are looking at what happened at York and trying to say, “Now, how can we avoid this?'” says Eugene Swimmer, who teaches labour relations at Carleton. “It may turn out York did universities a favour by playing hardball.”

Carleton TAs will be voting to give their bargaining team a strike mandate later this month. They have similar demands for tuition protection.

And at the University of Toronto, TAs head back to the bargaining table later this summer. They went on strike last year before teaching PhD students won full tuition coverage and $12,000 a year in grants and pay. They will be bargaining for an increase and a similar deal for master’s students.

“The York lesson is an important one,” says U of T union rep Mikael Swayze. “If (the university) is prepared to behave reasonably in bargaining, we can come to a sensible collective agreement early on and avoid all this mess.”

As important as fair wages and tuition protection are for TAs, U of T professor Anil Verma argues that universities created this whole mess when they chose to cut costs by exploiting grad students as cheap teachers.

The solution, he argues, is to hire more full-time faculty and allow grad students to finish degrees sooner.

“Better benefits, better wages, all encourage people at the margins to look on this as a job, and that is also exploitative,” says Verma, who teaches at U of T’s Centre for Industrial Relations. “The cost of staying another one or two years in university and not getting out in the real job market is enormous.” scottand@nowtoronto.com

Number of York

teaching assistants: 1,170

Pay: $11,221

What they demanded:

— Tuition indexing

— 2-per-cent wage increase

What they got:

— Tuition indexing — 2-per-cent wage increase

Number of U of T

teaching assistants: 3,000

Pay: $5,000 (average)

What they got after 2000 strike:

— Grad students in fifth and sixth year of PhD get $2,500 grant

— $12,000 funding guarantee

Number of Carleton

teaching assistants: 1,200

Pay: $7,500

What they’re demanding:

— 5-per-cent wage increase

— Tuition protection — 75 cents for every dollar increase in tuition

STUDENT STAKES

Number of York teaching assistants: 1,170

Pay: $11,221

What they demanded:

— Tuition indexing

— 2-per-cent wage increase

What they got:

— Tuition indexing

— 2-per-cent wage increase

Number of U of T

teaching assistants: 3,000

Pay: $5,000 (average)

What they got after 2000 strike:

— Grad students in fifth and sixth year of PhD get $2,500 grant

— $12,000 funding guarantee

Number of Carleton

teaching assistants: 1,200

Pay: $7,500

What they’re demanding:

-- 5-per-cent wage increase
-- Tuition protection
-- 75 cents for every dollar increase in tuition

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.

Recently Posted