After nearly five months of intense debate over graduate funding packages, tuition increases and wage equity, negotiations have come to a standstill between U of T’s teaching assistants’ (TAs’) union and the university administration.
With universities across Canada relying increasingly on low-cost teaching assistants, and U of T no exception, a strike could have major ramifications for U of T students. In all, there are 3,500 TAs and student instructors represented by the union, responsible for teaching classes, tutorials, grading papers and assisting students. Unwilling to accept the latest offer made by the administration, bargaining talks between CUPE 3902 and the university broke off on December 11, 2001.
“Students were shocked,” said Rob Hanks, referring to the latest offer made by the university. Hanks, who is Liaison Officer for CUPE 3902, indicated that a nonbinding straw poll conducted at a special meeting on December 11 unanimously favoured a rejection of the university’s position.
“Students are pissed,” echoed Jorge Sousa, president of the Graduate Student Union (GSU). “They’re just damn pissed off.” Skyrocketing tuition fees, unimpressive benefits packages, serious concerns over wage equity and the absence of continued guaranteed funding are just a few of the complaints that student union members have voiced in a recent bargaining bulletin issued by CUPE 3902. But according to Susan Bloch-Nevitte, from U of T Public Relations, “Discussions are going comparatively well and there is optimism that the talks will be resolved and that a strike will be avoided.”
“I guess the basic issue is respect,” said Hanks.
“We went through this two years ago and the university hasn’t learned anything. They keep pushing the hard line and they keep playing roulette with labour relations instead of putting academic interests forward.”
Hanks is appalled at the lack of tuition benefits offered to TAs. “The average member makes $4,500 and tuition is $5,500, so basically they’re making a profit off of us,” he said. He also called the proposed $50,000 increase in dental benefits for families of TAs “miniscule.”
Of the “Five-Year Plan” offered by the administration, which will see a 1.36 per cent per year wage increase for course instructors and a 2.4 per cent increase for TAs, Hanks had this to say: “The five-year deal is ridiculous. The average collective agreement is two years. We absolutely need the right to re-negotiate certain aspects of our collective agreement. It’s unprecedented, it’s stupid and we won’t do it,” he said.
When asked to comment on the plan tabled by the administration, Sousa echoed Hanks’ sentiments. “What the hell is that?” he said, “I think it’s absolutely pathetic.”
Both parties will return to the table next week to meet with a provincially appointed conciliator. Failure to reach an agreement during these talks could result in a strike vote by the union. “Based on what the members told us, we’re organizing for a strike vote on January 21,” said Hanks.
Despite his obvious frustration, Hanks admits that he’s willing to negotiate on certain conditions of the agreement. While the union had originally demanded an 80 per cent tuition rebate, they have recently moved that number to 50.
“We realize that it’s a really big issue,” he said. “There’s a lot of work to do still.”
Sousa applauded CUPE’s negotiating tactics to date, stating that a decision to avoid “scare mongering” techniques over the past year has brought “a breath of fresh air” to the negotiating process.
“Months and months of CUPE’s time has been wasted in bargaining that could have been over in a month or two if [the administration] had every intention of seeing that this process is a good one,” Sousa said.
“It can be done a lot faster as long as we communicate with each other a lot more sensibly. I think CUPE has tried to do that, but I certainly don’t get the sense that the administration has done that as effectively as they could.”
