A dispute between U of T and Education Studies graduate students may lead to a heated strike, kindled by years of animosity between the two groups.
“Many students are saying they never should have come to OISE,” Maureen Giuliani, chair of the bargaining team for CUPE 3907, which represents the graduate assistants. “They’re telling their friends, ‘If you’re thinking of coming to OISE’, don’t bother.”
Unlike U of T teaching assistants, who avoided a strike when they came to an agreement over funding for grad students, graduate assistants at OISE say they have a deal far worse than most other grad students, and they seem unlikely to reach a resolution anytime soon.
The mandatory conciliation between the union and the university broke off February 19, with one of the key issues being the appointment of more Graduate Assistantship positions.
Giuliani says there hasn’t been an increase in this number for a decade, meaning far less grad students are employed at OISE by the university than elsewhere on campus.
“We’re asking to end the disparity between OISE and the rest of the university,” she said.
The issue is drawing widespread attention.
“The issue that’s at stake for CUPE 3907 is a very, very important one,” said national CUPE president Judy Darcy. “Collective bargaining has broken off and they’re fighting for a very, very basic issue that is equity. They’re negotiating over treating graduate assistants at OISE in the same way that graduate assistants and teaching assistants are treated at the University of Toronto.”
Darcy even made special mention of CUPE 3907’s cause at the twentieth Annual Sefton Memorial Lecture & Awards presentation hosted by U of T’s Faculty Club on Monday night.
The public attention may prove detrimental for U of T.
“Just the idea that students will be turning to other places doesn’t bode well,” agreed Anne O’Connell, a PhD student and GA in the Faculty of Sociology and Equity Studies. “It’s about creating legacies and about creating strengths through departments—the administration can’t afford to be so short-sighted.”
Giuliani notes that most professors are also on-side because the GAs would help lessen their workload, which includes serving as thesis advisers for a far greater number of students than many profs elsewhere on campus.
GA positions also give students hands-on teaching experience, which is important for a faculty devoted entirely to the study and practice of education.
Lynette Plett, secretary/treasurer and strike coordinator for the GA union, says she is “at a complete loss” as to why the administration was unwilling to negotiate on these key issues and says that she has seen “absolutely no justification” for the university’s differing treatment of TAs and GAs during the collective bargaining process.
Giuliani has a hard time understanding why the administration is not willing to negotiate over the number of years GAs are eligible for appointments.
Currently, U of T TAs have four years of job security into the sixth year of their program, whereas OISE GAs are only guaranteed job security into the fourth year of their program. And that’s not enough, said Giuliani, referring to a recent research study that showed it takes an average of almost five years for a student to complete a PhD.
“If we look at the offer that was ratified by the TAs in terms of finances, the offer that we have on the table for the graduate assistants is exactly the same,” countered Angela Hildyard, vice president of Human Resources at U of T.
“There are differences with respect to some of the benefits packages, but I don’t believe that it’s the case that graduate assistants at OISE have a worse benefit plan than the TAs.”
While Hildyard admits, “We’re apart on some critical issues,” she also wants to reiterate that she “will work hard to try and reach an agreement” during mediation talks scheduled for March 6 and 7.
Representatives from U of T’s maintenance and library workers’ unions will be lending their support to the GAs by participating in a rally scheduled to take place on March 5.
TAs from Brock and Guelph universities will also be marching in the rally, which begins at noon on Tuesday and will end up outside of Simcoe Hall. Lynette Plett, secretary/treasurer and strike coordinator for the GA union, is hopeful that this mass mobilization of support will help to avoid a strike that could be called as early as March 11.
Although she hopes to avoid this outcome, Plett says preparations are already underway in the event of a possible strike. Supporters have signed up for picket duty and telephone fan-out plans have been arranged.
“We’re hopeful that with the support that we’re getting that we’re going to be able to avoid a strike,” says Giuliani.
But despite her optimism, Giuliani cautions that GAs are “really fed up and tired of the discrimination,” citing that many of them are so busy working multiple jobs that they’re unable to attend meetings in support of CUPE 3907’s cause.
“We’ve been at the bottom of the heap for so long that I’m not sure they really pay that much attention to us.”
