While new picket lines form on campus every day, some teaching assistants (TAs) are choosing to stay in their classrooms. The labour shortage has led to some professors, and even some undergraduate students, taking on the responsibilities of the striking TAs.
Members of CUPE Local 3902 Unit 1, which represents around 6,000 TAs and graduate course instructors, have been on strike for over two weeks now, following a rejection of an eleventh-hour deal proposed by the university in the early hours of February 27.
Instances of others fulfilling the duties of workers on strike are known as “strikebreaking” and are sometimes referred to derisively as “scabbing.”
Not all TAs on strike
Marko*, a TA from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and CUPE 3902 member, has chosen to continue to work throughout the strike. According to Marko, most of his research group and department are not on strike either.
“I am not striking… mostly because I think the current strike is misdirected, and is ending up hurting primarily undergraduate students,” he said. “[Undergraduates] are used as bargaining chips.”
Claiming that he has received threats from CUPE 3902, Marko maintains that he has the right to work or not work.
The union, Marko says, sent out an email, which stated that classes taught by strikebreakers may be picketed. “Those who work for the Employer are NOT [sic] neutral in this dispute. They are siding against friends and colleagues and working at crosspurposes to them,” a portion of the email reads.
“[Myself], as well as a number of other students in my research group that I have spoken to, feel threatened and intimidated by this e-mail,” Marko says. “If I am, rightly so, asked not to submit to threats from the University, I will certainly not submit to threats from an organization who claims to be representing me.”
“The Union is not issuing threats to members who work during the strike,” says Ryan Culpepper, chief negotiator and vice chair of CUPE 3902 Unit 1.
Culpepper says that the email, sent to union members, was intended to clarify that continuing to work often creates bad feelings among colleagues and friends.
According to Culpepper, picket lines exist to cause disruption, pointing out that the first picket lines surrounded factories and other workplaces to prevent strikebreakers from entering.
“Of course striking workers are not content to allow strikebreaking to continue unaddressed. Picketing efforts, of course, should never entail bullying or intimidating behaviour, and our Union does not encourage such behaviour,” Culpepper says, addressing what Marko perceived as a threat to picket classes taught by strikebreakers.
Culpepper stands by the belief that it is wrong for union members to work while their union is on strike. “People should respect the collective decisions of Union members if they want to enjoy the many gains the Union has made by bargaining collectively over the years,” he adds.
Jasmine*, a fourth-year music performance student, claims that some lecturers from CUPE 3902 Unit 3, which represents sessional lecturers and non-student staff on contracts of less than one year, were filling in for their Unit 1 colleagues on strike.
Jasmine notes that Unit 3 instructors have started playing piano accompaniment for the singers in her classes, which is ordinarily the job of a Unit 1 member.
Unit 3 ratified an agreement with the university on March 10. Its members are not on strike.
“I fully support the strike and think that the TAs I’ve had in my classes are hard-working and deserve to be fairly compensated. I think that people standing in to do the work of Unit 1 members is undermining their striking efforts,” Jasmine says.
Undergraduates take over
For its part, the Arts & Science Students’ Union (ASSU) received reports that some undergraduate students were volunteering to lead tutorials — some of whom were being hired to fulfill the roles of TAs.
The ASSU released a statement on their Facebook page encouraging students to report instances wherein classes use undergraduate labour.
Jasmine says that an undergraduate student has become the course administrator in another one of her classes.
According to Jasmine, the student volunteered to take responsibility for sending schedules, making photocopies, and acting as a liaison between the class and the professor. “[Quite] honestly, had he not, the class would not be functioning,” she says.
Although Jasmine supports the strike, she says that without intervention from Unit 3 members and volunteers, the Faculty of Music would not be able to continue holding classes. “I’m not sure what the right thing to do here actually is,” she says of the volunteering trend. “Perhaps this illustrates the way that the university administration is incredibly reliant on workers that they do not pay fairly,” she adds.
Veronica*, a third-year history major, claims that a student offered to run informal tutorials in an Asian History class.
Over the first two classes, the student’s plan gained support, with the professor offering to give guidelines for the informal tutorials. After Veronica raised her concerns with the professor and with the ASSU, the informal tutorials did not go ahead as planned. Instead, students have formed a small study group to go through the readings.
“I don’t think you could say it is strikebreaking, but you can see how the boundaries kind of blur because people don’t really know what counts as strikebreaking,” Veronica says. “Because of the way it turned out, I don’t think it counts as strikebreaking, but it is an example of ways in which duties are being shifted in really odd ways because of the strike. On one hand, they want to be able to discuss the readings and go through them as normal as possible but then you’re realising that you can’t do that.”
Alexis*, a second-year criminology and women’s studies student, is taking HIS101. She says that the professor made the final paper optional, and that other students in the class would grade it.
Any proposed changes to course syllabi must be voted upon in class. Alexis did not attend class the day that the changes were announced. She does not know whether a vote took place.
“Personally, I think it shows the professors being lazy,” Alexis says. “They made the paper optional. The class is not big to begin with, maybe 200 students. If the paper is optional, very few will choose to do it. Between the two professors that run the course, they could have marked them. It just shows disorganization.”
“There is a complete lack of support for students in this strike. Many of us are left wondering how finals will work. For those of us who take summer classes, we are wondering if they will even be run. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Alexis adds.
Professors
Professors have also picked up the slack, with a professor teaching HIS311 allegedly reviewing students’ presentations that were initially to be presented before a TA in tutorial.
Rebecca*, an upper-year international relations student, says that there was no class vote when the professor announced the changes. Although she has already completed her presentation, Rebecca believes that the plan is unfair. “I can’t think of how this is fair to the students who have to present to a professor rather than a TA like everyone else did,” she says. “Also, this is undermining the strike’s efficacy, since all 3 TAs are not holding tutorials.”
Nina*, a second-year English, ethics, society and law, and philosophy student, claims she was not given the right to vote in her ESS205 class when the professor wrote the midterm for the class instead of the TA. Nina reports that the midterm was changed to all multiple-choice questions to facilitate grading.
“It’s not great that [the professor] seems to have either taken over or has gotten rid of the roles played by TAs, but as a student, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with 30 per cent of my grade being put on the line either, even if this is a credit/no credit course for me,” Nina says.
“It’s much worse for non-members to take on Union members’ work while they are on strike,” says Culpepper. He adds that, to him, faculty who are well paid and have near-total job security who take up the work of TAs is especially egregious.
“The strike is only prolonged by strikebreaking. The stronger our collective efforts, the faster we can resolve this,” Culpepper says.
*Names changed at students’ requests.
