Category: Daily updates

Generally musings of the day, usually accompanied by a photograph

Saturday pickets, round two

I was back on the picket lines today, completing my second week with 20 hours of official duties (basically not counting all the time spent post-processing photos from the strike).

After the day’s picketing ended, there was an informal meeting at the strike HQ where people discussed yesterday’s meeting, the prospects for escalation, and other general matters of concern. People are divided on all sorts of questions, but a couple stand out in particular. First, there is a disagreement between those who think escalation is necessary and desirable (either to secure a deal better than yesterday’s proposal, or even to secure the proposal itself) and others who are either personally unwilling to escalate or who think it would be counter-productive as a consequence of causing more inconvenience to other members of the university community.

People were also quite confused about the proposal from yesterday: particularly about whether it represents our new official bargaining position or whether it represents the absolute minimum the membership is willing to accept.

With no pickets on Sundays, I get a “break” tomorrow to work on coordinating the brief. Monday, I will out on the picket lines once more.

Inequality, instability, and politics

The inequalities of being at U of T are weirdly mixed together and overlapping in my life now. It’s weird to live in one of the most expensive parts of Canada, but regularly find it worthwhile to walk for 90 minutes rather than spend $3 for the subway. It’s weird to be at one of the world’s better universities, and to observe the way in which resources are allocated. Teaching staff and research staff essential to the basic purpose of the university have to fight for pay increases that keep up with inflation, yet we keep building luxury sports facilities. It’s strange to turn out my empty palms for beggars, no longer because I think direct financial transfers to them are more damaging than beneficial, but because it’s now necessary to think about every dollar.

Faced with all this and looking at the political landscape in Canada and the United States, there seems to be a sad consensus among politicians that action on the necessary scale is politically impossible. I would like to see a major North American political party say that we have totally screwed up policy-making, especially since the 1980s. Other countries like Scandinavian states are obviously governed much better, so we should abandon the failed Reagan/Thatcher/Mulroney project and establish a system that works better, both for those who are living today and for those in future generations.

Prioritization

Today I had to pull out from an academic collaboration because I don’t have time for that, striking, preparing my PhD research proposal, finding somewhere to live after Massey, and updating the fossil fuel divestment brief.

This is a further illustration of why it is probably pointless to aspire to any sort of long-term work in a university (don’t tell your committee members, though, lest they cast you adrift).

Nonetheless, I think the situation is OK. Fighting climate change is the most important thing any of us can do and, judging by the weak-willed involvement of most U of T faculty, being a professor isn’t much help in the struggle. We have to assume that the world is going to become more and more challenged by forces of destruction, and our chance for countering that depends on new strategies, coalitions, and ideologies.

One advantage of being a student for so long, and of spending times working for good pay paying off debt or saving for more school, is the expectation of a modest standard of living. As a brilliant essay by my hero George Monbiot points out, a big part of freedom is being able to live cheaply.

We have an exceptional struggle ahead of us, and nobody who aspires to social justice can really aspire to personal prosperity at the same time. We can aspire to be among the people who future generations curse less – the ones who didn’t rationalize excessive consumption or dwell in apathy, but who tried to be strategic and political and focused on what matters most.

Photos of the day suspended

Within the next month or so, Toronto350.org needs to finish updating the fossil fuel divestment brief. I also need to substantially develop my PhD research proposal and find a supervisor. Furthermore, I need somewhere to live after Massey College, and of course there is now 20 hours a week of strike picket duty.

As such, I don’t expect that I will be posting photos of the day here regularly. My Flickr photostream will continue to be updating, including with extensive documentation of the U of T TA strike.

CUPE 3902 tentative agreement

I am at Convocation Hall for a meeting of the members of CUPE3902 Unit 1 – the union for teaching assistants at the University of Toronto.

We are discussing a tentative agreement which the bargaining team reached with the administration late last night.

To me, the proposed deal looks deeply inadequate. They are proposing wage increases of 1%, 1%, 1.25%, and 1.25% over the next four years.

For starters, the Bank of Canada calculator shows that the real value of the funding package has fallen by 9.89% since it was set in 2008. In addition, the proposed wage increases don’t even keep up with inflation for the years in which they happen.

We will see what happens in this meeting, but I hope my fellow union members won’t accept something so inadequate. The objective here is to get beyond poverty wages for TAs – not to reduce them further.

2:55am bargaining position

Fresh from the CUPE 3902 mailserver:

Friends,

A few minutes ago, our Bargaining Team voted unanimously to recommend a tentative agreement. All seven Bargaining Team members believe that this is an agreement we can proud of, with many significant gains for our members.

Of course, members will have the final say on this agreement. As per previous notice, we will meet later today (Friday, Feb. 27) at 3:30 p.m. in Convocation Hall. Sign-in will begin at 2:30. We believe there will be a large turn-out, and we ask members to come as early as possible.

To alleviate the need for the Union to print tens of thousands of pages, we ask all members who are able to bring tablets or other electronic devices so that they can view the tentative agreement electronically.

The Employer has agreed to provide work release to any members who need to miss work to attend the meeting. There will be no loss of pay. Please notify your supervisor or department.

We look forward to discussing this agreement and to debate over the agreement later today.

In Solidarity,

–Ryan

Some of what the week ahead involves

Tomorrow, I have picket line training and the U of T divestment planning meeting. I also need to do my readings for the Markets and Justice course Tuesday, which is followed by the normal 350 planning meeting. Wednesday, I have three tutorials to teach. Thursday is the strike deadline, with a rally being held. For Thursday evening, I need to put together an agenda for the Toronto350.org board meeting, which I am chairing, as well as try to finalize the bylaws for the organization. Friday there will either be a union meeting in the afternoon to discuss the final offer from the administration or a strike kick-off event. Saturday, I am performing a sketch (yet to be rehearsed) for Massey’s Tea Hut talent show.

In the background, there is the need to finish the brief update, start preparing our presentation for the ad hoc committee, finish my PhD research proposal, find a supervisor, find somewhere to live after May 1st, and find a way to keep summer expenses from killing my bank account.