The Public Value of Public Sector Strikes
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- Published on Wednesday, 25 March 2015 00:00
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1095 .... March 25, 2015
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The Public Value of Public Sector Strikes
Jeff Noonan
The essence of an unjust society is to continually demand and take from those with the least the little that they have to support their lives and life-goals and add it to the money-value hoards of those who have the power to restructure public life to serve their limitless appetites. So we see a recurrent pattern of struggle across history: those with the least power are forced to fight the hardest just to maintain what little they have.
These two political and historical principles need to be kept in mind when thinking about the ongoing strikes by Teaching Assistants (TAs) at York University and the University of Toronto. At York, the major issues, according to... a striker I have spoken with are:
"1) To Preserve the agreement they made with us linking tuition to funding for all members. This is "tuition indexation." All we ask is that the university keep to this agreement as they did from 2000-2013. Since 2013, however, they have broken this agreement. We are not asking for anything more than for the university to keep its promise from 2000 and preserve education's financial accessibility.
"2) Include LGBTQ equity language in our agreements. It is necessary that all members of both our union and academic community have their identities recognized by the university and feel secure and comfortable in their learning and working environment at York University.
"3) Gain a sufficient funding package for Master's students (unit 3 generally) with which they can pay rent, not go hungry, and hopefully avoid debt."
At the University of Toronto, the issues are similarly focussed on securing a living salary for graduate assistants trying to work and study in the most expensive city in the country.
