In December, the teaching assistants (and other members) voted overwhelmingly to give our union the mandate to strike. We had been without a contract since the end of the 2007-08 school year.
The negotiation team just reached an agreement with the university (details), and we won't be striking after all.
I'm not sure what a strike would have meant. Next week is "reading week," with no classes, but S.'s words ring in my mind: "Reading week is an undergraduate holiday." That was his advice last year at this time, and I'm sure he'd tell me again if I asked this year. So I'll be here, working. The only difference is that I won't be leading a tutorial. A strike would mean that I also wouldn't lead a tutorial, but that is such a small portion of my week that it doesn't have a big impact on how I plan my time.
This post's theme word: etesian, "occurring annually."
2 comments:
why were they going to strike?
We had been without a contract since the beginning of the summer, and negotiations with the University were not progressing to the satisfaction of the negotiating team representing the union.
Now we have a contract for a few years, at least -- including back pay for the raises they bargained into the contract. The contract retroactively went into effect at the beginning of last summer...
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