T.A.’s: You are overpaid. Nuff said.

Strikebreakers: Are you a student? Do you need to get paid? Fucking right you do, go to work, get your money, and ignore these idiots.

we juz gotta look out for eachotha. pickin a scab only leavez a scar, naam sayen??? if you whyte, oh black, oh yella, oh tangerine, we all gotza work together, ya huurrd?

tupac wood agree with jeff green, so shood we allz. think about it.

as fo me, i’m a 1st year psych TA. i gotz lotsa free timezzz boiiii.

hold on to that id, mandy. i dig yo rhetoric.

you da mandy.

i completelee agreez wid yo rhetoric, but i don’t like yo tone. and i bet you think yo shit don’t stink.

watch out for da military industrial complex! and hold on to yo id. NOT i.d… id. it’s freudian shit, baby mandy.

I would gladly be a TA for minimum wage!

This article may have been convincing if it wasn’t so unnecessarily insulting: “A first year psych TA? You have no reason not to join the picket line. You complement a pre-recorded video, and ask cookie-cutter questions”. There are so many TAs (especially undergrad TAs) who go above and beyond the cookie-cutter questions. To assume that all TAs in a certain course do little work is very ignorant. This entire article is very ignorant. It’s one thing to say your opinion. It’s another to be down right mean.

But you might get hit with cars and be injured! Well, if you’re scared of that, CLEARLY you don’t actually care about what you’re standing up for. Since when is a protest supposed to be an overtly pleasant experience?

And just for the record, I am an undergrad who has recently volunteered to tutor classmates of mine. I won’t even be getting paid! All I’ll take home at the end of the day is the satisfaction that I helped someone learn. Doesn’t that sound nice and quaint and almost sickeningly wholesome?

The people who are protesting seem to have this weird sense of entitlement, like their job is some sort of career. Newsflash! You are students working a part-time job! The fact that your part-time job just happens to occur at the same place you go to school has no bearing on anything. The University doesn’t have any obligation to help you offset tuition and other costs – that’s your issue. They’re paying you because you’re doing a job. You’re paying them because you’re a student. These are mutually exclusive. If you still need money, OSAP is waiting with open arms, or you could get a second job like most students.

You don’t deserve benefits. You don’t even deserve the $40/hr. You do the same work as undergraduates, and the undergraduates actually CARE. Graduate pay should depend on the performance reviews your students give you, at least less of our tuition would be wasted on you that way.

You are being granted A PRIVILEGE to work while attending grad school. If you are only TAing for the money, quit – you are an embarrassment to the rest of us.

I will scab as long as my students want me to teach and my employer will let me. You can freeze outside and I WILL enjoy the fruits of your labour. I never wanted to be part of the union, I wanted to be a TA – A job I would gladly work at for $12 an hour.

If you “don’t want to go on strike” a “yes” vote is much wiser. (last sentence on paragraph in following link – but they’re saying that if you give the union permission to call a strike there’s much less chance of it happening…waaaay too misleading)

http://www.cupe3906.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37#Two

also, did you know that if you TA’d say, back in April, but aren’t now, you were allowed to vote on the strike mandate? That is at least what is said here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_PEI4bARWY (at about 1:50 of the video)

To TA-NOT A SCAB

“…suggests you dont agree with the democratic voice of the rest of the 2700 members on their key bargaining issues”

I asked how many of these bargaining surveys were completed on the blog. The only response I got was “a small number”, by someone who spoke as if they knew. A quick poll in my building has me thinking that maybe 10 surveys were completed by people in my department. I would wager similar results in other science and engineering departments.

Yes I know – if those people didn’t fill them out or didn’t participate in the strike mandate vote, it’s their fault. I do agree with you on that. However, moreso for the bargaining surveys, the first questions deal with things like what program you’re in, what level you’re at, etc. They will know how many people from each dept. fill out a survey. If the union exec moves forward and forms a strategy based on that (and dismissing those departments who did not provide much help from the survey), they are going to be knowingly walking down a dangerous road.

When a leader is elected, there may have been a terrible voter turnout. This could end up meaning that 20% of the eligible voters in a country were responsible for this new person being elected. If this leader starts basing decisions on only those that elected them, what kind of reception do you think they’ll get when going around? there’ll be complaints, protests, calls for changing things. Then a choice comes. Changes are made, or they are not. Here, the union exec and bargaining team are standing on their ground – when other people are saying back off. And the response to the apathy is almost always “it’s your fault for not voting.” that does not get received well.

one last comment – i know someone who used to go to union meetings on behalf of their department. they stopped going though when it became clear that the union exec didn’t seem to place much importance on what people in that department thought. they stopped showing any sign of listening and instead it became more of a “go back and tell people in your department this and that.” this is part of the reason there’s apathy until around this time.

for the record, last week i neither picketed nor scabbed. i was holding out for a chance to vote on this offer. and after three petitions (that I know of) to have a ratification vote got submitted, then and only then did the union exec announce that this would occur (making it sound like it was their choice when the petitions themselves and our by-laws dictate it happen).

at this point i intend to accept the offer. i will say this though. anyone voting to reject it must (in my opinion) join the other picketers. if you reject this, you are saying the offer is not good enough. but if you are not on the line, then at the same time you are hurting the strength of those out there, and you are also having others fight for something you believe.

regardless of your thoughts on the matter, everybody – if you know a TA – tell them to vote!!!!!!