On Feb 1, the Hamilton Student Mobilization Network, a local activist group, hosted a rally at Gore Park in downtown Hamilton to protest the government’s proposed changes to the Ontario Student Assistance Program.
The event featured various speakers including Angie Perez, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees 3096, and Sandy Hudson, co-founder of Black Lives Matter Toronto.
“Students have gone to strike for less,” HSMN organizers said at the event.
Following a brief performance from Mother Tareka, @sandela, one of the founders of @BLM_TO, and @SarahJama_, a Hamilton organizer, are up. pic.twitter.com/fNwUzJ3ULw
— The Silhouette (@theSilhouette) February 1, 2019
Beyond the issue of OSAP, various speakers advocated for completely free tuition. All stressed the need to support grassroots student activism.
The protest downtown followed a protest in the McMaster University Student Centre on Jan. 31, where the HSMN called out the McMaster Students Union for failing to advocate for the student body effectively.
Multiple musicians and poets were also featured at the two-hour long rally, performing pieces on the issues of capitalism and gentrification.
Hudson stresses the power of students, pointing to the success of Quebec student organizers.
— The Silhouette (@theSilhouette) February 1, 2019
“It is a strong sense of solidarity, a strong sense of agitation, and a strong sense of annoyance,” one protester said when asked why he attended the rally.
After an hour of speakers and performers, the protest took to marching on the streets, stopping traffic around the downtown area.
The HSMN was launched in the first few weeks following the government’s announcement on Jan 17.
The organization strives to equip activists to mobilize against shared struggles and is mostly run by students and workers from McMaster University and Mohawk College who had already been organizing separately.
“We started having conversations about what it would look like if we came together on campus across campuses across the city and really bolstered a more cohesive body of resistance,” a HSMN organizer and McMaster student said.
Though the rally was centred on the changes to OSAP, the HSMN is also focused on the adverse effects that cutting tuition and student fees will have.
The student organizer pointed out that McMaster is set to lose $22 million in funding next year, with no additional funding from the government to offset the loss.
“We are looking at suffering quality of education given that there will probably be increases of class sizes. We are looking at part-time staff, faculty associate professors being made vulnerable, anyone that really does not have security or stability of tenure or status in the organization,” they said.
“There are a lot of communities being affected by this, not just students on OSAP,” they added.
Nonetheless, changes to OSAP will not make it easier to afford tuition anyway, according to the student organizer.
“The tuition cuts are very misleading,” they said. “If you cannot afford the tuition even with it reduced, you are still taking out higher loans, which means higher debts, higher interest rates, and in the long run, it is going to cost more.”
The HSMN is also very concerned that the option for students to opt-out of certain student fees will jeopardize some student services.
“We need to really come together as a community and realize that services we do not use today we might need tomorrow. We need to support services for each other and recognize that student fees help build a stronger, healthier community,” the student organizer said.
For the HSMN, the rally represents only the first step in what they hope will be sustained student mobilization and advocacy.
“It represents an entry point for a lot of students to mobilize around these changes and we are going to be having a sustained campaign,” they said.
The HSMN has not released any other planned actions to the public at this point.
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In search of increased job security, the Canadian Union of Public Employees 3903 Units 1, 2 and 3 went to strike after six months of bargaining with York University. Employees at Carleton University also recently opted to strike, advocating for pension benefits in the wake of confusion over language in the collective agreement. While CUPE 3906 is still bargaining, a strike is not off the table.
After rejecting the university’s offer, 3,000 teaching staff at York University walked off the job as part of a strike by CUPE 3903 on March 5. Although 60 per cent of teaching at York is facilitated by members of the union, the university has remained open and some classes have continued during the strike.
The strike at Carleton was led by support staff, including library and administrative employees, on March 5. On March 16, the union and university agreed to return to the bargaining table in hopes of resolving the labour dispute.
CUPE 3903 and 2424’s efforts follow a five-week-long strike by Ontario college instructors, which forced 500,000 students out of class and was ended through back-to-work legislation pushed by the province.
After rejecting the university’s offer, 3,000 teaching staff at York University walked off the job as part of a strike by CUPE 3903 on March 5.
On March 14, CUPE 3906 published letters to the unions at York and Carleton.
The letter to CUPE 2424 emphasized the union’s effort to advocate for improved retirement security and criticized Carleton’s neoliberal policies and unwillingness to acknowledge the importance of pensions for precarious support staff.
“As a local who represents primarily young workers who do not have access to a workplace pension, we find your defense of quality pensions for workers to be an inspiration,” read part of the letter to CUPE 2424.
The letter to York’s union praised its commitment to fighting issues arising from job precarity.
“Job security is an issue that we have here on campus too. Unit 1 members, specifically teaching assistants, only get four years guaranteed of teaching contracts,” said Sarah Wahab, CUPE 3906 vice president. “It’s not enough for us to complete our PhDs usually, so we’re kind of left in this limbo where we can’t find the funding we need in order to finish our dissertations.”
When asked about the likelihood that McMaster’s CUPE 3906 will go to strike after Unit 1 and 2 finish bargaining in 2019, CUPE 3906 president Angie Perez stated that it is invariably likely that, if the union is not listened to, it will call a strike vote.
The last time CUPE 3906 went to strike was in 2009, when teaching and research assistants sought increased wages and benefits from the university. This strike was short-lived, however, with 58 per cent of union members voting to accept the university’s offer after one week of striking.
“We do have a lot of issues regarding job security specifically. We’re living in a context where it’s getting harder and harder to live.”
Sarah Wahab
Vice president
CUPE 3906
Nevertheless, Wahab acknowledges that the union still has work to do on campus.
“We do have a lot of issues regarding job security specifically. We’re living in a context where it’s getting harder and harder to live. When that starts to happen, strikes start to happen,” said Wahab. “People need to rise up and demand what they deserve.”
Broadly speaking, CUPE 3906 sympathizes with students as they get trapped in a messy and unfortunate situation as a result of a strike. Nevertheless, they argue that students should direct their frustration to the university, not the union.
“The problem is that the narrative is controlled by the universities,” said Perez, who explains that because the university accepts students’ tuition dollars, it should be held accountable to accommodate students in the event of strike action.
Precarious employment continues to be on the rise at McMaster and across the province. As CUPE 3906’s Units 1 and 2 continue to bargain with the university, the union is standing in solidarity with the unions at York and Carleton.
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By: Maeb Shaban
I am not the most knowledgeable student when it comes to strikes. What I do know is that the effects of the current college faculty strike have affected me and many other students greatly. This needs to be addressed as it is impeding on our education.
Being in a college and university-based program has its perks, but when it comes to this strike, we students are definitely getting the short end of the stick.
The majority of classes in the nursing program function through the Mohawk College, but now with it being on strike most McMaster/college students are left with maybe one course to attend. The strike has been going for more than four weeks now. That means four weeks of missed class and labs for students in McMaster’s nursing, Bachelor of Technology, medical and radiation sciences and specific social science classes.
Not only did we pay an immense amount of money for a schedule of courses we now cannot attend, we may be forced to be in the classroom for a longer period of time due to the delay. Our winter break may even be cut short as a result. For students who have booked tickets to go home and be with their families for the holidays, getting a refund and breaking the news to your families must be difficult to do, but the alternate just puts you at a greater delay.
Seeing as instructors and the labour board are unaware of how they are going to make up this month of missed class time, students are left waiting to hear about how their future will be affected.
As of now, Mohawk-McMaster students are unaware of how their schedules are going to play out. There are so many students who are living off campus, paying rent and full tuition for what has become only one class. Can you imagine a student paying $600 a month in rent, then $4,000 for a full semester and only be learning one of those five courses? Mo-Mac students are not only losing money but also being forced to add time to their undergraduate careers.
Seeing as instructors and the labour board are unaware of how they are going to make up this month of missed class time, students are left waiting to hear about how their future will be affected.
It’s fair to say that we’re more stressed out about all this time wasted out of the classroom than we would be if we were in the classroom.
After watching a video on how the bargaining between the union and the labour board was going, I became infuriated. It was clear how stubborn the labour board was being and how they were not willing to settle easily. This wouldn’t be as much of a problem had our future have been considered and accounted for in the process.
From my understanding (and what the Ontario college bargaining team stated) Ontario Public Service Employee Union was given everything they wanted: increasing pay, greater rights for contract faculty, better job security for contract faculty and academic freedom guarantees. So why not return to the classroom and get back to what they are being paid to do to begin with?
As educators, instructors are setting a poor example for students who look up to them for a brighter future. Students are not asking for much. We are merely asking that we get what we are paying for, and since what we are paying for is our education, I don’t think we are asking for much.
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By: Donna Nadeem
Almost four weeks into the faculty and staff strike at Ontario’s 24 public colleges and McMaster students whose programs are conjoined with Mohawk College are beginning to wonder how they will make up for all the missed class.
Since Oct. 16 students in McMaster’s nursing, Bachelor of Technology, medical and radiation sciences, specific social science classes, have all had clinical placements and labs put on hold. As Nov. begins, students in these programs have been unsure of what was going to happen with their classes.
Negotiations were first being held since the strike began on Oct. 15. The most recent negotiation was on Nov. 3, between the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union, which represents the 12,000 striking college workers, and the College Employer Council, which represents the province’s colleges. As the strike continues, students have been updated via email.
The average tuition of a full-time student is $5,000 for two 13-week semesters which means that a students tuition divided throughout the year is closely equivalent to paying $40 a day. Students are concerned that they are losing out.
McMaster maintains they have worked to minimize the strike’s effects on McMaster students.
“We are supposed to be conducting our own research as a practicum and we can’t do that so we’re all kind of wondering how those hours will be made up later on.”
Camille Ramsperger
Nursing student
“Since the strike started, classes, labs, tutorials and clinical placements delivered by McMaster employees at McMaster locations have continued. Access to the Main Street campus has not been impacted by pickets and the classes led by McMaster faculty in our sites have continued,” said Gord Arbeau, a representative from the university in a press release statement.
Nevertheless, Ella Han a second-year medical radiation sciences student has had all of her midterms postponed and her classes have been cancelled because all her professors are from Mohawk college. Other than her elective, all her medical radiation-related courses are on hold.
“They sometimes send us emails and in the first one they said that we aren’t going to miss a semester or redo anything, but then the second one we got was that if the strike lasted more than three weeks our exams would be moved to January, and we got one a couple days ago saying that we might need to do night classes and class on weekends to catch up and that exams might not be pushed. So I think they don’t really have a plan for us at the moment,” said Han.
Camille Ramsperger is in the last year of her nursing program and is missing out on a research course because of the strike. She is concerned because the strike happened before they were allowed to pick their topics and figure out where they would be doing their research and with whom.
“So far in the course I have done nothing worth marks, so at the present I have zero per cent [in the course],” Ramsperger said. “We even missed our midterm. We are supposed to be conducting our own research as a practicum and we can’t do that so we’re all kind of wondering how those hours will be made up later on.”
Mohawk College has pushed back the end date for its fall semester. If the strike ends by Nov. 11, classes and final exams will continue up to Dec. 22. Originally, classes and final exams were scheduled to end by Dec. 15.
If the strike extends beyond Nov. 11, classes will continue through to Dec. 22 and final exams will be held in early January. Students have been told they should now expect to be attending school during the week of Dec. 18 to 22 and that the completion of the semester may require them to attend evening and weekend classes.
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The Canadian Union of Public Employees 3906, the union representing McMaster employees, will hold a strike vote from Oct. 24 to Oct. 26 for all unit two workers, which is comprised of sessional faculty.
A strike vote does not guarantee a strike, but gives the union the blessing to potentially call a strike at later time.
Sessional faculty have had discussions with administration since July. They are mainly concerned with improving job security for sessional faculty.
For more information, visit the CUPE 3906 website.
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McMaster’s Academic Librarians have their contract up for re-negotiation this year. Collective bargaining, which began on July 22, started out smoothly but has since faced several roadblocks, according to a press release issued by the McMaster University Academic Librarians’ Association on Oct. 9.
MUALA filed for conciliation with the Ontario Ministry of Labour, which brings in a conciliation officer to help mediate the disagreements between the union and the university. The union represents 24 full-time Academic Librarians who work at McMaster’s libraries.
“One of our key roles is that librarians act to support teaching, learning and research needs of the campus community. Specifically, we are supporting [students’] learning and research needs and of faculty members and other research teams. How we do it varies by the individual role that the librarian has,” said Laura Banfield, MUALA’s President and chief negotiator.
Prior to the conciliation talks, which began on Oct. 14, at a MUALA meeting with 92 percent of their membership present, all attendees voted in favour of a strike mandate.
Andrea Farquhar, McMaster’s Assistant Vice President Public Relations, said that half of the contract had been agreed on prior to conciliation talks.
Although neither the university nor the union can speak to the details of the talks, the general points of contention were addressed in MUALA’s press release. These include compensation and academic rights of Academic Librarians.
MUALA states that the employer — the university — wants to “rollback compensation and limit salaries far below inflation.”
However, Farquhar said that there are no rollbacks to compensation being proposed.
“The university has tabled salary increases exceeding inflation. That includes a combination of across-the-board increases and a merit pool that members are eligible for based on their individual performance each year,” added Farquhar.
The disagreement in interpretation between the two parties is clear, much of it founded on the meaning of “inflation” and how they individually define fair and reasonable compensation.
As for MUALA’s claim that the university is trying to remove Academic Librarians’ right to participate in academic decision-making, Farquhar commented that the meaning of this was “unclear.”
Based on previous bargaining updates on MUALA’s website, the union has shown concern about the university’s proposal to “delete substantial portions of procedures and criteria” for promotions, evaluations and other decisions, which would leave these decision entirely up to the university’s discretion.
MUALA claimed that this would seriously degrade working conditions.
When asked if the vote would mean that in the case of unsatisfactory conciliation talks the Academic Librarians would go on strike, Banfield said that the vote simply gave MUALA’s executives the ability to call for job action if the situation requires it in the future.
“Our desire it to settle things through conciliation … even once a ‘no-board’ report has been filed then there is the situation in which both sides decide to go to mediation and still try to settle things before the lockout or strike mandate is acted upon,” said Banfield.
A “no-board” report by the third party would signify that an agreement was not reached through conciliation meetings.
“The issues that we’ve raised are the ones that resonate within our population,” said Banfield.
Both parties hope the conciliation meetings will address these disagreements and help them effectively move forward with negotiations.
Dina Fanara
Assistant News Editor
Students trying to get to and from McMaster may have a hassle on their hands.
Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) workers may begin striking on Jan. 30 after Members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 107 voted 94 per cent to strike on Jan. 15.
The HSR workers, under the ATU Local 107, have been in negotiations with the City of Hamilton for a three-year contract. Despite over a year of negotiation, an agreement has not been reached, during which time, HSR workers have been on the job without a contract.
Some demands made by ATU Local 107 include annual hourly pay increases for the next three years, changes to overtime pay for part-time workers and increased vacation allowance based on years of service. a
A Jan. 24 offer by the City was rejected by the union. If negotiations fall through, over 600 employees will strike.
Alex Rockingham
Silhouette Intern
An agreement has been reached between McMaster administration and CUPE 3906, a union representing the University’s Teaching and Research Assistants.
Two weeks ago, the union approved a strike mandate, demanding wage increases and benefit improvements. In the end, the strike was not implemented, as both parties reached a settlement through negotiation.
A tentative agreement was reached late on Nov. 17 after a series of thirteen bargaining dates. Based on the details released pertaining to the agreement, it appears that the days of hard haggling have paid off for the TA and RA union.
CUPE 3906’s bargaining team was able to negotiate wage increases for both McMaster graduate and undergraduate employees, as well as improvements for their benefits, such as the union’s Family Dental Plan.
Other gains made by the bargaining team include a bi-weekly payment system, the settlement of eight outstanding health and safety training grievances, and paid printing costs.
The ratification vote process ran on campus from Nov. 21 to Nov 23, and the union ultimately ratified the agreement. Bulletins outlining the agreement details are available at CUPE 3906’s website.
