2001: A Strike Odyssey

I feel sorry for the York students currently suffering through (yet another) TA and contract faculty strike.

I went through the same roller coaster back in 2001 and the experience was not a pleasant. It’s extremely unfortunate that in a contract dispute between the TAs and the administration only the students will suffer. When this whole mess is done the TAs will keep on teaching and the school will keep on running, but the students will have lost two months, and counting, and they’ll still need to wrap up their school year.

Chances are the administration will extend the school year by another month, at least that’s what they did when it happened to us. But that’s the only favour they’re like to do anybody.

1. Students will still have to be out of their apartments and residence rooms at the same time. The administration will extend the school year, but they won’t extend your room lease, meaning those unfortunate enough to live on campus will have to couch surf for that month.

2. Students will lose a month of summer employment. Either they start job hunting late, when all the good jobs are gone, or they’ll have to do double duty, going to school and working a summer job. There’s a difference between a PT job you do during the year, and a summer job, which often comes with FT houts.

3. All the students projects will be due immediately. Yes they may extend the school year by a month, but, um, duh, they’ve still been our for OVER TWO MONTHS. So students will have the same amount of school work to do, but a month less in which to get it done. And if you’ve read point number two, some students will now have jobs. Hurrah! Yes, some profs will drop an assignment here or there. But trust me, if my experiences at York are indicative of what may happen, the majority of profs will insist that ALL the work still be completed, on time, because that’s how things work ‘in the real world.’

For the students at York this strike is like being caught in a divorce between two angry parents. Only the children will be hurt.