April 3, 2015 - Vol. 4
No. 10
Education Is a Right! No to
Neo-Liberal Wrecking!
Education Workers' Principled Stand
in York University and
University of Toronto Strikes
York and U of T education
workers and their supporters make 10-kilometre march to defend their
rights and oppose underfunding of education, March 27, 2015. (Cloud Runner)
Education
Is
a
Right!
No
to Neo-Liberal Wrecking!
• Education Workers' Principled Stand in York
University and University of Toronto Strikes
• CUPE Local 3903 Press Release on Ratification
of Contract
• U of T Undergrads Oppose Tuition Hikes and
Demand Refund for Lost Classes
• York and U of T Education Workers Hold
10-Kilometre March
Education Is a Right! No to Neo-Liberal
Wrecking!
Education Workers' Principled Stand in York University
and University of Toronto Strikes
On March 31, striking
teaching assistants and graduate
assistants at York University voted in favour of accepting the
employer's latest offer thus ending
a month-long strike in defence of their rights. At the University of
Toronto a week earlier, striking teaching assistants, tutors, lab
instructors and lecturers voted in favour of binding arbitration to
settle their struggle against
their employer.
The strikers were fighting for their rights and the
rights of all -- for accessible post-secondary education for all
that is publicly funded; for living
wages, job security, working conditions and health and social benefits
for the important work that they do as education workers to teach and
mentor
undergraduate students, as well as contributions to their own fields.
On this basis, the strikes won broad support amongst the
undergraduates and faculty. The administrations, in refusing to
recognize these just demands, thus
found themselves isolated and without a leg to stand on, and resorted
to shameful attempts at disinformation, subterfuge and intimidation to
try to defeat the
strikes. It is the duty of the administrations to defend the integrity
of their institutions and the interests of their students, and not
acquiesce to the phoney austerity
agenda of governments, like the Wynne Liberals, which is totally alien
to the interests of the institution. The neo-liberal agenda of the
provincial and federal
governments is to further privatize the delivery and content of
education, especially post-secondary education, and to do so on the
backs of students by charging
them ever increasing tuition and other fees. This must not pass.
Already the situation is
totally untenable. Colleges and
universities have long been starved of funding. The youth require a
modern education that will enable
them to flourish and make their contributions to the society, but this
cannot come at the expense of the enormous loans they are forced to
take out in order to
enrol. Many students and education workers told Ontario Political
Forum that the strikes at U of T and York have reopened the
discussions about
the right to education, the need to oppose tuition fee hikes, and that
the content of their education should not be determined by private
interests.
Ontario Political Forum congratulates the
education workers at York and U of T for the determined battle that
they fought to win important
concessions. Ontario Political Forum calls on the students
and faculty at post-secondary institutions across the province to step
up the struggle as
an organized force to affirm the right to education and to oppose the
austerity regime of the Wynne government.
CUPE Local 3903 Press Release on
Ratification of
Contract
- March 31, 2015 -
Final day of the strike at
York University ends with all picket lines converging at the main
entrance of the university, March 31, 2015. (A. Felipe)
Members of Local 3903 of the Canadian Union of Public
Employees (CUPE 3903), on legal strike since March 3, have ratified
York University's latest
offer, ending the strike. The deal passed over 94 per cent in favour.
The full results are available here.
As a result of the solidarity of the CUPE 3903
membership, and support from the broader community, the ratified
agreement includes important concessions
from the university.
Strengthened tuition indexation was a particularly
significant gain. A core demand throughout the strike, it guarantees
that any increase from 2012 levels
will be matched dollar-for-dollar in graduate student funding,
resulting in an unprecedented rollback of recent international fee
hikes.
"This contract goes a long way in reducing the debt
burden of graduate students," says Adam Proctor, an international
Master's student and Bargaining Team
member. "All future students are now protected against arbitrary fee
hikes that claw back wages, and international students who entered York
last year will
see compensation of about $7,000 to offset these increases."
Donya Ziaee, a Ph.D. candidate and teaching assistant at
York, adds, "I'm empowered by our members' commitment to win
indexation. This provision makes
York more affordable for international students, and creates a more
diverse, vibrant and accessible graduate community."
The deal also includes an agreement by York to
incorporate LGBT as an employment equity category, a sign of our
members' support for improved equity
in hiring. In addition, improved funding for graduate and research
assistants represents a step in the right direction, making graduate
education more
affordable.
"Our victory demonstrates that it's possible to defeat
austerity measures though strong collective action," adds Proctor. "The
support we had from
undergraduates, faculty, and our colleagues at the University of
Toronto was key to our success."
Following ratification, all CUPE 3903 members will
return to work on Wednesday, April 1. "I truly missed teaching over the
last month, and look forward
to returning to the classroom with my students," said Ziaee. "I also
hope that our strike will deepen solidarity between graduate and
undergraduate students.
The struggle for accessible, high quality education doesn't end with
our strike."
CUPE 3903 represents 3,700 education workers at York
University, including teaching assistants, contract faculty, graduate
assistants, and research
assistants.
U of T Undergrads Oppose Tuition Hikes and
Demand
Refund for Lost Classes
Protest outside U of T's
Governing Council to oppose tuition fee hikes, April 1, 2015. (We Are U of T)
Undergraduate students at the
University of Toronto have been discussing their tuition fees and how
the high tuition makes
a university education more and more inaccessible. On April 1 they
rallied in their hundreds in front of Simcoe Hall outside the meeting
of the university's
Governing Council to oppose planned tuition fee hikes.
Governing Council sought to impose a fee increase for
the
2015-16 academic year of 3 per cent for undergraduate students, and 5
per cent for professional
undergraduate and graduate programs. For international students, the
fee increase is slated at 9 per cent for Arts and Science Programs, 10
per cent for Applied
Science and Engineering programs and 5 per cent in other programs.
According to the university, the proposed fee increases are in line
with the Wynne Government's four-year Tuition Fee Framework. The
Framework allows tuition for professional and graduate university
programs and high-demand college programs to increase by up to five
percent as long as an institution's overall tuition increases average
no more than three per cent per year. Despite
the students' objections, the Governing Council passed these motions on
April 1.
The students at the rally noted that students at U of T
and other universities in Ontario already pay the highest
tuition fees in Canada and have now lost more than three weeks of
classes, tutorials, labs and
lectures because of the strike, which has compromised the quality of
their education. They
are demanding the administration take responsibility and provide a
partial refund to students for the class time lost.
Also on April 1, the University of Toronto Student's
Union sent a letter to Vice Provost Cheryl Regehr raising the issue of
student
fees and making a case for a
refund. The letter is posted below.
Letter from U of T Undergraduate Students' Union to
Provost
Dear Provost Regehr:
Students in the Faculty of Arts & Science have
received word from Dean of Arts & Science David Cameron about
academic measures to be taken following
the labour dispute between CUPE 3902 and the University of Toronto. I
am concerned that student rights are being infringed upon in the
process, and that
students are not being adequately compensated for the ways we were
affected by the strike. As a student in Arts & Science and the
President of the University
of Toronto Students' Union, I want to take this opportunity to raise
several concerns.
Throughout the course of the strike, the University of
Toronto Students' Union has received countless emails from students
about their concerns regarding
the ways in which their courses have been affected. We have referred
them to University-wide and Faculty-specific policies, and to their
department chairs where
necessary, but communication directly from the University up to this
point has been sparse. As a student, and as an elected student
representative, I am
disappointed in the way that my University has handled issues
surrounding the strike, and its failure to support students and keep us
updated throughout.
Dean Cameron's email implies that an academic disruption
can be declared on a course by course basis. Could you please clarify?
The Policy on Academic
Continuity -- linked in his email -- states that only the Academic
Board or the Provost can declare an academic disruption. I cannot find
anything that confirms
that this happened in the minutes of the Academic Board or in any
communications by you.
I also wanted to make you aware that over five thousand
students have signed petitions online here
and here
and
on
paper, requesting a tuition fee refund for three weeks of
lectures, tutorials
and labs missed because of the strike.
Up to this point, we have received no response from the
University on this issue. Every student I know has been negatively
affected in some way, including
myself. Many are stressed out and overwhelmed in trying to complete
courses that they've poured countless hours and hundreds to thousands
of dollars into
already, and it does not seem fair to say that we can just drop our
courses or designate them credit/no credit if our ability to learn has
been compromised to
that extent. Students deserve to be fairly compensated for the
education we have missed.
I am further concerned about the impact on the academic
integrity of our degrees, and how this will reflect on applications to
graduate school and the future
success of graduating students, in particular. The following question
and answer is included within the Faculty of Arts and Science FAQ:
"Will I be prepared for next year's courses if
I've missed three weeks of class?
Instructors are already thinking about how next
year's courses can be adapted and/or supplemented to make up for missed
learning this term. That
may take the form, for example, of a revised course syllabus,
additional tutorial support and/or supplementary instruction."
In reading this, it seems as though the Faculty of Arts
and Science has accepted that students have missed crucial information
as a result of the strike this
semester. The tuition fees we pay should reflect this. This also does
nothing to address the particular concerns of students who are
transferring schools or
graduating this year.
Instead, Governing Council will be voting tomorrow on a
proposal to increase our tuition fees yet again. Students at U of T and
across the province of
Ontario already pay the highest tuition fees in Canada, and suffer the
highest levels of student debt (despite having the largest class sizes
and the highest
student-faculty ratios), and it is frankly insulting that the
University has not even acknowledged the impact of this strike in
determining tuition fee levels for
next year.
I look forward to your response, and continue to request
a meeting with you at your earliest convenience.
Sincerely,
Yolen Bollo-Kamara
President
University of Toronto Students' Union
York and U of T Education Workers Hold
10-Kilometre
March
Hundreds of members of CUPE Local 3902 at the University
of Toronto and
CUPE Local 3903 at York as well their allies, undergraduates and
faculty members marched 10 kilometres from York University's Glendon
Campus to Queen's
Park via the University of Toronto's St. George campus on Friday, March
27. They
undertook this march as part of their determined battle against the
administration at both institutions, and against the austerity regime
of the Wynne government,
to secure living wages, better working conditions and benefits for
themselves and those coming after them. The march was organized by the
Joint Strike
Committee of both union locals.
Even though members of
Local 3902 had voted in favour of
binding arbitration the previous evening and as a result were back at
work, union members took part in the march to stand with their
colleagues at
York University who were still on strike.
At Glendon College, Mary Jean Hande, one of the main
organizers of the march and a member of Local 3902, spoke about how
the collective action of
education workers at U of T and York had profoundly moved and changed
her. She spoke about being on the picket lines, facing the harassment
of the university
and the feeling of comradeship with other education workers on strike
to demand the recognition of their rights. She
noted that the
struggle brought to the fore the need to step up the collective united
fight against austerity.
Hande also noted that 40,000 students are on strike in
Quebec and that the march was also in solidarity with those striking
students. Among other things
she called for free accessible education for all students and the
cancellation of all student debt.
The marchers made their way along Lawrence Ave. West,
and south along Yonge St. toward the University of Toronto. All
along the route they
militantly chanted slogans such as "York and U of T, We Stand Against
Austerity" and "We Lecture, We Teach, A Living Wage Should Be Within
Reach."
The marchers received enthusiastic support from the
vehicles along the route as well as pedestrians and people
waving from the buildings, all of which buoyed
their spirits on a very cold day.
On arrival at Queen's Park after a four hour march, a
number of speakers addressed the crowd. One of the themes that was
raised was the importance of
the provincial government increasing funding for post-secondary
education and to oppose the privatization of the universities in
Canada. A graduate student
named Rachel pointed out that on average, a student attending the
University of Toronto between 2011 and 2015 will have incurred a debt
of $84,000 which
is an onerous amount of money to owe at the beginning of one's career.
She also noted that 75 per cent of all research done at universities
across Canada is
done at the University of Toronto and at York University, pointing out
that much of this research is sponsored by the private sector and
serves corporate and
military interests which are against the interests of society. She
pointed out that university students want all education to serve the
public interests, not the narrow
interests of corporations or the military. Rachel, echoing what other
speakers also noted, said that one of the main positive developments
that has occurred as
a result of the strike is that real issues such as the austerity agenda
of the Wynne government, the power relationship between students and
the administration,
how education workers can continue to fight for their rights as workers
has been discussed and debated and this has broken the taboo
of dealing
with these issues on campus.
A number of other speakers pointed out that another
positive
development from the strikes is that they have precipitated a
discussion amongst students on the role of the university in society.
A student named Hussein from U of T Scarborough
Campus pointed out that the level of
politics at the university has been elevated particularly at his
campus, where the students staged a sit-in
to support their teaching assistants and tutors, something that has
never happened there.
The action ended with the organizers stating that they
would be summing up their experience of the strike in upcoming meetings
and would continue the political
discussion about the fight for their rights.
PREVIOUS
ISSUES | HOME
Read Ontario Political Forum
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: ontario@cpcml.ca
|