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Why are Western GTAs on Strike?
This is an historic event for Western and our Union. We have the chance to make real, substantive change in our conditions as graduate student workers–
but it all relies on solidarity.
We're asking for:
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real monetary increases,
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no clawbacks of our non-TA funding,
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housing support, and
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year X eligibility for TAships
In our many long days of negotiations, Western has shown little willingness to negotiate and has utterly ignored our bargaining mandates.
Until Western is willing to respect the workers who keep this University running, we will continue our fight.
Western thinks we should be grateful for the crumbs they are offering. Are you excited about a $1 wage increase?
Western LOVES to brag about our TA wages being among the highest in the province. What they want you to forget is that our funding packages are among
the LOWEST in the province.
In bargaining, they even admitted that they only want to focus on wages because that is how comparisons are made between universities. Western sees you as a token.
Western claims that external funding is outside of the purview of our collective agreement.
Western knows that you have no say in your funding if it isn't in your GTA collective agreement. This is why they are so scared of non-TA funding being a part of a collective agreement.
Western made non-TA funding an employment issue when they decided to permit clawbacks to happen. If non-TA funding is tied to TAships, it's a bargainable issue.
Western wanted to undermine our bargaining unit.
After an historic arbitration win that reaffirmed that full-time graduate student markers and proctors are indeed GTAs, Western has tried to carve these workers out of our contract in negotiations.
They think that people off the street with no course knowledge can use a rubric and fairly mark an exam.
Western is out of touch with student issues and they know that treating workers decently costs money, which is why this arbitration ruling terrifies them. Western doesn't want to negotiate, they want to delay.
When negotiations broke down in January and PSAC 610 requested a conciliator, Western had all of February to return to the table and get a deal. Instead, they chose some of the latest dates possible to push our potential strike as close to the end of our contract as possible.This also has the effect of jeopardizing final exams for students.
A deal could have been made by now, but instead Western wants to use undergraduates as their pawns in their desperate fight to not treat TAs fairly.
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