I think its important for everyone to be aware that there is no true mandate for a strike. CUPE got about 150 "yes" votes on their strike mandate out of 3000 members. This after it was even billed heavily as a "bargaining tool" and not an actual strike vote.

CUPE's talking point is that there is no point in allowing members to vote on the final contract because we would of course reject it. This is not true. They remember 3 years ago when the TAs approved just such a contract against what the leadership wanted. I am disappointed in the union leadership that refuses to give a voice to its members because we might disagree with what they want.

If they continue to refuse to allow us a vote there will be those of us organizing to override that decision. There are mechanisms in place that let members call meetings and organize votes just for such occasions with rogue leadership.

Please contact me if you are a CUPE unit 1 member and want to join our call for a vote on this important issue. We have the power if we work as a team.

Reply here or e-mail me at: [email protected]

You have my deepest respect and thanks.

Yes, give the TAs a real voice in the middle of this extremely crappy situation we are all in thanks to CUPE.

The TAs are FORCED into this union and they have to pay dues every month whether or not they support the union's action.

Their union CUPE does not care about what they truly want or give them a voice.

This strike goes against what most TAs seem to actually want and ruins their reputation. CUPE doesn't care about its reputation but TAs do and they're being looked upon unfairly in this whole situation for things that are completely beyond their control.

If any TA or RA decides they want to cross the picket line they will be labeled a scab. CUPE has also threatened negative action against these so called scabs. TAs who care about you, their fellow students and care about teaching are being threatened, how fair is that?

CUPE is not allowing their union members, your TAs to vote on the final deal offered by the University. They're forcing them to strike and not letting them decided whether or not the deal offered is acceptable to them.

If they strike, they're letting down thousands of their fellow students. Just imagine the burden this puts on their shoulders against their will because of legal action being threatened against "scabs" by CUPE.

CUPE, stop speaking for students, you don't care about what students want.

Screw CUPE, support your TAs, your fellow students who are being forced into doing something they may not want to do without a chance to voice their opinion.

Thank you for that sew12

I'm a graduate TA in Engineering, and I'm fully behind letting the TAs actually have a vote provided that the RESULTS ARE ACTUALLY RELEASED.

On that note, where did you get the 150 votes in favour of the strike mandate? Our estimates are a few times higher than that.

Originally Posted by kleung

I'm a graduate TA in Engineering, and I'm fully behind letting the TAs actually have a vote provided that the RESULTS ARE ACTUALLY RELEASED.

On that note, where did you get the 150 votes in favour of the strike mandate? Our estimates are a few times higher than that.

They got what? About 90 votes in 2006 for their mandate vote. They have said they got "50 percent higher" than last time.

Both of those numbers (90 in 2006 and 150 in 2009) are absolutely wrong. The turnout was around 20-25% of members (as I've stated on MI before, I'll let you do the math) which was 50% higher than 2006. As we've said before, its CUPE 3906 policy not to release the yes/no % as its divisive and used by the University against us.

Originally Posted by dsahota

Both of those numbers (90 in 2006 and 150 in 2009) are absolutely wrong. The turnout was around 20-25% of members (as I've stated on MI before, I'll let you do the math) which was 50% higher than 2006. As we've said before, its CUPE 3906 policy not to release the yes/no % as its divisive and used by the University against us.

And that's a mandate? Really? Why won't you call for a strike vote? Well it doesn't matter.

There are mechanisms in place to allow the membership to control its own destiny no matter how rogue the leadership has gotten.

Jesse's stated that the voter turnout in 2006's mandate vote was a little less than 20%.

http://unit1bargaining.wordp ress.c...out-than-2006/

I believe that there were also 2000ish TAs in that year.

Turnout would have been in the neighbourhood of 400 people. For them to get a 80% of the votes in favour, we'd be looking at a breakdown of 320-80.

This year, we had "50% greater turn out". Now, assuming that CUPE-math is not in play (see the discussions on the proposed increase in union dues earlier this year), we would expect about 600 people to have voted.

Since they're not releasing the results, it would be reasonable to assume that of these 600, only about 400-450 voted in favour of the mandate, while 150-200 voted against.

Then again, this is just what the TAs in our office have come up with, and there's no way we'll every know the truth.

Anyways, I support your call to put this to a vote. Let me know how we can help.

If you are a CUPE unit 1 member drop me an e-mail:

[email protected] and I can pass on the information.

The way I see it, if a strike is really in the TAs' best interests, then a vote will simply reflect this fact.

So I'm all for this as well, let me know if I can help!

Originally Posted by Mowicz

The way I see it, if a strike is really in the TAs' best interests, then a vote will simply reflect this fact.

So I'm all for this as well, let me know if I can help!

Exactly.

I'm pro-TA. If TAs/RAs truly feel that they're being treated unfairly and disagree with the deal that McMaster is offering than by all means they should go on strike and demand fair treatment.

I just don't want to see a union that they are forced into making them strike and not allowing them to decide for themselves whether the deal they're being offered is acceptable.

TAs shouldn't be made to strike if they don't want to and they also shouldn't be threatened. They should have a say in all this, not some random union reps who clearly don't care about what they actually want.

If they are allowed to vote on the deal and an overwhelmingly majority thinks it unfair and wants to strike then I will support them in that.

I feel like CUPE stopped representing us when they called a strike. LET US VOTE!

Would you be allowed to bring anti-CUPE signs to the picket?

Like ones that say Let Us Vote or something.

Make sure you come on sunday, as members we have the power to call for a strike vote and to approve the contract if we want. Regardless of what the leadership says. The plan is not to have that vote at the meeting tomorrow but make sure we are allowed that vote. There are several avenues all it takes is people to come to the meeting and be prepared to vote.