People need to learn to just ignore Fire Dragon X, his only goal is to stir the pot and play devil's advocate.

Originally Posted by hummeld

There's something I'm not clear about with this argument. If there were sufficient strike-breakers to alleviate pressure on the employer during strike action, then wouldn't the union have to consider that their own membership is not sufficiently supportive of this action? This would make more sense to me than the union blaming the strike-breakers for prolonging the strike.

One of the problems with working during a strike is that workers have no protection against overwork. We already have a confidential memo sent to Dean's that says to redistribute work within courses from TAs who are supporting the strike to those who come in and work. Thus those continuing to work could easily see themselves forced to work 20,30 or 40 hours per week.

All the provisions of the collective agreement do not apply to members working during a strike (that's not our choice, that's the employer's choice). So even if 10% of the members choose to continue working, the Employer can shift a huge amount of work onto those TAs and rework the courses to eliminate more work. Students would be significantly negatively affected but the University would happily continue to take their money for tuition and provide an even lower quality of education. Thus the pressure for the University Administration to come back to the table is significantly reduced and the strike could drag on.

So, the short answer is even a small number of strike breakers, because they can be forced to overwork (their only other option is to quit or join the strike) can significantly prolong a strike.

dsahota: Some of us actually like our jobs. Just sayin'.

Originally Posted by AYuen

In the CUPE picketer manual, in addition to encouraging picketers to take pictures of strike-breakers, it encourages them to 'post these pictures on a page of the local's web site or in the strike bulletin' and to 'try to secure the name and address' of the strike breaker. This manual was handed out at the CUPE meeting.

...

Is this a joke?
How is this legal, much less even encouraged??

That's messed up.

Originally Posted by Kathy2

Is this a joke?
How is this legal, much less even encouraged??

That's messed up.

Not a joke. It even got a quick mention in The Sil (who have been doing a pretty good job so far staying neutral in all this).... second last paragraph.

http://thesil.ca/blog/news/cupe-mac-...ential-strike/

Originally Posted by dsahota

One of the problems with working during a strike is that workers have no protection against overwork. We already have a confidential memo sent to Dean's that says to redistribute work within courses from TAs who are supporting the strike to those who come in and work. Thus those continuing to work could easily see themselves forced to work 20,30 or 40 hours per week.

All the provisions of the collective agreement do not apply to members working during a strike (that's not our choice, that's the employer's choice). So even if 10% of the members choose to continue working, the Employer can shift a huge amount of work onto those TAs and rework the courses to eliminate more work. Students would be significantly negatively affected but the University would happily continue to take their money for tuition and provide an even lower quality of education. Thus the pressure for the University Administration to come back to the table is significantly reduced and the strike could drag on.

So, the short answer is even a small number of strike breakers, because they can be forced to overwork (their only other option is to quit or join the strike) can significantly prolong a strike.

Again, thanks for the reply Derek. I'm not sure if as a member of the bargaining team you are required to be responding to these questions or if you're doing it of your own volition. The fact that you keep responding either shows your incredible patience or stubbornness in this face of some of the vitriol being flung on these message boards, but it is appreciated either way.

The problem of overwork, like taking pictures of potential strike-breakers, as you've said seems more applicable in an industrial setting rather than our academic one. Wouldn't the higher authorities that limit the work of graduate students to 10 additional hours a week still be in play? Secondly, given the incredibly high hourly rate paid for TA work (as said in the emails from McMaster HR, strike-breakers will continue being paid at the previous hourly rate) wouldn't there be a huge economic incentive to overwork during strike action?

Originally Posted by kleung

Not a joke. It even got a quick mention in The Sil (who have been doing a pretty good job so far staying neutral in all this).... second last paragraph.

http://thesil.ca/blog/news/cupe-mac-...ential-strike/

Excuse my language, but that's f*cked up..

There could be a million reasons why a TA needs to cross the picket line and it could have nothing to do with the strike.

Derek, do you even believe in this stuff you're touting or are you just in too deep to turn back now? I find it hard to believe that any student could be so passionate about potentially ruining the education of about 20,000+ peers.

Originally Posted by Kathy2

Is this a joke?
How is this legal, much less even encouraged??

That's messed up.

It's not legal... the problem is that if the union actually goes through with using these tactics, it's extremely oppresive, to the point where you would fear saying anything to authorities.

It's an extremely effective set of tactics against people who are invested in their job (so, not so much against TA's) since people often can't afford to have their homes vandalized or to be assaulted, especially if they have families to support.

Anyone who doesn't believe that unions are willing to beat the living s*it out of strike breakers needs to read more about the history of unions. These tactics are one of my primary reasons for hating unions the way I do.

Originally Posted by Taunton

Anyone who doesn't believe that unions are willing to beat the living s*it out of strike breakers needs to read more about the history of unions. These tactics are one of my primary reasons for hating unions the way I do.

And it's guaranteed that there will be CUPE goons mingled among the students in the picket line.

Down with CUPE :p lol

this is a sad state of affairs. These TAs (according to derek) are willing to put their fellow TAs under overwork right now just so they can work less afterwards.

and targeting strike-breakers! I am willing to help any strike-breaker get in without identification by CUPE, don't ask me for ways because I think on the spot and it's mostly efficient

you could always use the forest to navigate into the university lol

Taunton, wouldn't you be a member of CUPE if you are a TA?

McMaster is a closed shop. We have no choice but to be part of the union.

Originally Posted by Afzal

Taunton, wouldn't you be a member of CUPE if you are a TA?

I'm not a TA, and I'm not a union member. I wish I was so I could "cross the line".

Since McMaster is a union shop, I wouldn't have a choice anyways... just because someone is a union member, it doesn't mean they want to be.

I hope this strike doesn't happen....but knowing CUPE, they will try to make it happen. Seems like the Ontario government doesn't give a crap about the driving testers strike, and it even seems that some of those driving testers are not getting enough from strike pay and want to go back to work but their union won't let them.There should be an option to be a union member or not, not just forced upon to you. Since the fees the union collects goes into this sort of strike garbage.

Originally Posted by dsahota

Students would be significantly negatively affected but the University would happily continue to take their money for tuition and provide an even lower quality of education. Thus the pressure for the University Administration to come back to the table is significantly reduced and the strike could drag on.

You (and I mean the union collectively, not you alone) refer to the "quality of education" a lot. I wonder...what quality of education we will get with NO TAs vs few TAs? It seems having a few is better than having none, especially for the courses that are 5/6 labs or tutorials, as previously mentioned. If you really gave two shits about the quality of education, there would be no strike. Negotiations happen all the time without unions pulling workers out of the workplace. So please, just say it like it is. We all know its about money, and nothing else. There's no altruistic reason a strike may be happening.