hey guys. im not trying to stir anything up, just trying to get some peoples perspectives on this strike so i know whats going on. right now i'm in the middle between being against of for the strike because it doesn't affect me as much as some other people. (my tutorials aren't too too important to me this semester).

i understand the ta's are against tuition increases. i also know that the university is still in a surplus even though they have raised tuition which gets farther and farther into the whole university being a business concept, which i think is very wrong. I also know that the university was only supposed to spend 12 million on the new eng building and has spent 40 million instead. (i think its the new eng building). thats what one of my prof's said anyways.

just wanting to spark some discussion on this so i can see both sides better. i tried looking at both sides of the argument from each of their viewpoints but found both far too biased in that anything the school does is the right thing and the ta's do is selfish (and vice versa from the ta's perspective).

let me know what you guys think!

I think an agreement needs to be reached ASAP, because the most important people here (the students) are being affected when they don't deserve to be.

I'm also morally against any strike that significantly affects people outside of the dispute (eg this strike, the York strike, the garbage strike, the Ottawa transit strike, etc).

people I don't know, but probably don;t like are unhappy with this strike. so it cant be all bad

Quite frankly i'm disgruntled. So many better ways to settle the dispute. While I feel the current situation is more CUPE's fault than the University, I feel the University is not exactly squeaky clean.

For me, this isn't really about money. I'm pretty disgusted that CUPE managed to call a strike without the input of any of it's members. And it's pretty sad that out of 2,700 union members, only like 20 people are picketing. That makes it pretty obvious that this is NOT worth causing all these problems. CUPE is so corrupt and selfish. I feel bad for the hard working TAs who enjoy their job and don't want to deal with this strike crap, but have no say.

worst part was the traffic backed up on main to cootes (to keyes). Was about .5km long because of there picketing. Even worse an ambulance had to make an illegal right on main and cootes (as to avoid the off ramp that was backed up) and had to Slowly travel past the cars that were backed up on BOTH lanes. A good minute was added to only a 10-20 second stretch of road.

I don't mind people going on strike but blocking traffic should be illegal. So i'm a bit irritated about the strike.

On a side note even more ticked with my internet broken. thank god for thode library.

I'm pissed.

I might be inclined to agree with some of their demands, but CUPE's methods and attitude disgusts me. I refuse to agree with them.

Because blocking students from getting into school is gonna get you what you want.

Because affecting the people that need to use those streets when they don't even go to mac is gonna get you what you want. (I'm just going out on a limb here and guessing that sterling and forsythe isn't just reserved to Mac people).

Forget getting what you want through reasonable arguments and logic. Let's just piss everyone off!

OH MAAAANNN!! this is reaaaaalllly pissing me off..so the commuters are expressing there disgust by honking there horns at the CUPE picketters (which is only a few ppl..sad that they have soo little interest in picketting)...so yeah the horns are going off...so the CUPE morons outside my window decide to turn UP the Crappy Pitbull filled MUSIC to the LOUDEST setting to fight the horns..how mature eh?...also the need for them to keep "WOOOOOOOing" is unneccessary...this is the worst picket line I have ever seeen


Oh and Coots is pretty much backed up to the main street lights...the Carbon footprint thats gonna be left by this display will be tremendous..these so called "educated" people are just annoying...

me and one of my roomates were yelling from our windows to make them turn down the music..and wouldnt you know a bunch of them look up and gave us the finger..lovely aint it?..they must love our signs

Originally Posted by Scrub

OH MAAAANNN!! this is reaaaaalllly pissing me off..so the commuters are expressing there disgust by honking there horns at the CUPE picketters (which is only a few ppl..sad that they have soo little interest in picketting)...so yeah the horns are going off...so the CUPE morons outside my window decide to turn UP the Crappy Pitbull filled MUSIC to the LOUDEST setting to fight the horns..how mature eh?...also the need for them to keep "WOOOOOOOing" is unneccessary...this is the worst picket line I have ever seeen


Oh and Coots is pretty much backed up to the main street lights...the Carbon footprint thats gonna be left by this display will be tremendous..these so called "educated" people are just annoying...

me and one of my roomates were yelling from our windows to make them turn down the music..and wouldnt you know a bunch of them look up and gave us the finger..lovely aint it?..they must love our signs

I tried to look for your sign today, but I didn't see it :( What's it say?

Originally Posted by thedog123123

worst part was the traffic backed up on main to cootes (to keyes). Was about .5km long because of there picketing. Even worse an ambulance had to make an illegal right on main and cootes (as to avoid the off ramp that was backed up) and had to Slowly travel past the cars that were backed up on BOTH lanes. A good minute was added to only a 10-20 second stretch of road.

I don't mind people going on strike but blocking traffic should be illegal. So i'm a bit irritated about the strike.

On a side note even more ticked with my internet broken. thank god for thode library.

That really pisses me off. Blocking students and staff is one thing, but no one should be allowed to hinder the path of an ambulance. Those extra few seconds on the road could have easily cost someone their life.

If I see this occuring, I will definately be giving a complaint to the university and the city. CUPE should not be blocking traffic like this.

To be honest, I'm not sure how unions got the right to block traffic in the first place. I understand handing out pamphlets and waving signs to spread information and raise awareness, I understand walking off the job and hurting a companies bottom line (as long as it doesn't hurt people). I don't understand how they're allowed to disrupt traffic like that. Even if they weren't disrupting a road right in front of a hospital it would be stupid...

In the interest of full disclosure, I'm a PhD student and a TA.

I've thought about creating a whole post about how I reached my decision about this strike and what I in particular am going to do but perhaps it's just sufficient to say that I thought long and hard for many months now and my own particular conclusion was very much particular to me and couldn't be universalized to others.

At the moment, I feel like a pawn being played by local CUPE, the administration and national CUPE and no matter what action I choose and what stance I believe in I will still be this pawn.

I think everyone is being unreasonable in some instances, reasonable in others, good about some things, bad about others and making mistakes because we're all far too human to be behaving otherwise.

I think that neither side is completely passive nor has complete agency.

I also think that unless all the TA's continuing to work actually do get out and vote if there is a vote held, then there's nothing CUPE can really do. They have to respect what the vote of the people who show up is. I think all of us should have informed ourselves and participated moreso before now. Decisions are made based on who shows up. (of course, none of this is to negate how things were spinned by both sides prior to now and continuing from now).

I think what CUPE is arguing for will help some of the most disadvantaged groups in the general TA group (people without guaranteed funding, people with dependent spouses or children) and I don't think this is an ignoble goal. I'm not sure whether it's a goal that the majority of TA's support or just the goal of the majority of TA's who get involved support.

I think that McMaster could have forced us to vote on their offer and declined to do so and even if I don't know what this means, it does mean something (perhaps that they thought their offer wouldn't be accepted by the TA's who would show up to vote, perhaps they want CUPE to go on strike to demonstrate that whole faculties don't support them, I just don't know).

I think it's important to let the other side save face even if they do lose and neither side seems willing to do that at the moment.

I hate how divisive this has made the McMaster community and my department in particular.

I hate that the narratives being created make it impossible to see the other side as composed of human beings and not Absolute Evil and yet when this is resolved we're supposed to work together and be the McMaster community again.

I hate to think that some of my students, profs, and fellow grad students will think poorly of me regardless of what I decided to do.

A lot of what I hate about this I hate about politics generally, actually.

It wouldn't surprise me if McMaster intentionally didn't require a vote by members because they realized how little support CUPE had from TAs. If they make CUPE look bad now, it will put them in a better position next time they need to bargain with them. Which would be pretty consistent with the University caring more about the long term than the current students.

If that is true, it would make me mildly happy that at least the administration running our university is intelligent, but pretty depressed about them messing with my education like that.

/idle conspiracy speculation

Originally Posted by Scrub

OH MAAAANNN!! this is reaaaaalllly pissing me off..so the commuters are expressing there disgust by honking there horns at the CUPE picketters (which is only a few ppl..sad that they have soo little interest in picketting)...so yeah the horns are going off...so the CUPE morons outside my window decide to turn UP the Crappy Pitbull filled MUSIC to the LOUDEST setting to fight the horns..how mature eh?...also the need for them to keep "WOOOOOOOing" is unneccessary...this is the worst picket line I have ever seeen


Oh and Coots is pretty much backed up to the main street lights...the Carbon footprint thats gonna be left by this display will be tremendous..these so called "educated" people are just annoying...

me and one of my roomates were yelling from our windows to make them turn down the music..and wouldnt you know a bunch of them look up and gave us the finger..lovely aint it?..they must love our signs

Because those who were picketing are not workers who suffered from economic hardship, being in a lower socioeconomic status etc. Those are just a bunch of immature, childish kids who just love to rebel for nothing (yeah, i saw their faces. they are kids). But yeah, i'm pissed too.

A lot of people are missing the point of a strike. It isn't to peacefully and constructively get your point across while hindering nobody except the few odd individuals the message is aimed at.

It's a form of civil disobedience. You are pissed because your demands aren't being met so you will do whatever is in your power to piss off the other person until they cannot take your disobedience any more and cave to demands.

It's like a hostage situation, except that it is legally protected by the freedom of assembly.

The strikers want the "hostages" (for those 5 minutes at a time) to go bug the administration to stop and acquiesce to demands.

This is why unionism and political activism is despised by anyone who doesn't share the radical viewpoint. We don't think it's an issue big enough to affect our lives.