I drive and everyday i have to wait in line for the TA's to finish marching in their little 10 foot diameter circles. There is no point in honking the horns at them (unless they are totally not expecting it and are right in front of the vehicle) because all they want is ppl to pay attention to them. If nobody got mad or complained about them striking they would eventually quit. especially since it is supposed to rain tomorrow

and that is how you fight a strike. Do not give them the attention they so dearly crave.

I'm a bit curious why actions that would get an individual person in trouble are legally protected when a group does them.

Actually, I'm not particularly curious about that. It was slightly more polite than saying "its stupid that".

Originally Posted by A.Marlowe

I'm a bit curious why actions that would get an individual person in trouble are legally protected when a group does them.

Actually, I'm not particularly curious about that. It was slightly more polite than saying "its stupid that".

No kidding. If I went out onto main street and just planted my fat ass there, I would be told to move because I'm impeding the flow of traffic.

Doesn't make sense.

Originally Posted by deadpool

and that is how you fight a strike. Do not give them the attention they so dearly crave.

and this is why im loling about micadjems and scrub and the silly counterprotests and scrabble.

Laughing at scrabble!? dude there's something wrong with that. It's a great game!

Originally Posted by Kathy2

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.

Hi Kathy,

Just to address a few points you have raised and hopefully to clear the air a little.

To bridge the standpoint on the union side and the people affected by the picketing, I can say with certainty that a lot of the people picketing did not want the bargaining to end up with a strike. Fact of the matter is the employer walked away from the bargaining table when the union was willing to negotiate through the weekend in attempt to reach an agreement or at least a tentative agreement before the strike deadline to avert the strike.

The CUPE did call a strike mandate vote in late summer/early fall. They would not have been able to go forward with it without the vote results of the members.

Overall, there must have been over 200 picketers if not more, with a small crowd at the North Cootes entrance, a bigger crowd at the South Cootes entrance, and a sizeable crowd of upwards of 40, 50 people on Stirling. Naturally the pickets are not out there constantly, and at any given time the crowd size does not represent the entire force of the pickets due to the shift system.

Also, at a special general membership meeting held on Sunday, 66% of the members expressed no interest in sending the current offer forward.

That said, majority of the TA's picketing do enjoy TAing and do realize the students are the victim of the strike. The original intention of a strike mandate vote and a (generous) strike deadline was to set an incentive for the employer to come to the table to bargain in good faith. I can say, with full honest, that CUPE HAD been the enthused side with approaching the bargaining table.

I realize a measly post will probably not change many of your opinions and may be inconsequential, but I feel that the facts and the truths should at least be made aware to those that care.

Originally Posted by Eugene

Also, at a special general membership meeting held on Sunday, 66% of the members expressed no interest in sending the current offer forward.

thats 66% of the few members that showed up to an impromptu short notice meeting

Originally Posted by Scrub

thats 66% of the few members that showed up to an impromptu short notice meeting

Duly noted.

We had about 11% of the union members turned out to vote (out of 2700 members). It doesn't sound like a big number, but the bottom line is that the union execs cared to hear the member's voice to call an emergency meeting on short notice to interact with the members. If anyone were to put themselves in the exec's position for a second, based on the timing of the employer walking away from the table and the first workday of striking approaching, I don't think the chain of events would have gone any differently. While it is true that a larger turn out would have captured a more representative cross-section of the membership, it was the voices of the members that were able to be present at the meeting that was captured for the statistics and decisions to be based upon. In a system based on democracy and vote results, once again I don't imagine the outcome would have been different.

The way things are looking there will be a general membership meeting towards the end of the week, just in a day or two. I am curious myself to see how things evolve as well.

Caring about hearing the member's voice would entail a properly planned meeting with an email outlining that a vote would happen.

That would have been ideal, and a lot of negativity over this vote taking place over the past few days would not have sat in.

Once again though, I think the execs did a decent job given that they had 36 hours or so to plan a meeting that requires a 24 hour notice.

Re: the vote: My understand is that the vote was put forward by the membership present through a straw vote to call forward a motion.

But regardless, once again with a GMM happening in a day or two's time, bickering over this is especially a moot point. I am just hoping things are resolved quickly one way or another.

This strike is really annoying, and if you are a student I think you want Mac to give TA the money. Why? if TA's dont get it, they will not be happy that they wasted so many hours for nothing. Do u really want unhappy and pissed off TA's teaching and marking your quizzes/midterms??

Um. If they let personal feelings about their wages affect the quality of their work then they DEFINITELY do not deserve money. Rather they deserve to be fired.

Originally Posted by deadpool

Um. If they let personal feelings about their wages affect the quality of their work then they DEFINITELY do not deserve money. Rather they deserve to be fired.

As a TA myself, even I have to entirely agree with deadpool.

can we atleast agree to stop handing out flyers? Its making me sick to see every car get one..only to see them throw it away moments later...Paper waste aint cool people!