I think us Students should pack a lunch everyday we will all save a bundle. The food sold at McMaster is so over priced and it continues to increase every year.

Originally Posted by jachill

Agh the line up for Tim Hortons is gonna be insane now. O_O

*sips homemade Tim Horton's hot chocolate in the comfort of his own home*

Originally Posted by RyanC

*sips homemade Tim Horton's hot chocolate in the comfort of his own home*

Dude.. I'm literally doing the same. I love their hot chocolate mix.

Originally Posted by britb

At Emerson and Main (confirmed by a driver this morning, its the usual spot whenever a strike happens). It's across Main street from the new Engineering building (the glass one...I can't remember the acronym right now) and next (to the left when facing the university, at the HSR shelter) to the beige-ish building with black curtains (it has a sign up front saying its looking for students or something like that).

Is it ITB? I still don't know exactly where I should be getting on haha.

Super excited for the death trap alternative Go Transit pick up spot later today.

Seriously. Now its winter so it becomes even more of a safety hazard to have so many people crowding one small street corner right next to the road.

I understand the Go bus drivers position, I just wish they could set up something that was safer and less of a hassle for students. There's a reason they have a whole terminal set up behind Mary Keyes and don't just normally pick large groups of students up on the side of the road. The alternative drop off point is a lot better thought out than the alternative pick up spot.

This is such a disturbing trend. McMaster offers crap to the dedicated people (and the hospitality services people are wonderful btw) who serve their students aka their paying customers, said people strike which just leads to annoyed and disgruntled students and workers while McMaster still gets to keep all their money despite inconveniencing their customers so to speak. Thanks for nothing McMaster.

Originally Posted by RyanC

Don't be a moron.

To be fair, he is completely right. This isn't reflexive anti-union sentiment, unions are just like churches in the sense that they don't survive as organizations unless they can hold a steady base of members. If they don't continue to fight for more and more things, people will view them as useless, and be less likely to support them. They will continue to fight for more regardless of what the current conditions of workers are.

Originally Posted by dsahota

Students can go on strike and in places like Quebec its occurs not infrequently:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_Qu...udent_s trike

In reality, students can probably exert more pressure on the university than any individual labour group. Without students in classrooms, government funding could be withheld and if students refused to pay tuition, the university would run out of money pretty quick. Students have a huge amount of potential power, but in Ontario they seem to be to be unwilling to use it.

Its a real life example of the prisoners dilemma- while students could probably accomplish a lot if they were willing to strike, they will seriously harm their education if they don't get enough people. And most students put education first, its just not worth the risk.

Originally Posted by stevenmm

The bus drivers have their own union, so the drivers do it out of respect and a show of support for the striking workers and their union.

While this may or may not be a component of their reasons for not coming on campus, the huge delays from blocked traffic are most likely the largest reason. It took over an hour for some students to get on campus today, it isn't feasible for public transit to have that kindof delays. Almost everyone would end up getting off a few stops early and walking to save time, so you would be paying a driver to sit in an empty bus for an hour.


The unions blocking the roads certainly sucks, but hopefully the lack of competition means 1280 will be able to do some booming business

Originally Posted by Marlowe

The unions blocking the roads certainly sucks, but hopefully the lack of competition means 1280 will do some booming business

Not just 1280. Almost everyone who was seated and eating in MUSC today bought food and drinks from Tim Horton's.

Good point, I can actually see this being a huge benefit to a lot of off campus businesses as well.

And best case scenario- McMaster gets so fed up with the strike, that they decide to completely get rid of the Hospitality Services monopoly- then clubs won't technically be breaking rules when they supply pizza at events

That said, it still sucks for students who commute. And it really really, really, sucks for students who drive.

any idea how long the strike is going to last?

subway will do an even meaner business than it already does

Originally Posted by Marlowe

And best case scenario- McMaster gets so fed up with the strike, that they decide to completely get rid of the Hospitality Services monopoly- then clubs won't technically be breaking rules when they supply pizza at events

...while a hundred people loose their job and are unable to support their families. Its not worth it. Also thats monopoly is because McMaster wants to make more money its not the fault of the people working at hospitality services.

Also in response to the previous post about unions. Yes some unions can go overboard during negotiations and try to get more. But all of the recent labour discussions at mac weren't about getting more in the contract they were about keeping what they already had as mac tries to slash benefits. In this case the unions are fully justified.

So by designated spots with GO transit, where are they exactly? Is it at the Emerson and Main intersection like the last strike?

Originally Posted by Furgs

So by designated spots with GO transit, where are they exactly? Is it at the Emerson and Main intersection like the last strike?

Yeah same thing.

Go Transit also actually seems to be aware of the extra hazards with it being winter and all and they actually have it set up and running more smoothly this time. They have an extra guy out there communicating with the bus drivers and telling them exactly where to stop and directing students to where their bus will be stopping. There's still way too many people on the side of the street but its at least organized and safer this way so people are just all in one big clump on the corner.

We just need to put a face and a name to the source of all these problems and go from there...

I obviously support the union's decision to strike if McMaster is trying to pinch their benefits, regardless of what they are. The real villain here is the school, and I'm seriously considering not giving it any more of my money if this is how their employees and their students are/will be treated in the future..

Originally Posted by collinbf

...while a hundred people loose their job and are unable to support their families. Its not worth it. Also thats monopoly is because McMaster wants to make more money its not the fault of the people working at hospitality services.

Also in response to the previous post about unions. Yes some unions can go overboard during negotiations and try to get more. But all of the recent labour discussions at mac weren't about getting more in the contract they were about keeping what they already had as mac tries to slash benefits. In this case the unions are fully justified.

I was partially joking, as indicated by the smiley. While it would have a nice benefit for students (especially if it meant we could get better food on campus after HS was gone), I realize there would be consequences for the workers who currently work there.

I would argue that both the school and union are justified in their actions at this point- the union is doing what they feel is needed to get the best deal for its members, and the members seem to mostly support them. In fact, I would argue the only time a union's actions aren't justified are when the members don't support the actions (ie, the TA strike).

However, McMaster is doing the same thing- the current pay and benefits are way above what the market value for the work is, and its not economically feasible to pay the workers as much as they are making now. Mac, just like my examples of unions and churches, wants to protect its own existence as much as possible.

There really isn't a clear cut villain in this situation- both sides are acting in their own self interest. And while I don't support the rules that allow striking workers to interfere so much with traffic (it can take longer than an hour to get on campus at some points), I can't blame the union for taking advantage of them.