Originally Posted by Parnian

These workers are making just a little above minimum wage. They are just as important as the neuroscience professor. These people are serving us our FOOD. That stuff has to be hygienic. Every worker (cleaner, food handler, professor) is important in the grand scheme of things, especially in a university setting.

The thing is that it takes much less training and certification to become a food server than it does to become a neuroscience professor.

Assuming a wage decrease and both leave their jobs, I'm pretty sure it'll be a lot easier to find someone to fill in for the former role than it would for the latter.

Wouldn't it be harsh if Mac suddenly posts job openings for the strikers' replacement? I know it is, but it is also a likelihood unless the university really wants to save face.

Originally Posted by person33

anybody know if they have plans to back to the negotiating table or are they just not talking right now

From the Daily News @ mcmaster.ca

Jan. 12 - 1:15 p.m. - The provincial conciliator has called the University and SEIU Local 2 back to the bargaining table. The parties will return to the table Thursday morning.

I'am sorry but this has to be said.

Those high end paid people at mcmaster actually worked for their job. More than likely got a very good education and spent time working towards their better job

The over glorified fast food line cooks (notice how i didn't say chef like they love putting on their jacketsn) at mcmaster get paid very well for the amount of skills required at their job.

Secondly these higher payed workers tend to be high end administrative staff and if something goes wrong it looks bad on them (chance of termination) or loss of investment in the university.

If one of the cooks gives you a very runny omelet it is not so bad.

Latest news : http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca /story.cfm?id=7130
Hopefully they reach something tomorrow =/

Originally Posted by thedog123123

I'am sorry but this has to be said.

Those high end paid people at mcmaster actually worked for their job. More than likely got a very good education and spent time working towards their better job

The over glorified fast food line cooks (notice how i didn't say chef like they love putting on their jacketsn) at mcmaster get paid very well for the amount of skills required at their job.

Secondly these higher payed workers tend to be high end administrative staff and if something goes wrong it looks bad on them (chance of termination) or loss of investment in the university.

If one of the cooks gives you a very runny omelet it is not so bad.

I don't think I've ever had any bad service from any foody stuff on campus at all. There's the odd donut-supply-lacking, occassionally, but other than that, everything has been great. Has anyone ever had a bad hospitality-related experience?

Fast food servers, on the other hand.... :S

I don't quite know what you mean about the 'very good education' part though, no offense... for cooks I can understand, but the other people?

Its just awful that we cant seem to go a year without a strike..

I know that creating the inconvenience is part of getting heard and pretty much implied with striking , but it just sucks that the students are so inconvenienced (delays getting to campus, delays getting into campus once here, lack of food on campus, late profs bc of the strike,late ourselves...) when we really cant do all that much to change the situation

in comparison to the people who can actually do something ( the people at the top, or whoever is involved in these contracts) who dont experience the same levels of inconvenience( bc at the end of the day their education is done, this is just another day at work with an obstacle- theyre not losing out on education quality) - if anything they perhaps just experience some extra pressure to fix everything...

Not sure if that made sense but I tried to explain my point..

Originally Posted by Parnian

Income Inequality at McMaster University
by Norman M. Kearney
8 January 2011


The 883 best-paid employees, therefore, make on average 2.6 times as much as 89% of all employees at McMaster University, consuming 25% of the compensation budget and costing each student almost three times the cost per employee for other workers.

Yup. When employees can do things that few others in the world can (i.e. lead world research in science), they are paid exorbitantly more than employees that do things that EVERYONE else in the world can (i.e. make sandwiches). As it should be. You`re dumb.

Originally Posted by thedog123123

I'am sorry but this has to be said.

Those high end paid people at mcmaster actually worked for their job. More than likely got a very good education and spent time working towards their better job

The over glorified fast food line cooks (notice how i didn't say chef like they love putting on their jacketsn) at mcmaster get paid very well for the amount of skills required at their job.

They're not looking for a wage increase. They're looking for job security.

I also find it kind of sad how people keep putting down those working in the food service industry. Maybe they're not engineers and don't have a university degree, but I still think they're entitled to job security. I'll be the first person in my family to graduate from university, and that's not because my other family members didn't "actually work for their job." They worked really hard, but for financial, and in my father's case, due to a really bad car accident, they had to drop out.

Originally Posted by AlienSummer

They're not looking for a wage increase. They're looking for job security.

I also find it kind of sad how people keep putting down those working in the food service industry. Maybe they're not engineers and don't have a university degree, but I still think they're entitled to job security. I'll be the first person in my family to graduate from university, and that's not because my other family members didn't "actually work for their job." They worked really hard, but for financial, and in my father's case, due to a really bad car accident, they had to drop out.

I wasn't putting them down. I am just arguing against the complaints about the 833 staff members paid quite better.

I understand they are looking for job security, but my point was that the university is a business and is not going to give them exactly that.

However, you're right to some degree that some people are not being considerate.

Originally Posted by AlienSummer

They're not looking for a wage increase. They're looking for job security.

I also find it kind of sad how people keep putting down those working in the food service industry. Maybe they're not engineers and don't have a university degree, but I still think they're entitled to job security. I'll be the first person in my family to graduate from university, and that's not because my other family members didn't "actually work for their job." They worked really hard, but for financial, and in my father's case, due to a really bad car accident, they had to drop out.

Don't bother with the 'tards, one day they will wake up in a cubicle or in a small office covered with papers and wonder if being less arrogant would have benefited them in the end.

I love how everyone doing an undergraduate degree at McMaster seems to think they'll be making more than some of the people they like to put down so often for having less glamorous jobs than the one they see themselves having. Reality has a fun way of biting back in these cases.

A few letters after your name and a $50,000+ investment into a piece of paper is not nearly as effective as true inspiration, intelligence and diligence in a person willing to go the extra mile... just because the "burger flippers" don't have all of your ambition that doesn't make them less human or deserving of respect.

Let's pull a Quebec, and go on strike ourselves.

Originally Posted by Sasha

Well, I wonder who should get less wages. Professors who teach Neuroscience or a lady with not college degree that servers Pizza at the student center?

There are 18,000 parking lot attendants in the U.S. with college degrees. There are also 5,000 janitors with a PhD.

No amount of education will ever guarantee you a job. When you enter the real world where jobs are limited, begin a family, and have financial obligations, you aren't able to pick and chose cozy jobs. Also many of these people came from an age where post-secondary education was not as important as it is now. They chose a job at McMaster because it provided them a decent income to raise their families, and it also guaranteed them job-security.

When your young with no or little obligations, it's easy to just leave and get a new job. But these people remained at McMaster because they had a job that met their requirements. Some have been here for 20 years. They also have families that depend on them. It would be extremely difficult for them to just leave and find another job. We are going through a recession and most employers prefer to hire young people not middle aged employees.


Edit: Thought this number would be more relevant. Over 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees (over 8,000 of them have doctoral or professional degrees), along with over 80,000 bartenders.

People are saying that those who serve food should suck it up and accept poor pay. But imagine once jobs become part time and min wage who will be serving you food. Dirty trashy looking people, like the ones you see in a downtown tim hortons I don't know about you but I would rather have an older lady who looks like shes been working there for 20 years. Sometimes the people they have serving at Pizza Pizza turn me off getting pizza. But Im graduating in four months, so i don't even care anymore)))

Originally Posted by justinsftw

Wouldn't it be harsh if Mac suddenly posts job openings for the strikers' replacement? I know it is, but it is also a likelihood unless the university really wants to save face.

Honestly, I'm not even sure if Mac is legally allowed to do that- there are ridiculous rules in place to protect unions. However, there would be just as many people who would support Mac in that decision as people who would protest it.

The way Reagan handled that strike is one of the things that made him so popular (as well as making him wildly unpopular with others).