Originally Posted by dsahota

Carrka's information matches what I've heard from SEIU members. It does seem like both sides are trying to keep things out of the media spotlight as much as possible until they hopefully reach a deal. I haven't found anything in writing with specifics.

That's fine. Hearsay is hearsay though.

i understand that it is hearsay... however like Derek said there is very little information out there.... i have checked both the mac website and the SEIU website.
I believe both sides are trying a lot harder to bargain this time because of the recent T.A. strike.... I personally do not believe there will be a strike.... i highly doubt mac will push them to strike because they are the maintenance and custodial workers... they play a much larger role in the functionality of the university.... it becomes a health and safety issue to have these workers out on the picket lines (not to belittle the T.A.s as their job is also very valuable however it is not a health and safety issue)

lets just hope for the best with this... for everyone's sake!

Oh man, not another strike.

I hate how they reroute buses when there's a strike. Its a mild inconvenience but I find it super annoying as a slow walker, lol. Not to mention it makes it a lot more dangerous to have the amount of students who usually take up a whole Go terminal all standing on one street corner trying to get on different buses. The set-up is just asking for an accident.

That said comments like this...


"Why do custodial workers want a raise? Seriously....

You're a ****ing custodial worker, you get what you worked for."

Are ridiculous.

First of all no one said anything about a raise, as its been pointed out McMaster wants to give them a $4 an hour salary cut, and take away their pensions and on top of that they're cutting people's jobs. Furthermore even if perhaps they were asking for a pay increase who are you to say they don't deserve one? It stands to reason if they're expanding campus (new buildings, new residences) and cutting workers that means more work per individual worker.

Who are you to look down upon the people who clean and maintain the school? Do you want to do the job? Obviously not but the job clearly isn't unimportant or unnecessary, cleaning is an essential service in an institution like this and someone's gotta do it. I hate when people look down on so called "lesser" professions and say they don't need this, they don't deserve this. Someone has to do every job and maybe that job isn't what you aspire to be or consider "good enough" but if they didn't do it you'd be living in/studying in piles of garbage, you'd have to use washrooms/sinks etc that are never cleaned, those stairs that are barely maintained now b/c they obviously don't have enough staff/time to do it they'll be covered in mountains of snow all winter and you can walk in it, all the stuff that gets broken on campus, well its gonna go unfixed and so on and so forth. Think about that the next time you look down upon someone's job and scoff at it.

No one takes a job and performs a service for years and years and years and expects one day to have their pay cut and their pension taken away. They need those things to live just like everyone else needs their income to live and depends on any pension they've accumulated for when they chose to retire. You can't mess with people's income, their job security and their ability to retire at some point the future and expect them not to become upset and less willing to perform their duties.

Would any of the higher ups at the University stand for a pay cut and having their pensions ripped away from them, or worse even their jobs downsized? You can bet your a** they wouldn't.

Its an inconvenience for students sure but its being caused by the University not the striking staff, at least in this case. People act like strikers are always being unreasonable and they should just give up and take the deal being offered to them and quite frankly that's bs. The institution is trying to screw people who are here for us every day providing a service for us that aids in us having a proper environment to study in and we're bitching about those people instead of the real culprit in this situation. Figures.

Lol. So, tuition goes up every year, and they want to cut the hourly wages from their custodial staff.
Greedy.

I heard they want to replace the $4 they're taking away with free coffee and snacks.

Originally Posted by DannyV

I heard they want to replace the $4 they're taking away with free coffee and snacks.

What a pathetic attempt to quell the workers after subtracting from their wages. Coffe and snacks do not cost $4/h/person.

See how easy it is to get people to repeat random things as though they were facts?

Originally Posted by DannyV

See how easy it is to get people to repeat random things as though they were facts?

So they're striking for no reason and Mac isn't doing anything to harm their wages and/or job security and/or pensions and/or anything else that is important to them.

All you're going on is what someone said. That's what I'm getting at.

Originally Posted by DannyV

See how easy it is to get people to repeat random things as though they were facts?

The amount reduced from wages is irrelevant. I'm assuming you were being an ass to make a point.
Regardless: http://www.cupe3906.org/wordpress/

The CUPE 3906, which I am guessing is the McMaster group of the CUPE, has stated:

University administration has shocked SEIU by demanding a number of concessions relating to benefits, wages, vacation time, and reduction of staff.

So all you can really gather from that quote is that the union expected something and the university had other ideas.

Employer and union not seeing eye to eye on issues? Say it ain't so!

Originally Posted by DannyV

So all you can really gather from that quote is that the union expected something and the university had other ideas.

Employer and union not seeing eye to eye on issues? Say it ain't so!

If that's all the information we have to go on right now, then that's all we can talk about. I doubt anyone takes what the union says as 100% true. But it's not like we shouldn't discuss the strike because there's no specific information about wages. When Mac says publicly from their side what is going on, then we can discuss in more detail. For now, we can only talk about the information that we have.

The actual amount of wage reduction is irrelevant. The point is that it's a reduction in wages, wages the employees live on. They have certain living costs, possibly dependents etc that rely on the wage they're receiving and the University is threatening to cut it a certain amount, whether it be $4, $3 or $10.

Originally Posted by david.p92

lmaoo it's just a custodial strike, which just means that the chances of us having garbage all over the place is pretty high

Sounds pretty exciting to me!