Bravo Walter, I
support this idea wholeheartedly. Where do we start? Where
do I sign up?!
My mind is so
much on our CUPE colleagues tonight. I remember Sunday
evenings during
our
strike, when after what should have been a weekend off
but was instead a
relentless barrage of strike worries, we faced going back
to the picket
lines on Monday with an employer who had obviously never heard
of the concept of
"bargaining in good faith."
But then, I also
remember that in some ways, I was happier on the picket
lines than I'd
been in my then 17 years at York, because for the first time,
I'd found good
people with whom I shared a common cause.
Let's begin to
look at how we can turn this second major York strike into an
advantage -- what
do we need to do to do what Trent did? I'm tired of
saying, as I do
so often, that "I only have 11 3/4 years till retirement."
It's too long.
It's time for a change.
Louise
----- Original
Message -----
From:
"Walter Whiteley" <whiteley@PASCAL.MATH.YORKU.CA>
To:
<YUFA-CUPE@YORKU.CA>
Sent: Sunday,
November 19, 2000 4:25 PM
Subject: Save the
Semester / Save York
> >From
their (open) meeting on Friday, I
believe that
> CUPE 3903
and some student groups are planning
> a campaign
this week with the theme of
'Save
the Semester'
> and therefore
settle now with a fair offer. This will
> be
coordinated, in part, with groups of undergraduates.
> While it is
theoretically true that Senate has 'guaranteed'
> that the
semester will be rescheduled and completed,
> there are,
indeed, high risks for many of the students,
> including a
number of the striking students.
>
> We should,
of course, support this campaign.
>
> However, it
is perhaps also time to dig deeper.
> Taking
Sunday as a day to reflect on the strike, on Lorna's
> reply to the
student, and other pieces which have been
> floating in
my head, I suddenly recalled a conversation
> with a
colleague from Trent. Here is a paraphrase.
>
> "After the first strike at Trent, very
little changed.
> After the second strike, everything changed
- the
> entire administration was changed and
structures revised."
>
> We are now
well into our second major strike at York
> in four
years. Perhaps it is time to recognize
that
> this is not
an unfortunate series of individual actions - but a
> major failure of the institution, the
administration
> and their
models of 'management'.
>
> Sure the
Federal transfer cuts, the provincial government,
> etc. have
created a hostile environment with limited funds.
>
> That does
not explain raising the tuition for
> graduate
students (then complaining that tuition
> indexation
for TAs and GAs would only benefit 40%
> of the
students)! It does not explain the
resistance
> to a fair
offer of security to the long service contract faculty.
> If finances
WERE the issue there (and they do NOT take a
> consistent
line of this - sometimes denying that money
> is the
issue, sometimes complaining about the costs),
> they would
have welcomed the inclusion of YUFA
> in full
discussions to wrap up the issue, the YUFA
> grievance,
the past and future appointments etc.
> [They swept
this offer from YUFA aside, in a way that
> said - you
have nothing to contribute to a settlement!]
>
> We should
keep the experience of Trent in mind,
> and see
whether this is the time for a wholesale
> change on a
scale that did NOT happen after the YUFA strike.
>
> Perhaps,
having tried THEIR WAY, and found it wanting,
> THIS WAY
must be tried!
>
> Walter Whiteley