Photo Courtesy / Anna-Maria Kalesoski

After approximately ten months of disagreement and an uncertain future for teaching assistants, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 3902) voted for a strike mandate.

According to the CUPE 3902 Unit 1, which represents 4,200 teaching assistants including graduate student instructors and lab demonstrators at all U of T campuses, U of T administration has refused to negotiate with them in order to meet their demands.

James Nugent, the chief spokesperson for the CUPE 3902 campaign, says union members have reasonable demands. The three key issues the union is bargaining for are smaller tutorial sizes, to stop the decline in compensation for graduate student research work, and to restore funding for senior students.

According to the union, 25 per cent of tutorials now have more than 50 students per class, graduate student living stipends and benefit levels remain frozen and tuition levels have skyrocketed, while thousands of research grant dollars that graduate students previously received for conducting their own research have since been converted into research assistant jobs that pay poorly.

At the time of print, bargaining was still ongoing between the university and CUPE 3902 Unit 1. Yet, according to Ryan Cupepper, CUPE 3902’s chair of bargaining, “[the union has] not met with [the university] since [the union] set the strike deadline.”

The university will not lock out the instructors and assistants as long as things remain “operationally feasible,” said Jill Matus, Vice Provost.

In the event of a strike, CUPE 3902 Unit 1 will picket to raise awareness of their position and encourage students and faculty members to join them. With midterm season in tow, the union has the opportunity to display how crucial a role TA’s have in running the university.

If an agreement is not made between CUPE 3902 and the university, a strike will mean the cancellation of tutorial classes for students at all three U of T campuses. The work will not be performed by professors or other employees.

Mediation talks are scheduled for Feb. 21 and 22. The union will be in a legal strike/lockout position as of Feb. 23.