York University, in Toronto, canceled all classes this morning for its 50,000 undergraduates after 3,400 teaching assistants, contract faculty members, and graduate assistants went on strike.
The striking staff is responsible for half the teaching at the university, Canada’s third-largest, according to a statement issued last night by the union, rejecting the university’s latest offer.
York had offered a 9.25-percent pay raise over three years, but the union wants 11 percent over two years, tied to the cost of living, and it wants greater job security. The two-year contract is part of the union’s overall plan to coordinate university contracts in Ontario so that collective bargaining for all universities would take place together, according to interviews with union officials in The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper.
Eight years ago, the TA’s and contract faculty members were on strike for 11 weeks. —Karen Birchard
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3 Responses to Canada’s Third-Largest University Cancels Classes Because of Strike
maggiepax - July 2, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I wish U’s would end their big league sports teams and invest in education instead, but I’m obviously an underpaid humanities instructor. Not even tenure-track.
jiminnc - July 3, 2011 at 9:36 am
The huge salaries paid to coaches, even assistant coaches, have to be taken into account. According to http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2009-11-09-coaches-salary-analysis_N.htm , “The average pay for a head coach in the NCAA’s top-level, 120-school Football Bowl Subdivision is up 28% in that time and up 46% in three years, to $1.36 million.” Plus, “At least 66 football assistants, including more than two dozen in the Southeastern Conference, make $300,000 or more.”
The “program” may not be making a profit, but someone is. It’s a plantation system, where those at the top make big bucks and the workers are not paid.
No one minds that the jazz band is not paid, but if the jazz band director was selling their recorded music or being paid $1.36M, I think they’d want a cut.
Instituting a system where boosters or Nike were allowed to pay into a fund that pays football and basketball players a $100-200 monthly stipend could make sense.
FTRsports - July 5, 2011 at 5:21 pm
well said… players are paid… giving them a salary beyond their scholarships would make no financial sense for the schools, and would damage student-athletes’ motivation for being there in the first place.