Power Struggle

For a moment, I thought I might be returning to class within the next two days, as an emergency meeting was called by our Provinical government to legislate the striking graduate students and contract faculty back to work. Alas, one of the opposition parties, the New Democratic Party, could not agree to the notion of forcing these people back to work without ratifying an agreement with their employer. Since back-to-work legislation requires unanimity in Parliament - at least that is how I understand it - this bill must be debated and pass through the required number of readings before implementation. Depending on the side of the fence on which you find yourself, this is a rousing victory or a colossal bummer.

During the last three months, I've witness a considerable amount of disconcerted, even hostile, sentiments towards the Union and its members. I can understand the frustration harboured by students and parents for fear of having their and their children's education compromised by what seems like a squabble over money. Some argue that this is not the time to be making such demands, as we find ourselves in an economic downturn. Others argue they earn more than enough, and that they should simply change jobs if they are unhappy with the current one. Still others argue the Union has no right to hold students hostage. Personally, I do not deny the Union's desire to seek as much as it feels it can get, nor do I disagree with the notion that the modern-day Union is more interested in accumulating more stuff for its members than in altering the way we operate (Hansen, 2001). For all we know, the heads in the CUPE nerve centre have been using this opportunity to play politics, using the members of Local 3903 as bait. Still, that doesn't excuse the enormous disparity between that on which graduate students and contract faculty must live and what the executives at the University take home.

If I've learned anything during these past three months, it's that when you're the perceived authority, you can play dirty pool and ascertain your most desired outcome; I can't help but cogitate this plausibility on the part of the University. Right now, it seems the Union hasn't a leg on which to stand, now that the Province is trying to usher its members back to work; somehow, someone in that ivory tower knew precisely how to weaken the stance of the striking workers and played this hand accordingly. I don't know about you, but I cannot swallow the argument that the University has no money to spare when, as of May, it raised $150 million in its fiftieth anniversary campaign, and especially when its top executive earns as much as he does while having the University pay for a private car and driver. I certainly cannot swallow the argument that the Union's demands cannot be met when our Members of Provincial Parliament almost unanimously approved a twenty-five percent pay hike for themselves.

Students have every right to be upset about being out of class for the last three months, but we ought not to be so quick to lay blame at those who are on strike, as their employer is just as culpable, if not more. If you ask me, I feel the issue lies well beneath the numbers on the offer sheets that have been passed back and forth across the bargaining table: this is our own greed raising its ugly head to the surface; each one of us is guilty. That being said, I have difficulty not rooting for the underdog. Sure, I would love to see a world in which all players are seen as invaluable, not certain players over others, but until that happens, we of so-called lesser value must band together to demonstrate our worth in society. If it means shutting down the wheels of production in the process, so be it, until the "authority" sees the folly in believing it wields the power.

The President of our school fears this will lead to a Province-wide strike in 2010. When I think about it, I don't know if it is such a bad idea. Perhaps workers from other industries can stand together with them - given what's about to happen this year, I wouldn't be surprised to see the masses take to the streets, though hopefully in a peaceful manner. Perhaps undergraduate students need to get on board as well if they wish to receive a real education rather than some glorified training program on how to be validated by a supposed authority.

Our problems won't be magically whisked away by some piece of legislation: we have to work to eradicate them, but first, we have to know what they are.