Teaching assistants at U of T are now on strike after rejecting tentative offer
Posted February 27, 2015 7:39 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
More than 6,000 teaching assistants (TA’s) at the University of Toronto are going out on strike after all.
The negotiators from CUPE local 3902 had reached a tentative deal, around 4 a.m. Friday morning, following a marathon round of talks.
But late Friday afternoon, 90 per cent of the TA’s who came to a meeting to learn about that deal voted it down.
It will not even go into a formal ratification process.
Picket lines are expected to start first thing Monday morning.
The TA’s at U of T look after about 60 per cent of all teaching at the University, and only make $15,000 per year on average. They were pushing for an increase, the first since 2008, to $23,000, the low income cut-off for Toronto.
A strike will disrupt tutorials, labs, and grading at the school.
CUPE 3902’s Thomas Laughlin provided the following statement after the deal was rejected.
“Our existence as student-workers at the University of Toronto is precarious; we need a fair compensation for the value we add to the university as researchers and education-workers,” he wrote.
Meanwhile, talks continue in hopes of averting a Tuesday strike for TA’s and other teaching staff at York University.