Reply #41: sessional instructor/TA here ... [View All]

[Lisa]

We formed a union for the sessionals about the same time your group did. (And at our school, too, most of the teaching work is done by the sessionals and TAs.) We have managed to have tutorial sizes capped -- in the past there were situations where the TAs were forced to take so many extra people that there weren't enough computers or equipment to go around, and of course their marking workload skyrocketed until they were getting something like $5 per hour. We haven't had to walk out yet (though we did support the cafeteria, office, and maintenance workers a while back). Right now we are dealing with a situation where my department's Dean has demanded that the school deduct our wages for supporting the schoolteachers and nurses when all the public service unions had a "day of action" to protest what was being done by our provincial government.

Anyway, I am sorry that you had to put up with such rudeness from your colleague's spouse. I wonder if the reason she had such a violent reaction is because she's having troubles at her own workplace, and is taking it out on you? The food service people in our town have had an awful time -- some of them are trying to unionize, and management has been setting workers against each other. The instructor down the hall from me said that his wife (a sous-chef) is seeing that in her restaurant now. Most of the people there really want a union, but there are a few who have been bought off by management and are causing trouble. Maybe this is the situation with "oyster woman"?

I'll bet that she is the first person to raise a cry when she feels she's been hard done by. It would not surprise me one bit if she is the first person to take advantage of union protection -- I've seen it before!

Are there any other departments in your building which are more sympathetic (more people willing to go out on strike, etc.?). They might be able to provide more support. I know that one of the Physics grad students has been hanging around with the Biology and Social Science people, since there are more of us who share his political views.

When we did finally unionize, we were amazed by how many sessionals there were on campus. We were all off in our own departments, a couple here or a half-dozen there, and we hadn't seen the big picture.


Solidarity Forever!