Teaching Assistants at the University of British Columbia, represented by CUPE 2278, will take a strike vote on Wednesday, 24 October. The University narrowly averted a TA strike in mid April (80% of the TAs in favour) through legal means of mediation. Mediation predictably failed and merely deferred job action. Seven months later the union is once again mobilizing for a strike. The University has fallen back on a comfortable excuse that the graduate teaching assistants are net zero workers, and accordingly has offered 0%, 0%, 1.5%, 1.5% in increases to TA wages for the years 2010-2014. As with CUPE 116, the university’s and government’s sentiment has been: ‘Let them negotiate, let them bargain,’ as long as they remain net zero workers. For the TA’s facing tuition hikes and carrying increasing burdens of responsibility for the University, the 0%, 0%, 1.5%, 1.5% is blatantly unfair. This is ever more the conclusion given that the University has been merely rolling over contracts for the TA union since 2005.
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