Originally Posted by talues

You know what? Now that I've reread what I said and reread what you have said, I realize that I kinda vented my frustration others have caused me on these forums on you, someone who has actually been contributing meaningful posts to the discussion. I apologize for directing these remarks towards you.

The internet: Letting anyone making an ass of themselves in seconds since the 1960s...

I'll fully admit to making an ass out of myself on the internet too many times to count, lol.

This is a frustrating situation for everyone and emotions are running high on all sides.

The important thing is achieving a good situation for students, all students including the TAs. Sticking them with a crap deal just to get it over with would be unfair. I'm just glad at this point they're being allowed to vote on the deal themselves. They're all University students, over 19 years old more than likely and they are capable of making a decision for themselves if they think what they're being offered is fair. I'd like for it to put an end to the strike but we'll see how it goes, its just a good step in the right direction that the actual union membership is being allowed to vote on the deal.

If I'm not wrong didn't CUPE ask for a 3rd party arbitrator like a number of times earlier on and were refused by the administration? Can someone from CUPE please confirm/deny that? I vaguely remember reading that a few weeks ago.

Originally Posted by Kathy2

I probably wouldn't have taken the job in the first place. But hey, that's just me.

Ah, but this comes back to why I came to Mac. I came to Mac because of the opportunity to work with a great supervisor in a field of work which interests me. The TA-ship was part of the offer given to me to by the department as an incentive for me to come study here. I was aware of the previous contractual agreement at the time, but unfortunately the contract has run out.

This isn't as cut-and-dry a situation as, say, if I worked in the public sector (say for a city) as the TA-ship is only a portion of my income (a rather large portion however) and only a portion of my work here(For many, the TA-ship is essentially their entire income). Research is the main focus of my work here, but I do thoroughly enjoy TA-ing (without a lie). All of this doesn't mean I should accept whatever the university offers TAs during this time. The university should also consider those of us who are working on their Master's and plan on continuing to do our Ph.D. A situation such as this could sour our experience at Mac to the point where we do not want to continue our research here and decide to move on to somewhere else.

In the future I will probably warn prospective grad students about the current situation and how the university has treated the TAs in the current situation, including their greasy bargaining tactics so that they can be as informed as possible when making their graduate school decision.

Edit: I forgot to finish my train of thought.