Strike averted? A very lucky outcome for the U
February 18, 2010 5:29 PM
StFX students likely let out a collective sigh of relief on Tuesday afternoon upon receiving the news that the administration and StFXAUT had reached a tentative agreement.
Apart from some minor selfish aspirations for more time to work on my thesis, I too was relieved by this update.
Most students had concerns about losing class time, or paying to stay longer in Antigonish if the semester was extended.
My primary concern about a potential strike, however, and boy, did it become apparent this week, was that students wouldn’t be represented in this process.
Our students’ union executive has professed they are neutral in these negotiations, as if there are only two parties in this whole debacle.
Well, if you’re counting us students, the ones who pay an outlandish sum to even set foot in this school, there are three.
In the past couple of weeks, I’ve ranted about the strike situation to myself, my staff, and maybe even some innocent passersby who happened to catch me in a particularly irate state of mind. I thought maybe I was being too hard on the students’ union; people were asking me, “what more do you want them to do?” Well, I did a Google search. Apparently in January 2008, when the faculty union at St Thomas had been on strike for a month, the students’ union president pledged to launch a class action lawsuit against both the university and the faculty union to recompense students for tuition, books, and rent.
Agree or disagree with this action, I think it establishes quite clearly the seriousness of a strike for students.
This type of scenario was posed to President Sandy MacIntosh earlier this week at a student forum that could have and should have been held a month ago, when a questioner asked what the U would do if the semester was extended and students had to pay more rent.
The response?
“The students’ union, we’re here all the time for you guys. I don’t know exactly what kinds of obligations we would have at that point. I would do my best to stay around and not just pass it off into the incoming executive because that would be a time of stress for a lot of students.” Pressed for more detail, he said:
“I don’t know if a decision on that has been made yet. Speaking with Ramsay Duff, the vice president of finance, I didn’t get an answer on that yet.”
Why don’t you know what your obligations are at that point? Why would the administration have to call all the shots in that scenario? And why, oh why, are you being passive about not getting answers?
The students’ union at St Thomas was prepared to launch a lawsuit in order to aid students during a messy strike. Our students’ union has been talking about organizing study groups. The students’ union is responsible for representing the interests of over 4000 StFX students, most of whom didn’t get their tuition paid for this year.
The admin has their guys at the table, as do the AUT.
As students, we are an adult party in these negotiations, and there is absolutely no reason to be passive about it.
If the students’ union needs to strain relationships and burn bridges with the other parties in order to advocate on behalf of students, so be it.
This strike talk isn’t small potatoes; for a lot of students, it’s the whole ball game. Stop pretending your hands are tied.
