News - Strike!

Our university faculty association has been on strike since March 11, 2011.  It is becoming ridiculous now.  It is pretty much the provincial government's fault, having withdrawn a lot of funding from universities province wide.  As I understand it, the administration cannot mediate with money they don't have; the association wants a clause in their contract protecting them from lay-offs (I cannot imagine anyone in this economy being protected in such a manner unless they have tenure).  There is also some issue with cutting courses from programs.  To be fair, the faculty has been working without a contract in place for some time now, and this should've been sorted out by the administration last year.

So, it seems like there is a deadlock.  We students are caught in the middle.  I just think that the faculty is playing with fire ... killing the golden goose, in a way.  Many students are thinking of withdrawing from programs to work, or just fed-up and going to other universities in other provinces.  We are not a university with many rich students.  There are loans to be paid, bursaries to be honoured, savings to be made.  We still have many trades programs from our university-college days, and these students are having a hard time.  Their instructors are not part of the faculty association, but they are barred from crossing the picket line.

The funny thing, to me, is that these are professional people who are part of an association .... not a union.  But, they act as if they're in one.  And it irritates me that they are not honouring the service they promised to provide, by taking our money.  In essence, that money is now stolen money.  The time we have had no classes is stolen time.  I mean both adminstration and faculty .... they should've come to an agreement sooner than this - four weeks and counting.