Graduate teaching assistants on strike: Western University
Global News
“This is all employees on campus fight. Everyone is standing in solidarity, and we will stand in solidarity with them when it’s their turn to bargain as well.”
Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are on strike at Western University after rejecting the latest offer from their employer.
GTAs will step away from their duties on Thursday, which is also the first day of the undergraduate exam period.
Western University announced on its website that GTAs received an hourly wage of $48.41 as of January 1, which is increased to $51.10 in the fourth year of their collective agreement.
“Western GTAs are among the top paid GTAs in the province and the final offer continues to provide generous pay for this work,” says Florentine Strzekczyk on Western’s website, Provost and Academic Vice-President.
Pardis Baha, local union president, argues: “The maximum hours are 10 hours a week, and many of our workers are doing less than 10, so we’re limited in the income we can bring in as TAs.”
Western’s website also notes that GTAs are only paid up to 10 hours a week to ensure they focus primarily on their academic work in pursuit of their degrees.
In a support letter through the University of Western Faculty Association (UWOFA), they state: “Western’s guaranteed funding package for Ph.D. students is an impractical $23,360, far below the minimum recommended by that study.”
The recommended stipend for a Ph.D. student at Western is $41,848.19, according to Western’s affordability calculator.
