Graduate teaching assistants on strike at Western
Graduate teaching assistants at Western University are on strike. April 11, 2024. (Sean Irvine/CTV News London)
Graduate teaching assistants (GTA) at Western University are on strike.
According to Western, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Local 610 (PSAC610) walked away from the bargaining table Wednesday night and were in a legal strike position at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
According to a post on the PSAC 610 website, the union is asking that all members of the Western community respect the strike by refusing to take up positions to proctor and mark exams.
“It is shameful that workers are being forced to take direct action, because Western refused to come to the table with a fair offer,” said Craig Reynolds, PSAC Ontario regional executive vice-president in a statement.
“Instead, Western chose to focus on undermining the critical work graduate teaching assistants perform by preparing to outsource that work to other staff,” said Reynolds.
The school said it had offered an hourly wage rate of $48.16, retroactive to Jan. 1 and an hourly wage rate of $51.10 by year four of the collective agreement.
As previously reported, the hourly pay for GTAs is $47.22 per hour.
Graduate students are full-time students and as of August 2023, approximately 2,000 were employed on campus as graduate teaching assistants.
"Western recognizes the right to labour action, and at the same time we are committed to ensuring undergraduate students finish the term with no disruption to their academic activities and scheduled exams," said Western's provost and vice-president, Florentine Strzelczyk.
The university and University Hospital will remain open, and operations will continue as normal with all appointments and services moving ahead as scheduled.
The school said plans are in place to minimize any impact on students and colleagues across campus. However, people can expect delays due to picket lines and should give themselves extra time accessing campus.
The PSAC collective agreement expires on Aug. 31, 2023.
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