union

My union of teaching assistants has been on strike for over a week now. I've withheld my labor, and put in 5 days of picket duty, each 4 hour shifts, for which I was paid $10/hour from union funds, which partially offset my lost teaching wages. Picketing has been a memorable and exhausting experience. I wonder if I've been fighting for nothing though.

I suspect the union will cave and accept a bad contract from the University, which is a shame, because I think it will hurt the quality of education here in the long run, and it will make it even harder for grad students to pay their bills without debt financing. Ideally we'd have a huge turnout and a decisive rejection of the offer, which would put tremendous pressure on the administration to come back with a better deal that includes protection for TAs from tuition increases, better benefits, and limitations on class sizes. More likely, in my estimation, is that the offer will be accepted with less than half of the union bothering to vote. Results will be announced later today; maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

I do want to get back to work soon though. I genuinely like many of my TA duties (with marking exams as the primary exception), and picketing is distracting me from my research. But if the strike continues, I'll most likely be back out on the lines...