Canada, LinchPin #16 - a publication of common cause* - Organized Labour at the Precipice The Missed Opportunities of CUPE 3902

WAI KIAT TANG ---- In the 2011-2012 ? academic year, CUPE 3902 - a trade union local that
represents tutorial assistants, sessional lecturers, invigilators and lab assistants at
the University of Toronto (UofT) ? had generated a high level of mobilization and
engagement amongst its membership, relative to the much more cordial experience of the
last bargaining period. This could partly be attributed to a general feeling of
dissatisfaction amongst the more active layers of the membership seeking solutions against
rocketing costs of living expenses in Toronto, as well as ballooning tutorial sizes and
diminishing educational spaces that mock the ?world-class? mantra that the UofT
administration promotes in their efforts to attract private investment from business
elites and the broader public at large.

This bargaining period was
burdened by the narratives that have
followed the 2008 capitalist crisis:
business and political elites working to
shift the burden of the great recession
onto the broader working class through
an austerity agenda that attacks our
public services, and an accompanying
ideological offensive against organized
labour. These narratives have been
directed towards the broader realm
lies in advancing the material benefits of
their own membership, while sacrificing
and ?taking hostage? the broader public
interest at large.

The fact that this narrative has been
so persuasive to non-unionized working
people should pose questions for
progressives seeking a militant labour
movement that fights against the bosses
and to this its To picture?

To answer this, we need to examine
the labour movement in its North
American Historically, context. the
North American Labour Movement,
as ?represented? by its leading labour
bodies in the American Federation of
Labor (AFL) and Canada?s Trade Union
Congress (TUC) generally submitted
to a ?Business Unionist? mentality that
sought to downplay political challenges
to capitalism and the bosses. Instead,
labour leaders worked at carving a larger
piece of the pie for its membership ?
ignoring the broader question of class
struggle against capitalism. It is from
these origins that we can mark the broad
contrast between North American and
European labour. While this summary
is somewhat overly-simplistic, it does
at least help contextualize the ruling
class narrative that villainizes organized
labour as comprised of selfish, greedy
workers who share no interests with the
broader working class.
In a university setting the narrative
follows a similar vein. For many
undergrads, it?s not clear why working
class youth should support organized
labour on our campuses ? especially if
this support potentially comes at the cost
of our education, in the event of a work
stoppage. The natural reaction of the
majority of students is ?what?s in it for
me??
This was one of the most positives
aspects of the CUPE 3902 bargaining
proposals, such as demands for hard-
caps to tutorial sizes and labs ? intended
to facilitate spaces of deeper critical
discussion not possible in large lecture
halls. For me, this marks the need for
labour to connect its demands with the
broader interests of the community as a
means of creating organic relationships
that strengthen the class struggle
supposedly championed by the left.
In the end our union accepted a
contract that failed to offer what many
would say were modest economic
demands ? namely wage increases tied
to inflation and the guaranteed funding
package granted to graduate students.

Our union also backed down from
our demands for hard tutorial caps,
accepting instead the establishment of
joint admin-union working groups to
?study? the tutorial size question with
regards to quality of education. It?s
not clear if these working groups will
have any teeth or whether they will
simply serve as another release valve
to hold back the question of quality
of education for another few years.
This concession amounted to a major
missed opportunity to bridge closer
relations and positive impressions
between the academic workers and
the students who will eventually
move into the workforce. For many
students, their first concrete exposure
to labour struggles will come in their
classroom ? as was the case when my
elementary school teachers went on
strike for better working and teaching
conditions against the austerity agenda
of the Harris government in 1997.
The fact is that if we want to win
as an organized labour movement,
we have to champion the aspirations
and demands of our fellow workers
and students. Furthermore, the fight
over this issue was an opportunity
to confront the powers that be over
fundamental questions governing how
the education system is run. What are
schools for? Who do they belong to?
Are education institutions merely a
factory shop to mold new workers into
the workforce, or are they fundamentally
public goods that seeks to educate and
produce critical-thinking members of
society?
If the progressive goals for free
and better education are going to have
substance, organized labour must
play a more active and militant role
in articulating these aims at the picket
line. Rather than contributing to the
progressive labour movement, CUPE
3902?s failure to take up this fight can
only contribute to the cynicism that
working people rightly feel towards
business unionism. Organized labour sits
at a precipice, with a looming threat of
continued irrelevance and distain from
the public at large. If we want to counter
this, we must smash the business unionist
mentality that?s been ingrained in the
North American labour tradition and
embrace a social progressive unionism
that is more community-centered in its
demands ? one that fights, ultimately,
under the battle cry of ?all for all?.
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* Anarchist organization

Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca