Striker Voices

There is sure a lot of name-calling going on at York, most of it by students who feel that the striking TAs are a bunch of selfish, greedy, fat-cats.  I have had to reject some comments on my Blog from people who have made unacceptably nasty comments against the strikers.  I’m not surprised that student are angry, and there is nothing wrong with disagreeing with the strike.  What does concern me is that a lot of young people seem to believe that all strikes are wrong, and all strikers are deserving of contempt, even when they have not taken the trouble to learn and fully assess the bargaining positions.
Nowadays, people seem to get angry at anyone who strikes to try and win a better employment contract.  The dominant opinion appears to be that employees should accept whatever they are offered by the employer, and shut-up. Given that people in this country, and other countries, have died to win the legal right to strike, and that the right to strike is considered a fundamental human right in international law necessary to discourage tyranny and worker exploitation, the extent to which people in Canada dismiss the importance of the right should cause everyone some pause.  How many of us would prefer the Chinese model, where strikes are illegal and strikers are routinely jailed, or worse?
If you want to criticize strikers, that’s fine.  But you should first educate yourself on the bargaining positions of the parties, and be prepared to make arguments based on facts and reason.  People who argue that all strikes are ‘stupid’, or that unionized workers are ‘lazy’ and ‘greedy’, just look ignorant and offer nothing to a rational debate.  Don’t be one of those people.  Learn how to persuade by making valid points based on facts and sound reasoning.  
In that vein, here are two links to letters to the editor in today’s Toronto Star in support of the strike:
Studies are a full-time Job
Not Looking to get rich
Now, assuming the numbers set out in those letters are accurate, can you make a reasoned, rationale argument in support of the claim that workers do not deserve a larger raise than the one offered by the employer?   How do you counter, in a reasoned and thoughtful way the argument that $1000 a month is not enough for a woman raising two children to live on?