Archive | January 20, 2009

The Strike is Still On

For those of you who haven’t been following the strike at York University, the union held a forced ratification vote the last two days regarding York University’s latest offer. Essentially, at one point during the entire negotiation process, the university is allowed to directly send an offer to the general union members to vote on (usually the union bargaining team has to deem an offer acceptable before it can be voted on by its general members).

Well, the vote was held the past two days, and all three units of the union voted to reject York’s settlement offer (of the union members who showed up, 63% voted no overall) – in short, the strike is still on.

I’m a bit surprised, but not really. I though there was a good chance one of the units was going to vote yes, but I’m not completely surprised at the results. The executive of the union (unsurprisingly) was pushing for a rejection of York’s offer, and well, they got it.

The year isn’t lost yet, but however the situation ends, it won’t be pretty. We could lose the year, or the year could get pushed into the summer, which kind of sucks.

My brother likes to think I’m on vacation right now, and while it is most definitely a “break”, knowing you have four months off during the summer is not the same as continuously thinking you could be at school the very next week. You can’t make long term plans, and you really can’t “enjoy” the break you normally would because it could end at any moment.

I’m still hoping that no matter the result, my eligibility for medical schools isn’t compromised this year, but at this point, I can’t help but be concerned.