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Well I'm going to just go out on a limb here as an actual TA with one of the unions striking and explain basically what is going on because I think there is a lot of aggression towards the ones striking. I personally have no intention of picketing mainly because I really dont care as I get most of my income from a summer job, and tbh its too cold for me. Yesterday I also had classes in the morning and anyone in the Mississauga rd and dundas area probably realized that all three entrances to the school (UTM) were completely blocked off. Now I dont know about York but at UTM, Mississauga Rd (the road that was essentially blocked off) has almost zero traffic aside from faculty and students, so really the only ones who were delayed are students and faculty.
Anyone with a functioning brain should be thinking "hmm if it seems like no one who drives is able to get into the school, there is a good chance that a lot of people are affected, not just me. Maybe I should wait patiently for the protesters to make their point and then go into class like everyone else waiting because its not really my fault this is happening and I really wont face negative consequences". In fact professors were sending out mass emails saying that classes were cancelled because of this. So it still makes me wonder why people like this guy in the video are flipping out, if your classes are cancelled then you really don't have somewhere to be, but instead people take it personally and flip shit because "these people are blocking ME". Honestly all this strike has done is shown me how selfish people surround me at my school; selfish admin, selfish TAs, selfish profs and of course selfish students. Sadly all these people own cars and what happened above is the result. I'm not going to defend his actions, and I'm also not going to defend the people striking and blocking the road, it was just a bad situation waiting to happen.
The only thing I WILL say is that all students received an email essentially saying that classes will remain open as usual and the absence of TAs will not change much, however if you feel threatened by the TAs you should remember that you can call 9-1-1. Yeah as a TA I took that as "Hey kids, TAs are a bunch of whiney bitches that are essentially animals while striking, also classes will remain open because in our opinions TAs don't do shit" Personally when I read that I felt like Jeremy Clarkson-ing the Admin employee that wrote it.
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