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.
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