The important battles fought by Queen’s graduate students inspire more division and confusion than solidarity.
Beginning March 10, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) Local 901 took to Union St. and University Ave. to strike for fair wages, among other demands like affordable housing access and paid hours to learn course content. The union represents roughly 2,000 Teaching Assistants (TAs), Research Assistants (RAs), and Teaching Fellows, all of which are crucial to the university ecosystem.
Unlike recent labour negotiations between unions and the University—which were saved by last-minute deals—no such tentative agreement was reached this time around. This unexpected circumstance prompted graduate student workers to strike just past the halfway point of winter semester, halting operations in many departments.
By walking off the job and forming picket lines out on the street, graduate students disrupted countless university operations. And that’s exactly the point. It mirrors the lack of fair compensation paid to them, which disrupts their ability to work and themselves.
Graduate workers make an immense impact on our education, whether as our TAs, RAs, or course instructors—it’s no question they deserve working conditions reflecting this contribution. And with the strike bringing Queen’s faculties, like the Faculty of Arts and Science, to their knees—especially for fourth-years, who are a few classes away from graduating—we’re on their side.
Yet, despite how easy it is to take this stance, showing our solidarity proves more difficult in execution. At the risk of making this about undergraduates, the choice between standing with graduate workers or continuing our studies against their wishes shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.
Although ceasing use of Queen’s premises or demanding instructors to cancel in-person course delivery—as detailed in the pamphlets distributed by picketers—are strong symbolic actions to stand with grad workers, they’re not choices all of us can easily make.
Confronting students entering libraries or the Queen’s Centre with shame and aggression, and blowing whistles at them, ultimately harms the cause more than it elicits solidarity. PSAC can’t afford for students to lose for the cause by driving them away.
To make matters more confusing, conflicting communications from istration and faculty further muddle the point of graduate worker strikes—from the Provost saying teaching will continue as usual, to TAs expressing their regret and empathy for students, and e-mails from professors stating there’s no precedence for this kind of job action, there’s no clear direction to follow.
The reality is, not all classes have been cancelled. For these undergraduate students, assignments and papers are still due, and it’s still necessary to study for final exams. If we’re spotted going on campus, it’s not because we’re against the cause—there’s just no one to cover us if we put our work on pause.
It’s challenging for undergraduates to recognize their role in helping their graduate counterparts. Mobilizing the Queen’s undergraduate community is possible, but it won’t happen overnight without proper leadership and direction from all sides.
All graduate students were once in our shoes, at Queen’s or elsewhere. So, for us to be on their side, they must learn to be on ours, too.
—Journal Editorial Board
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All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s) in Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be ed, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to [email protected].
Zedrick Serson
Graduate students pay $3/year/student and what do we get? A knife in the back from The Journal. Shame!
Keenan Nadeau
Strikes are not supposed to be comfortable. I understand that students were only booed if they crossed the picket line. I also understand that students who came to use the library but decided against crossing the picket line were cheered. PSAC had its at the library’s entrances asking them not to cross the line. Students who crossed the picket line made an informed decision knowing that their actions undermined PSAC’s strike efforts. Students have the choice to study at home or other public places like the Kingston public library. Students also have access to most of the library’s material online. It is an unfortunate situation but students are Queens’ customers and disrupting the customer experience that Queens provides is essential for getting Queens back to the bargaining table. If you were a student who got booed for crossing the picket line and that made you feel uncomfortable (or perhaps guilty), tell that to Queens. Let them know you aren’t having a good time. Let your parents know that you are upset. Instead of trying to carry on as busy as usual, accept that this labour disruption is impacting your education and demand Queens to offer a fair agreement or give you a tuition refund. Queens istration put you in this situation. You can either choose to your TAs or you can the istration by trying to carry out business as usual. If you choose the latter, don’t be upset that comes with some consequences. At the very least take some responsibility for the decisions you make. If you feel bad about your decision to cross the picket line, consider making another choice. I am member of the Kingston community, not PSAC 901, though, evidently I their right to strike and students’ freedom to make decisions that work for their moral com.
Jesse Gauthier
We appreciate you ing our bargaining position. Tone policing, on the other hand, is less welcome. We make poverty wages because most of our labour isn’t paid. Master’s students in my program make 15,000 dollars a year, and 8 thousand of that is paid to tuition. Can you image living off of 7,000 dollars a year despite working a full-time job? It’s impossible. We are so grateful for undergraduates’ . But there are also challenging moments. An undergraduate told me “at least you have a job.” That’s hurtful, because what good is a job if you cant afford food? If you can afford rent? If you can’t afford heating, cat food, vet visits, or trips home to see family? Thankfully, these sort of interactions are few and far between. So, thank you, undergraduate community, for your ! For those who question our tone, please extend us patience and grace: we’re mostly a happy, dancing, chatty group, but sometimes the reality of exploited labour, genocide, and rising authoritarianism is a lot to handle. Sol, sol, sol, solidarity!
Mike P.
Defensive and unreasonable comments so far. At least one from a graduate student. Unfortunate because a school paper is space for deliberation.
Zedrick,
What knife in the back? Would you have it that editorials be bought by dues?
Keenan,
The point of the editorial is that PSAC risks losing by unilaterally imposing “consequences” onto the undergraduate population. The authors are in fact taking a responsible position by publishing an editorial responding to the strategy of the picketers, whereas your position is that if undergraduates do not submit to the jeering of the picketers then they must be against them. I’m assuming that the picketers don’t know the situation for every undergraduate crossing the picket line, so why shouldn’t they work to change hearts and minds rather than to punish from a position of illegitimate authority?
Jesse,
The authors are more careful with their criticism than you give them credit for. They are cautioning of PSAC that they may lose . Disagree with them if you want, but referring to their criticism as tone policing pretends that “tone” isn’t relevant, which is hardly accurate given that it is a deliberate means of influencing undergraduates. The accusation of tone policing is here only useful as an empty term by which to alienate undergraduates who assume uncritical for the strike from those who do not. Thoughtful criticism should always be welcome.
The prerogative of PSAC is to handle the reality of exploited labour in some but obviously not all cases, and not of genocide and rising authoritarianism. Requesting that critics remain especially patient and graceful (silent?) because the devils of the world march on is also unfair. One really has nothing to do with the other.
Fred H.
Thank you for your . As a member of PSAC 901 who has been present at the picket lines every day of the strike so far, I’d like to address a few of the comments made in this editorial.
You are correct that “the choice between standing with graduate workers or continuing our studies against their wishes shouldn’t be mutually exclusive.” These two choices are not mutually exclusive. We understand that not everyone is in the position to refuse to go to classes during the strike – many of our own must still attend classes or risk failure. This is why we have urged professors to exercise their legal right to cancel classes in solidarity with PSAC 901, or to move their classes off campus—whether online or to other local meeting areas. Not all professors have done this, and we understand that many students will still need to attend their classes.
We are asking those who are able and comfortable to refuse to attend their classes, citing their solidarity with graduate student workers. For students who cannot do this, we are asking them to choose to spend the remainder of their time (when they are not in classes) off campus. Yes, this is a symbolic action. But symbolic actions are part of what will tell Queen’s istration that undergraduate students our cause and will force them to return to the bargaining table to negotiate with us in good faith—something they have yet to do. Yes, stepping off campus is a difficult choice to make. So is the choice between paying rent or paying for groceries, a decision that many PSAC 901 are forced to do because we are paid poverty wages. We are pleading with undergraduate to make these difficult decisions with us in an effort to end the strike so that we may return to our jobs (with a liveable wage) and that undergraduates may return to campus. None of the choices any of us are making—graduate, undergraduate, faculty, staff, or community member—are easy. But they are choices that we must make regardless.
If any undergraduate student has been confronted with shame and aggression while entering campus buildings, I apologize. For undergraduate students who truly stand by us, this is not how you should be treated. I would ask, however, that you consider that many undergraduate students ignore us as they walk by, refuse to talk to us, insult us, yell at us to return to our jobs, give us the middle finger, or even harass us. I am not saying that the actions of these disrespectful students justify shame and aggression towards students who listen to us and stand by us. What I mean to say is that every time a student, faculty, staff, or community member walks past us and ignores our pleas, it feels like a paper cut. Individually, these paper cuts may not seem like much, but as they accumulate, so does the pain, and sometimes, we will lash out. It may not be right, but I ask that you understand why we do and that you call us in when we need to be called in. While this article is clearly well thought out and shows solidarity with our union, the punchy title and public call out may come off harshly (like the shame and aggression mentioned above). We genuinely want to hear from undergraduate students about how we can better them ing us, but a public article that can be interpreted to invite people to criticize and ignore our cause may not be the best way to go. Instead, you might consider approaching a Strike Captain or a member of the PSAC 901 executive team with your concerns so that we can appropriately address them and find ways to do better by you.
In regard to the conflicting communication from istration and faculty: this is what Queen’s istration is trying to do. Several PSAC 901 communications (on Instagram, other social media forms, and our website) have addressed the misinformation or purposefully confusing information shared by the istration. Unfortunately, your professors are correct—there is no precedence for this kind of job action, at least not at Queen’s, and there is no clear direction to follow. This is in part because many of the directives shared from faculty heads and Queen’s istration are asking professors to perform strike-breaking activities. Worse, some of Queen’s istrative (*cough cough* the Provost *cough cough*) are even threatening faculty with forced leave without pay if they exercise their legal right to cancel classes or other scheduled activities in solidarity with our strike. Faculty have been left without any meaningful from the senior leadership team, and this is not their fault.
You are right that all graduate students were once in your shoes. I was an undergraduate student here at Queen’s from 2017 to 2021. I am on your side. Even when it may not seem like it. What we are doing in this strike is ultimately for you. We want to return to our classrooms and continue to your education. We want to go back to grading your papers and teaching tutorials, labs, and courses, and helping you become the wonderful scholars you are. But we cannot continue to do this work when we are working in unsafe workplaces; we cannot go back to this work when we are working multiple other jobs so that we can afford to pay our rent; we cannot give you the education that you deserve when we are fighting for scraps and making poverty wages. This is what we are fighting for, and this is why I ask you to be on our side—because we are on your side, always.
Ren
As a TA and RA, I understand that it’s uncomfortable. But we aren’t asking undergrads to choose between solidarity or your studies, we’re asking the university to prioritize your studies which includes offering us, those who who are ionate about ing your learning, a fair wage. I would really urge those feeling that striking is not a good strategy to investigate into labour movements and ponder what they think makes a good strategy. Is a good strategy one that doesn’t make those within their community uncomfortable? Is a good strategy one that maintains business as usual? I really encourage all people to use their discomfort as a learning opportunity because discomfort unveils our deep-rooted beliefs and by bringing them into the light, we can better understand what our beliefs are, where they come from, and whether or not they align with the life we hope to lead.