Regional News
November 15, 2008 11:16 PM
Kim Zarzour
If George Belegrini seems cynical for a young guy, you can forgive him. He has good reason.
For the past six years he has been trying to complete his post-secondary schooling and move out into the working world.
But during that time he has discovered the working world may not actually be working all that well.
First there was the TTC strike, then the college teachers strike that messed up his learning at George Brown College. Now, as a student at York University, he’s had to deal with the recent Viva bus drivers strike and now, the strike by part-time workers at York.
Sometimes it all seems too much.
“I can’t wait till I graduate and I can strike for something, too,” he said. He’s only partly joking.
The strike by teaching assistants, graduate assistants and contract faculty at Canada’s third-largest university is affecting many students, but maybe none more than those who live in southern York Region and commute to school.
That’s because most of them are just getting over a disruption to the schedules caused by the 16-day strike by Viva bus drivers earlier in the fall.
It’s made for a challenging year, even more so for someone like Mr. Belegrini who had to go through similar troubles at George Brown two years ago.
“The amount of material we missed was huge,” Mr. Belegrini says of the two-and-a-half-week community college strike. Two months later, mechanical and janitorial workers with the TTC walked off the job briefly and classes at the downtown college were cancelled again.
Mr. Belegrini managed to get his graphic design diploma, but when he switched to York University after a year spent working, he hoped he’d left all that labour trouble behind.
Instead, he found himself scrambling to get to school without York Region’s rapid bus system and now worries about paying off student loans if the university strike extends the school year into his summer job time.
He isn’t alone. Krupa Shah, another York student who commutes from Richmond Hill, shares that worry.
“It’ll suck if the school semester or year gets pushed into our vacation,” the English major said. “I just got through the Viva transit strike... What a way to start university.”
Classes for York’s 50,000 undergrads have been cancelled since Nov. 6 when the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903 walked off the job. Just one month prior, bus drivers with Viva walked off the job. Those who depended on Viva were forced to come up with alternatives, including other regional bus routes that were crowded.
On a ‘normal day’, Mr. Belegrini takes the York Region bus on Bathurst to the Promenade, then transfers to a Viva bus to York University — a 40-minute trip. During the bus strike, that trip took twice as long – once, it took two hours and 45 minutes — because the alternate buses were half the size.
“There were line-ups, “ he remembers, “and people shoving trying to get on.”
To make matters worse, one morning he arrived to discover class had been cancelled because the teacher’s assistant who ran the class couldn’t find a ride — and couldn’t convey that message to students because of the job action by the TAs union. The teachers’ assistants, part of CUPE 3903, were working to rule – they could not email information about class cancellation to students, he says.
“So we‘d spend three to four bucks on bus fare, get there, not have class, and have to spend four bucks more getting home again.”
Mr. Belegrini is in his second year of Humanities at York, hoping to get into York’s teachers’ college next year. He laughs at the thought Ontario’s elementary teachers union is talking strike, too.
Jackie Sasaki, another Richmond Hill resident, describes her schooling this year as “an adventure”.
“This is my second year at York and I never would have thought that these occurrences would have happened during my years at York, especially in one year,” Miss Sasaki said. “The No. 1 reason why I chose this university was because it was the most convenient.”
She thought she could commute from home at Yonge and Crosby inexpensively with only one bus fare.
“Since I am paying for tuition myself, the most logical thing to do is live at home, work, save money and commute to school.”
It’s ironic, she adds, how York has worked against these advantages. “It was a major hassle finding an alternative way to get to school, especially for some of my friends who live just around the corner ... their alternative route was to take three different YRT buses.”
But Sasaki remains upbeat. “A lot of my friends who go to York, including myself, are enjoying [the strike]. The way I see it is, this time is a period to start work on upcoming assignments and mid-terms.”
However, if the strike extends for more than three weeks, it won’t be as pleasant, affecting the amount of time she’ll have available to earn money for school.
— with files from Torstar