Strike declared at Concordia

Concordia undergrads are going on strike. A two-thirds majority has made it official. Students attended the CSU’s general assembly on Wednesday afternoon.

VP Chad Walcott announced the results in the Hall Building at the downtown campus. The reaction of the crowd was overwhelming.

“The results for our mandate. Votes in favour: 1152. Votes against: 557. Congratulations Concordia, you just made history.”

The assembly took place at four designated locations at the university: three at the downtown campus and one at Loyola. Lindsay Spence came to the assembly without knowing how she would vote.

“Once they started talking about how much the government is going to make and then how much of that is actually going to be invested into education, that's what really bothered me because it doesn’t make sense that their making money off of us and their reevaluating. Taking those funds and putting them where they feel where it should go.”

Others, like Anna Campbell, wore their red squares and expressed their enthusiasm for the outcome.

“We voted to go one strike for five day, so I’m really happy. I really support the strike. I believe in the cause because I believe that students shouldn’t have to pay increasing amount of tuition with a government that increasingly cuts corporate taxes. They’re just misspending money. They don’t need more money, necessarily from us. This just shows the amount of solidarity all students are having together for the cause, which is really awesome.”

But not everyone felt the same way. Victoria, an undergrad who did not want to give her last name, explained.

“I’m not surprised and I think it’s great that we can have this type of mobility and people can come together for a cause. I just don’t know if I feel comfortable or confident in it. Even though I think they have the best intentions for it to be like a safe, open, no value judgment zone, I feel there’s a really large intimidation factor and it makes me really uncomfortable.”

Though the CSU voted this Wednesday afternoon, several faculties had already done so earlier. By Tuesday, six student associations had adopted a strike mandate on tuition increases. This brought along with it the boycotting of classes. Necolas Payeur, another undergrad, was against the approach as well.

“I can understand that people don't want to pay more tuition. I don't want to pay more tuition either. But, there’s a difference between being against the tuition fee hikes and vote for a strike. I think there are more possibilities to do then just go on strike all week and undefined strike after. Don’t keep people from going to school and classes, which they pay for and want a good education. You got the job opportunity after and if you go on strike indefinitely you lose your job because you cannot go work because you still have school. I don’t think it’s good for all the people.”

A motion to change the date of the strike was passed as well. It will officially take place from March 15^th to the 22^nd. Another general assembly will then be held to decide whether to continue with the tactic or not.

Photo by: Esther Viragh