What to do about a strike?
lacker: $1000 a month for an applied math masters sucks. I am usually against unions but you should strike!Being a TA is much different than being an auto worker. Normal employees have a long time to bargain. You move around the industry, there gets to be a market for a job, and a fair price gets created. But as a TA, you can't really move between different universities. Plus, any individual is only a TA for a few years, after which your salary will be totally unrelated. So nobody really has that much incentive to negotiate hard. As a result, universities typically have a much stronger negotiation position and can give extremely low wages.There is no danger that TA unions will become strong enough to cripple universities. This is totally different than car manufacturers. Strike!