Date Range

2022

Description Level

Item

Physical Description

1 voided cheque

Physical Condition

Excellent

History Biographical

Unions prepare for possible future strikes by asking donations of members to a strike fund, so that in the case of being cut off from their normal pay, they can keep meeting their expenses. It was several years between the beginning of this accumulation and the actual strike so the union had gathered a reasonable amount of money. In addition, the Canadian Association of University Teachers supports the strike pay of members of striking member universities. To gain strike pay, members must take their place on the picket line or get exemption and perform other comparable duties, for a total of nine hours per week. In my case, because I had arthritis, I could not comfortably walk the line and so spent some time working at ULFA headquarters, which, as we had been barred from campus, was in a storefront on 4th Ave in downtown Lethbridge. Strike pay amounted to $150/day. The office manager of the Faculty Association initially wrote cheques to eligible faculty members, but the writing of so many was an onerous task so she switched after two weeks or so to direct deposit. It took a while to get the system set up, including the exemptions. Meanwhile, since I am over 70 years old, the Universities Academic Pension Plan (UAPP) had begun to pay me monthly---the return on nearly 35 years paying into the pension fund--I decided not to take the strike pay and asked that the cheque to me should be voided. I asked for the voided cheque to be sent to me as a souvenir, but readily agreed to send it to the Galt as a tangible piece of evidence of the mechanics of the strike.

Acquisition Source

Jennifer Mather

Scope and Content

Voided cheque from the University of Alberta -- strike pay.

Access Restrictions

Public

Accession No.

20221039

Collection

Archive

Less detail