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New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, whose beat includes poverty, sex trafficking, and disease in the developing world, is holding a contest to find an American student to join him on a reporting trip to Africa.
He’s done this twice before, taking a journalism student to the Central African Republic and a medical student to Rwanda and the Congo. That second trip resulted in a documentary, “Reporter,” that will be shown on HBO later this year.
You can learn more about the contest in Kristof’s column and in his blog. Instructions for entering can be found here.
Update: Kristof recently wrote a column arguing that “sweatshops are only a symptom of poverty, not a cause,” and that “the best way to help people in the poorest countries isn’t to campaign against sweatshops but to promote manufacturing there.” Critiques of his stance can be found in letters to the editor here, as well as in this piece at TPM. Kristof expanded on his argument a bit further in this blogpost, which has attracted a bunch of comments.
As we noted yesterday, the CUPE membership has rejected York University’s contract offer, and York has announced that they will not be returning to the bargaining table.
This morning comes word that Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty is sending his top labor mediator to Toronto to “bang some heads” and find an agreement.
McGuinty is reportedly opposed to bringing forward back-to-work legislation in the Ontario legislature, fearing that CUPE would challenge any such law in court, further extending the strike.
2:36 pm Update: Today’s Excalibur article has material from York president Mamdouh Shoukri’s press conference last night that I haven’t seen elsewhere. They quote him as saying that the university’s rejected offer will be “the basis for any future settlement, and that York “will not resume bargaining until we see a significant move” from CUPE. He also said that the university “have not asked for government intervention, nor has it been offered.”
4:34 pm Update: Click here for some background on the strike.
9:15 pm: The CUPE Local 3903 website is reporting that all three units of the union rejected York University’s contract offer by wide margins.
Here are the results:
Unit 1: 61.7% No.
Unit 2: 59.3% No.
Unit 3: 70% No.
9:25 pm: York University has released a hard-line statement on the union vote, in which university president Mamdouh Shoukri suggests that the rejected proposal was York’s final offer: “We have no intention of negotiating for the sake of appearance,” he said. “This is our offer for settlement. Now it is up to the Union and its members to reconsider their demands and step back from the brink.”
More as the story develops.
9:58 pm: The CUPE 3903 executive has released its own statement on the ratification vote. They say 1466 union members voted “no” — 63% of those voting, and something close to a majority of the full membership of the local.
Key quote: “We are confident the solidarity that has been shown over the past few months will remain through to the end and beyond the strike.”
10:39 pm: The folks at yorkstrike2008 noticed something in the York statement that I missed: They’re talking explicitly for the first time about the possibility of cancelling a semester.
In his statement, President Shoukri said he would be “working with the deans and Senate Executive to prepare plans to further extend the academic calendar to ensure that students complete their fall and winter terms. This will mean reducing or, if need be, cancelling the summer term.”
10:47 pm: Student group YorkNotHostage is renewing its call for binding arbitration in light of the strike vote, and saying that unless unless the two sides agree to a binding arbitration proposal, it will “ask Premier Dalton McGuinty to recall the Legislature and pass back to work legislation as quickly as possible.”
11:04 pm: An online article from MacLeans magazine says the Ontario provincial government is rejecting calls for back-to-work legislation — a government spokesperson says the education minister’s “position from the beginning has been that the bargaining table is the place to resolve this matter.”
11:41 am, January 21: New updates to this story will be posted here.
The three units of CUPE Local 3903 are voting at this moment on York University’s most recent contract proposal.
See yesterday’s post for an overview of the strike, now in its 75th day.
Voting will continue until 7 pm tonight, and from 9 am to 7 pm tomorrow, with lunch breaks each day from 1 pm to 3 pm. (Union members can check here for information on where and how to vote.)
In other York strike news, the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada’s national student organization, has come out in support of the CUPE strikers.
The York University strike is coming to a head.
For two and a half months, Canada’s third-largest university has been closed by a strike of CUPE local 3903, representing teaching assistants, graduate assistants, and adjunct faculty. The university has invoked a provision of Ontario labor law to force a one-time vote by the union membership on York’s latest proposal, and that vote will take place this Monday and Tuesday.
If all three units of the local approve the proposal in majority votes, the strike will end immediately and classes may resume as soon as the end of this week. If one or more units reject it, the strike will continue.
The two sides are wrangling over pay increases and job security, but some observers believe that the length of the new contract may be the crucial sticking point. Labor agreements at half a dozen other major Canadian universities expire in 2010, and the two-year deal CUPE is pushing for would allow them to join a multi-campus strike that year, should one develop. (The university is insisting on a three-year contract.)
There has been speculation that the provincial government may attempt to end the strike with back-to-work legislation, but the legislature is in recess until mid-February. The longer the strike goes, the more likely it is that an entire semester will have to be canceled, costing the university millions in lost tuition payments and throwing students’ progress toward degrees into disarray.
Voting begins tomorrow morning, and continues through early evening on Tuesday. Results will likely be announced that night. Check back here for more updates as the story continues to unfold.
January 20 Update: CUPE’s membership rejected the York offer by a decisive margin.
studentactivism.net 
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