York University Strike

Last fall, some of my former students started what they hoped would to be a short break from their university studies. Little did they know that on January 21, they would still be at home waiting to be called back.
One question, I asked as the strike dragged on was "how could a strike by contract instructors and teaching assistants cripple a university like this? Is the university so dependent on these staff members that it can not function without them? The answer is yes, apparently York University depends on over 900 contract faculty to provide instruction to its many students. In some American university, tenured staff are only 30% of the staff.
Contract staff must apply to teach courses each year despite the fact that some of them have been teaching for the university for up to 15 years. They are informed about their teaching load in June and have two months to prepare.
The tenure tract does not exist for many academics. Contract faculty earn about $14,000 for each full year course and can teach up to 5 1/2 courses over a calendar year. A tenured professor earns up to $90,000 or more for teaching no more than 2 1/2 courses per year, providing time for research as well as university duties.
It seems that universities have adopted some of the same practises as business and depend on contract workers who support the organization but do not receive the benefits as full-time tenured staff.
The university is proposing 5 year contracts and better pay. What happens at the end of 5 years? And what benefits do contract staff not receive? Some of these academics would have been better off getting into teaching at the secondary, more job security.
Hopefully, this strike will end soon. However since this practise of using a high percentage of contract workers has become accepted practise, it does not seem that an end is on the horizon which might even mean that some students will loose their academic year, a crisis academically and financially!