

Chris Fox And Chris Herhalt, CP24.com





Contract faculty, teaching assistants and other staff at York University could walk off the job Monday after members voted against a final offer from the school.

CUPE Local 3903 told CP24 that members voted to reject the offer Friday afternoon and voted to walk off the job Monday if a deal isn’t reached by then.

Earlier today the union said it did not do enough to protect the job security of contract faculty.

Union vice president Julian Arend said it would be possible for them to request a return to the bargaining table, but they say a strike would be the most likely option.

“Most likely (the members) will direct the executive to strike because people are very upset about what they’re being offered and what they’re not being offered. I think everyone needs to be prepared. It’s always a possibility but it just became a lot stronger of a possibility.”

Union spokesperson Leena Nasr said members "directed negotiators to make themselves available to York University over the weekend" but said workers will go on strike Monday if nothing else changes.

Arend said he understood that a strike would negatively impact students but said the school’s latest offer was “ludicrous” and “concessionary.”

“We understand that it’s difficult for students, it’s difficult for everybody. The students are inconvenienced by this,” Arend said. The school is holding as many classes as they can for non-CUPE members.”

He said that one concessionary measure the school was pushing was reducing the number of contract faculty that are promoted into full-time tenure track positions at the university from eight positions per year under the last agreement to only two per year in the current offer.

“Sixty per cent of the classes are instructed by our members, people who are contract faculty and teaching assistants, and this contract would make their jobs more precarious. That would impact education negatively,” CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn told CP24 earlier Friday afternoon.

About 85 per cent of participating CUPE 3903 members voted in favour of a strike mandate in January.

The union has been without a contract since Aug. 31, 2017 and has been participating in discussions with a concilliator appointed by the Ministry of Labour since January 8.

School spokesperson Barbara Joy said Friday that the school “provided its best offer” today.

“We have said all along that we would go to binding arbitration to resolve the most difficult issues. We are having discussions with the conciliator this evening to see if there is a basis for settlement.”

The university has said that “all classes that can continue will continue” in the event of a strike, though it has conceded that “some classes, labs and tutorials will have to be temporarily suspended.”

“York is saying that it will keep its campus open but when 60 per cent of the people who are instructing the classes are not on the job it won’t be business as usual. It is ridiculous to say that,” Hahn told CP24 on Friday. “They have a weekend to deal with this. They need to come to the table, they need to remove their concessions and they need to listen to those people who instruct 60 per cent of the classes.”

York says offer is fair

Though Hahn accused York University of pursuing an agreement that will reduce the job security of contract faculty, the school said that is simply not the case.

In a statement issued on Friday afternoon, York University said that it responded to the union’s concerns about job security by “offering to create a minimum of eight full-time faculty positions in each of the next three years.”

The university also said that its offer would add 15 Long Service Teaching Appointment contracts. Those contracts guarantee instructors at least three courses per year for a period of three years.

“We continue to believe that there is no need for a strike. We have been and continue to be fully committed to reaching a collective agreement and to supporting our contract colleagues to the best of our ability within the constraints that we all operate under at York and in the system,” the statement says. “We have provided an offer that leads among all other universities, and for the issues that are of greatest importance to CUPE 3903, we are willing to let an independent third-party arbitrator decide and help us reach a settlement.”

In its statement, York University pointed out that its offer to CUPE 3903 employees includes a wage hike that “exceeds recent settlements at all other Ontario universities.”

Hahn, however, pointed out that unions representing contract faculty at both the University of Toronto and Ryerson University were able to negotiate new contracts earlier this year that addressed concerns about job security.

He demanded to know why York University hasn’t been able to do the same with members of CUPE 3903.

“U of T and Ryerson were able to come up with a deal and York is trying to force concessions that would make this problem worse,” he said.

Contract faculty at York University last went on strike in 2015.