Despite a “historic” offer by York University, many of the school’s striking workers have voted to reject the deal and continue their week-long strike.

A spokesperson for CUPE Local 3903 told reporters Monday night that the union’s unit 2, which represents contract faculty, voted to accept the school’s offer, while units 1 and 3 voted to reject the deal.

The two units who voted against the offer represent teaching assistants, graduate assistants and research assistants. They will remain on strike.

A Facebook page run by the York Federation of Students to inform the community about the strike reported Monday that “academic activity will remain suspended” in light of the vote.

York University president and vice chancellor Mamdouh Shoukri said the school is “reviewing plans to allow as many students as possible to return to their studies in order to complete their terms” in a statement on the agreement with Unit 2 released around midnight.

More details are expected to come Tuesday, after the senate executive decides what program schedules will look like rounding out the semester.

Classes that were previously on hold will remain so on Tuesday.

All classes and exams were cancelled after the strike began last Tuesday.

York University proposed to more than triple the number of tenure-track professors it will hire in the next three years from its pool of contract faculty, and freeze tuition for graduate students over that time in the offer voted on Monday night.

“We think it borders on being a historic offer in terms of gains, and to my knowledge the tuition freeze as part of a collective agreement is unprecedented,” said Faiz Ahmed, chair of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3903, which represents 3,700 contract faculty, teaching and graduate assistants.

Almost 1,300 workers participated in the vote at York’s Rexall Centre.

York and the union met Friday with a mediator and hammered out a fresh offer from the one rejected March 2 by members. Ahmed said this time the executive committee had recommended members approve the tentative deal.

Under the old contract, York promised to convert seven contract jobs into tenure-track jobs over three years, but the latest offer promises to convert 24 contract jobs, said Ahmed — up dramatically from the promise of nine in the offer members rejected before walking off the job.

In exchange for this and other boosts in job security, Ahmed said his team was willing to accept a raise of just 1.5 per cent rather than the 3 per cent it had originally sought.

“We’ve always wanted to concentrate on improving the security of our precarious faculty; that’s been more of a priority than wages,” said Ahmed, who has maintained the two sides have not been that far apart.

York cancelled all classes and exams as soon as workers went on strike to ensure everyone was affected equally, but York president Mamdouh Shoukri has consistently said he felt a deal was within reach.

After CUPE 3903’s last strike, which cancelled classes at York for three months, Shoukri said the university has worked hard to rebuild trust on campus and restore the reputation of the university, which is the second-largest in Canada, with 55,000 students.

Shoukri has blamed the university’s growing reliance on contract professors on government underfunding, as well as the lack of a mandatory retirement age, making it hard to predict how many vacancies will arise in any given year.

York officials declined to comment on the offer earlier in the day Monday, saying they would wait to see whether it was accepted by union members.

Ahmed said he was particularly excited by the “attachment” to the tentative deal in which York promises not to raise tuition fees for graduate students, many of whom are the teaching and graduate assistants on strike. Under Ontario’s current tuition guidelines, graduate student tuition can rise by up to 5 per cent each year, and for international students there is no limit whatsoever. Queen’s Park has capped undergraduate tuition hikes at 3 per cent.

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“I haven’t heard of another contract that refers to tuition, but CUPE 3903 has a tradition of getting good, progressive deals,” said Alastair Wood, chair of the Canadian Federation of Students Ontario.

In an unusual post on the union website Monday, the union’s executive committee apologized for not having provided an opportunity at last week’s meeting for members themselves to propose whether to go on strike or return to the bargaining table.

With files from Tamara Khandaker and Sidney Cohen