The Ontario government was thwarted in its attempts to introduce back-to-work legislation on Monday that would force an end to the two-month-old job action by academic staff at York University.

It is expected the government will try again Tuesday morning, during the last sitting of the legislature before election campaigning begins.

The legislation would also force binding arbitration on both York University and Local 3903 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents teaching assistants, graduate assistants and contract faculty.

The government said it is mindful of students in programs such as nursing and law whose school year is in question given the extended job action, which began March 5 for the 3,000 academic staff and impacted about half of all classes.

Almost 40,000 students have been affected.

Both Labour Minister Kevin Flynn and post-secondary Minister Mitzie Hunter sought the “unanimous consent” of all parties to push the legislation through quickly, but the NDP did not agree.

The move followed a scathing report issued Friday from an investigator appointed by the province, who cited the “clash that makes it impossible for the parties to freely negotiate a collective agreement” and called a negotiated deal impossible.

William Kaplan said arbitration is the only solution, and recommended forcing it on the parties through the legislature if necessary. While he believes a number of issues can be resolved, the issue of job security for contract faculty cannot.

“They have completely different world views that are informed by completely different academic and institutional aspirations,” he wrote, also saying the bargaining methods of Local 3903 were “not normative.”

York has said it would agree to arbitration, and, on the weekend, urged the government to force an end to the strike. CUPE has held firm that it wants to reach a deal through bargaining.

A small but vocal group of CUPE workers held a protest outside the legislature on Monday.

York U issued a new offer to CUPE on Monday afternoon, saying the union had until midnight Thursday to accept.

If the back-to-work legislation is not passed, “unfortunately the strike situation will be prolonged,” Hunter told reporters.

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Progressive Conservative MPP Lorne Coe (Whitby-Oshawa), his party’s post-secondary critic, questioned why the government took so long to act and said more than 7,000 students who were hoping to graduate this June are now in limbo.

NDP MPP Cindy Forster (Welland) said the strike can be blamed on years of neglect in the post-secondary sector by the Liberal government.