Matt Dionne | Editor-in-Chief || Dennis Bayazitov | Assistant News Editor

Featured image: Everything you need to know about the current labour negotiations between York and CUPE 3903. | Courtesy of Pixabay

Last Friday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) York local 3903 completed their strike mandate voting period, which resulted in 85 per cent of voting members voting in favour.

Approximately 52 per cent of Unit 1, 52 per cent of Unit 2, and 47 per cent of Unit 3 cast ballots in the vote. The results were 86.46 per cent of Unit 1, 83.07 per cent of Unit 2, and 84.62 per cent of Unit 3 voting in favour.

This does not mean a strike is imminent; however, it doesn’t mean it isn’t, either.

Before a strike can happen, CUPE 3903 must file a No Board Report—after which, the Union must wait at least 17 days to set a strike deadline, confirms CUPE 3903 Communications Officer Maija Duncan. The union does not have to set it at the 17-day mark, but it is not permitted to set it any earlier.

Once a strike deadline is set, York will have until that date to present their final offer. If approved by CUPE 3903, the semester will proceed as normal; if rejected, a strike will commence.

U of T local CUPE 3902 has set a strike deadline for February 26, Duncan mentions. “That may or may not affect our decision-making. I cannot know.”

In a mass email titled “Open Letter to the York Community” sent Saturday morning, Interim Vice-President Academic and Provost Lisa Philipps reported: “York remains committed to a negotiated settlement with no strike.”

The letter clarified York will not undergo a union strike should council meetings with the Ministry of Labour conciliator and the Union achieve a new agreement satisfactory to both parties; or, in the event both sides agree to a joint referral to Interest Arbitration, which would feature an independent third-party arbitrator who would set a final decision.

“We’re doing everything we can to prevent a strike,” Philipps affirms, regarding York’s history of strikes.

“We have a made an offer we think is going to keep York as having the best compensation package in the province for teaching and graduate assistants, part-time faculty, and contract faculty.

“We are offering to make a deal that’s already the leading compensation package even better—some creative solutions, we think, at the table on issues of concern to the union. We all recognize the value all these union members bring to the classroom and that they are our students and our colleagues. We’re very proud to have a leading compensation package precisely, because we value what they do.”

“We have been bargaining improvements to our contract since 1975,” Duncan says.

“These are mature contracts, and quite frankly these good contracts have been won through multiple strikes.

“York should not be taking credit for the strength of our contracts. Also, needs evolve. What is enough money for childcare, for example, changes over time. The cost of childcare has increased around 5 per cent every year in Toronto. Perhaps most importantly, the main issues we are dealing with have resulted in hundreds of people being pushed out of work.

“The strength of our compensation becomes moot when people are denied access to it. Talking about compensation when the issues are job security and securing funding for graduate students is a misdirection,” she continues.

The annual salary at York before tuition is currently $22,722 for level 1 graduate students, and $23,217 for level 2 graduate students. According to Duncan, this funding is provided whether graduate students work as a teaching assistant or not. In their demands package, CUPE 3903 has asked for a 4 per cent raise to the graduate student salaries, along with a 100 per cent refund for annual tuition fees.

Another priority issue CUPE 3903 members are fighting for is the reinstatement 0f 700 jobs that were cut.

Part of CUPE 3903’s frustration with York stems from the last labour negotiations that took place in 2015. Union members felt they had agreed upon the new CBA, only to have York “misinterpret” the language of the contract.

“They felt that language meant something else, and that they would actually be using people’s scholarships and other forms of funding in order to pay the difference they had guaranteed us would be covered,” says Duncan.

According to her, after nine months of negotiating, the two sides finally reached an agreement on the language. However, just a month later, York “rolled out a new York Fellowship funding model and cut 700 jobs.”

Philipps clarifies York has replaced the previous funding, which required work hours for graduate students, with funding that students receive without needing to complete work hours.

“What we’ve heard from students over the years is that having to work in order to get your funding package can impede your progress on your academic studies. I think it’s a win for students.

“The York Fellowship we introduced was really to allow them to have the funding support without having the work obligation. We think that’s better for students and their academic success,” she adds.

In response, Duncan claims: “The changes caused by the fellowship model have, in fact, meaningfully affected funding. Between benefits and funds, a conservative estimate is a potential of $10,000 in access to funds and benefits.

“Not to mention job experience and professional development, as well as extensions for students with disabilities. It’s a matter of equity and accessibility that they have revoked access to these funds and benefits.”

However, Philipps reports the funding has remained the same. “I want to be really clear: we have not reduced funding for graduate students,” she says.

“We’ve changed some of the funding from work-related funding, to funding that you just receive. It’s basically like a scholarship or a bursary that you receive that allows you to study, without having to do work engagements.”

The negotiation process has been contentious to say the least, as neither side has agreed on much thus far. “The relationship between CUPE 3903 and York is bad,” Duncan describes. “It has been for a very long time.”

“I understand the discourse from both sides is that both sides are stonewalling; however, it’s not a very good representation of what’s happening,” she adds.

CUPE 3903 has accused York of hiring a “union-busting” lawyer to represent them at the bargaining table. “Simon Mortimer of Hicks Morley has been hired to lead negotiations for York’s bargaining team—the first time this has happened in several rounds. Usually there are lawyers at the table who advise, but it’s someone from the university who knows our contracts very well, whose job it is to lead the negotiations,” says Duncan.

“It’s very strange that this round they have decided to hire Mortimer, who specializes in certification campaigns and unfair labour practices suits,” she adds.

According to Philipps, “there’s a long history of this. It’s quite time-intensive to engage in this process. We want to bring the best expertise to the table that we can; someone who has had a long career of helping parties constructively work towards a resolution.

“It really reflects the importance we put on trying to have a good outcome here.”

Meanwhile, CUPE 3903 has also alleged that York has intentionally spread misinformation on numerous occasions during the negotiation process. Duncan points to an open letter published as a paid advertisement last week in Excalibur, “in which they claimed this vote would give our executive committee the right to bring our membership out on strike without a further vote.”

Duncan says that while it is not a direct lie, such a statement is misleading. From a legal standpoint, however, it is correct.

Nevertheless, “CUPE 3903 has never done this. York knows this,” she says.

“They know very well this is our process, and that if we did do this, we would have a mutiny on our hands, and that it would work well for them.

“Our membership would refuse,” she explains. “We would call in a strike, and there would be no one out on the picket lines. It has to be a membership decision.”

According to Duncan, York is “scaremongering by hiding those facts,” saying York has released information that it is not offering any concessions and not offering to worsen contracts in any way.

“And yet, we used to have eight conversion programs a year, but now it has been reduced to one.”

Conversions grant high-seniority contract faculty, who typically have already served for 10 to 20 years, the opportunity to get “converted” into a tenure track—into the York University Faculty Association (YUFA). Duncan says it has been a highly successful program, maintaining a greater success rate than external searches.

Philipps addresses the assertion, saying it is not accurate, nor does it provide the full scope of the situation. “This is true at all universities that a fundamental principle of how you recruit your faculty is open searches, in which colleagues are involved in determining who is the best qualified to come and teach our students,” she says.

She notes the conversion program is an exception, as York tries to balance the need for academic excellence as a driving principle with providing longer-term serving faculty more certainty regarding their employment.

“We have actually offered five conversion appointments every year—not one. We add one to a tenure stream position, and four more to what we call a contractually-limited appointment (CLA).

“That’s a three-to-five-year guarantee of work that would be involving membership in YUFA.”

York’s proposal would convert one contract faculty position per year to a tenure stream position, and four to CLAs of three years each, with the possibility to renew up to five years.

Additionally, Philipps denies the claims of York spreading misinformation. “I think we have some differences of opinion. That’s different than inaccuracies,” she says.

“We’re very rigorous about fact-checking our communications. Whenever we hear a claim something is misleading or inaccurate, we go back and triple-check, and we read it again to see whether it could be misinterpreted or if it’s being misread.”

Philipps says York is making a considerable effort to find points of agreement at the table. “We are being a reliable, honest source of information. That’s very important to us,” she adds.

“We’re also working hard at communicating in a way that people can rely on. It is information from our point of view—but it’s accurate and timely.

“We’re doing everything we can, and it’s unfortunate if that’s the perception. It’s not my perception. It’s not at all what I think our effort is at the table.

“We are always open to listening to how we can do better, and to additional ideas about how we can continue improving and strengthening in areas like job security,” she says.

Philipps notes: “CUPE 3903’s proposals represent a full 57 per cent increase in cost over the current contract, totaling $48 million. At this time, CUPE 3903 has not expressed willingness to negotiate that.”

Duncan counters that York accrued a surplus of $36.4 million last year, indicating it could be used to pay for the additional funds CUPE 3903 members are asking for.

“That surplus they are referring to is not available for increased salaries and wages, that would be an ongoing commitment,” Philipps explains—the additional revenue is not just extra money lying around.

“There might be some one-time money that could be used to address some of the pressing needs around the university, like the state of the classrooms in some areas—in some of our older buildings—and our washrooms. We have put some money aside for the kinds of things we think are priorities for students, in terms of the student experience.

“But those are one-time investments, and those are different from increasing ongoing compensation costs,” she clarifies.

If there is a strike, this will be the third that has occured over the last four bargaining periods.

While numerous students do understand CUPE 3903’s position, the possibility of a third strike occurring over the prior four bargaining periods has induced feelings of disillusionment among many undergraduates, who feel powerless and caught in the middle.

“I feel disappointed and appalled at CUPE 3903 for holding the students’ grades and credits hostage in this situation. Not only that, it leaves my peers and I at a disadvantage when competing against students from other schools in the job market,” says Parham Dibajnia, a fourth-year Finance and Strategy student at Schulich.

“At the same time, I am upset at the school for not taking any extreme action to prevent this.

“I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but at this point, I’d trust the administration over CUPE 3903.”

“I feel extremely stressed and worried regarding the strike negotiations. This is impacting my mental health, because I am being put in a situation where I have invested money in a full year’s worth of classes. The possibility of not receiving that is triggering my anxiety, as I have completed lots of coursework and do not want my hard work to be fruitless,” says Priya Saha, a second-year Communication Studies student.

“I am a first-generation student—the first in my family to attend university in Canada—and I know the hard work and effort my mother has done for me to help pay my tuition fees, and I do not want that money and effort to go to waste.

“I understand that one cannot put a dollar value on education; an education is priceless. But students are putting in a lot of money and time that might not yield prosperous results, because faculty think that it is alright to jeopardize the students’ ability to receive their education in a straightforward manner.”

“I feel that it would be extremely selfish of CUPE 3903 to go on strike and disrupt the school year. By delaying the semester, they would be interfering with not only the students’ progress towards their degree, but also their ability to find full-time summer work.

“Please, for the sake of everyone, come to a reasonable agreement and be charitable in your negotiations,” says Adam Pugsley, a third-year Cognitive Science student.

Despite students’ concerns, neither side feels a strike is guaranteed at this point. “We are putting all of our effort into avoiding a strike. We don’t think a strike is needed. We think that the parties can work together to reach an agreement,” says Philipps.

“I understand strikes are very hard on students; they’re also very hard on us. Just because we’ve asked for a strike mandate vote doesn’t mean we want to strike. It just means we’re putting ourselves in a position to accumulate power for the bargaining table,” says Duncan.

It seems, at the moment, the only thing the two sides can agree on is the desire to avoid a strike, if at all possible.