Decision not made for some striking York U. contract staff in ratification vote

Striking contract faculty at York University will remain on the picket lines with two other bargaining units representing teaching assistants and other contract staff as a decision was not made on Wednesday night.

The two bargaining committee representatives for Unit 2 of CUPE Local 3903 voted to send the university’s June 6 offer to members for ratification on Monday.

The vote came after what CUPE 3903 described as a “secret meeting” held over the weekend, where those same representatives signed a memorandum of settlement “without announcing it to the general membership, or achieving quorum.”

In the wake of that meeting, the executive committee of CUPE Local 3903 did pass a motion condemning the actions of those two representatives “in the strongest possible terms.”

The ratification vote, however, will still go ahead after a union-specific vote at Monday’s meeting. Representatives for the other two bargaining units did not similarly agree to send York’s latest offer to their membership.

“This ratification vote is the result of a legitimate vote at an announced meeting with quorum, not as a result of back room deals over the weekend,” CUPE Local 3903 said in a statement posted to its website on Monday.

About 3,000 members of CUPE Local 3903 have been on strike since March 5. About 1,000 of those members belong to Unit 2, which represents contract faculty and sessional lecturers.

The offer that Unit 2 members were supposed to vote on today is the one that was tabled by the university following a 17-hour mediation session late last month.

One hour before the midnight vote was supposed to be tallied, CUPE 3903 told CP24 the decision will not be made tonight.

The main issues of contention in the three-month long strike have mostly revolved around job security and the path to permanent tenured employment for contract faculty.

York University has previously said that about half of all classes at the school have been cancelled as a result of the strike.