CUPE 3903 meeting with employer
Jacqueline Perlin
Assistant News Editor
@jackieperlin
The prospect of a university-wide strike is still looming as the union representing contract faculty and teaching assistants at York continues to meet with their employer.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903 (CUPE 3903) had its first substantive meeting with York University November 11, where the union provided the university with approximately 160 proposals.
And while the union continues to pass more proposals and present them to the university, according to CUPE 3903, York has currently only presented a number of non-monetary proposals.
“The employer is differentiating between what the employer thinks will cost them and things that don’t cost them, [which] affects how things operate in our workplace,” explains Karen Walker, chair of CUPE 3903.
Walker adds that monetary proposals—such as regarding pay raises or an increase in health benefits—have not been discussed with the employer as of yet.
The non-monetary proposals given by the university include offering to shorten the number of days contract faculty would have to sign back offers of employment from the university.
“Because so much of the work at York is contract work, the university has to do so much hiring in September so they send out appointments and then you have a certain amount of time to reply to it […] and if you only have a few days to reply to it, that would be a bad thing for our members,” explains Walker. She says that staff may need time to figure out where they want to work or consider other factors that may affect their contract with York.
“[CUPE 3903] has a different idea of how to improve the system and process than [the management does],” she says.
Walker notes that the non-monetary proposals listed in their update have not been accepted by the union, but that the union and the university are continuing to meet in order to go through more proposals.
“We’re in the process of starting to pare them down,” she says.
When asked how long she expects the bargaining to continue, Walker says that it is not necessarily about how many proposals are left but rather “what our members find really important and that we make sure we get [what we want].”
While Walker refused to comment on the specifics of the proposals and what the union is hoping to gain from the university in their contract, Walker did point out that the union will be meeting with its membership January 11, where they will vote on a number of other proposals to present to York.
“[We’ll be] trying to get an idea from the membership about what’s important to them in this round of bargaining,” she says.
Wallace Pidgeon of York media relations says the discussions are ongoing and York remains hopeful that a negotiation will be reached with the union.
