June 16, 2018 by admin

Striking contract faculty at York U. will return to work on Monday

Toronto: After a re-vote, striking contract faculty at York University will return to work on Monday.

Members of Unit 2 of CUPE Local 3903 voted in favour of the school’s latest offer on Wednesday night but the result was overturned by the local’s parent union amid “significant discrepancies.”

The representatives opted to nullify the vote and ordered a re-vote after determining “the number of ballots did not match the number of signatures of eligible voters.

A news release issued by York University on Friday evening shared the results of the re-vote.

“The university recognizes and truly values the contributions that contract faculty make to teaching and learning at York,” spokesperson Barbara Joy said in the news release. “We will be working with them to facilitate returning to work and engagement in remediation as efficiently as possible.”

“This has been a long and difficult process for everyone involved, especially the students who were impacted the most.”

Contract faculty, graduate teaching and research assistants walked off the job over wages and job security on March 5.

Teaching assistants, represented by CUPE 3903 Unit 1, and graduate assistants, represented by CUPE 3903 Unit 3, remain on strike.

“We ask the bargaining teams to consider taking our Unit 1 and Unit 3 offers to their members for ratification to bring all CUPE 3903 colleagues back allowing certainty for all students to complete their term,” Joy said.

The news release said that while classes will not resume immediately, details will be shared with students “as soon as possible.”