YORK ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES TO STONEWALL CUPE 3903

 

        The CUPE 3903 bargaining team met with the employer today (Sunday,

November 12th), continuing our attempt to come to a fair and reasonable

Collective Agreement which does not include rollbacks.  In the past few

days, the union has put forward proposals which have reduced a number of

our key demands, including lowering our wage demands for Graduate

Assistants, dropping our proposal to raise the value of summer funding for

Teaching Assistants, and moderating the numbers of positions under our job

security proposals for Contract Faculty.  All of these represent

significant moves on the part of the union, and they follow on the heels

of a number of other reductions in our demands which were made in the

period leading up to the beginning of the strike.

        The response of the employer has been a loud, consistent, and

unequivocal NO.  The last time the York administration made any move on

monetary issues came a week before the beginning of the strike in the form

of a small increase in their wage proposal and a reversal of their initial

attempt to do away entirely with a key program to ensure job security for

long-serving Contract Faculty.  Their offer continues to include

significant rollbacks, a position which led to the strike, and since then

they have taken an entirely hardline stance, refusing to make any changes

at all in their monetary offers.  In so doing, the administration has

shown a blatant disregard not only for CUPE 3903, but also for the entire

York community.  Their absolute intransigence on every key issue has led

to this strike, and is responsible for its continuation.  We call upon the

entire York community to join us in telling the administration that enough

is enough: it is time to start bargaining seriously and to start

addressing the issues on the table in a fair and flexible

manner.

CUTBACKS AND STONEWALLING ARE UNACCEPTABLE!

 

CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team