Union must now balance interests of bargaining units
A week into CUPE 3903’s strike at York University in Toronto, the union endorsed the employer’s final offer to its members. But the union’s strong support did not bring the labour action to an end.
One of CUPE’s three units accepted the deal, with contract faculty voting to ratify the agreement on March 9. The remaining two — representing teaching assistants and graduate assistants — rejected the offer and continued to strike. Altogether, the union represents 3,700 contract faculty, TAs and GAs at the university.
"What’s emerging here is part of a wider issue of funding for post-secondary education," said CUPE 3903 chairperson Faiz Ahmed.
The priority following the vote is to address the issue of funding and reach an agreement the teaching assistants and graduate assistants find acceptable, he said.
"We now have a situation at York University where contract faculty were able to ratify a very strong agreement, something that gave them a lot of hope and encouragement and… you have teaching assistants and graduate assistants who are still out. I think what that speaks to is a real frustration on the part of master’s and PhD students who are sort of on a track… where they are very uncomfortable or they’re wary about what their prospects are going to be after they leave school."
Teaching assistants were encouraged by the agreement’s inclusion of a tuition freeze for all graduate students, Ahmed said, and the union saw the freeze as something to build on for years to come.
But the tuition freeze ultimately became problematic because it was granted based on a previous hike in fees for international students. This led the unit to reject the university’s offer in an effort to push for a strengthening of language in the agreement that would protect future tuition hikes.
The unit representing graduate assistants voted down the deal in a demand for an increase in funding.
"Their funding levels are so much lower than the teaching assistant funding levels," Ahmed said. "And they really see the collective agreement as a way to get to that."
Contract faculty, however, approved the deal after the employer pledged to increase the number of conversions to tenure-track professor positions from nine to 24.
Additionally, the number of long-service teaching appointments was upped from 18 to 21 and improvements were made to the university’s Continuing Sessional Standing program, providing further stability.
A provincially appointed mediator was involved in the bargaining that led to the tentative agreement.
Both the union and university said they were in communications with the mediator to establish what parameters might be used to bring the parties back to the bargaining table.
"York highly values the significant contributions its teaching assistants and graduate assistants make to the university," said the university’s provost Rhonda Lenton.
"We are committed to reaching a fair and competitive settlement that will continue to position them as among the best compensated in Canada and we remain in contact with the provincially appointed mediator."
Bargaining will become
more complicated: Lawyer
Howard Levitt, senior partner at Levitt & Grosman in Toronto, however, said bargaining will only become more complicated following the contract faculty’s ratification vote.
While it is not uncommon for bargaining units to reject a tentative agreement endorsed by the union, he said the fact that one of the bargaining units involved did make the deal puts both the union and university in a difficult position when dealing with the units still on strike.
"It puts the union and the university in a very bad position. They’ve now settled with one group. They can’t afford to give the others any more," Levitt said. "Because if they give the others any more, at least without making them pay substantially for it, then the faculty group that settled will feel aggrieved."
Additional concessions for the teaching assistants and graduate assistants could lead to contract faculty feeling as if they got the short end of the stick, he said.
If the unit representing contract faculty does not feel CUPE 3903 represented it to the best of the union’s abilities during bargaining, a rift could begin to form.
Should the university make an improved offer to teaching and graduate assistants, the union could find itself in an "untenable" position as a bargaining agent.
From the university’s perspective, Levitt said, caving to the remaining members’ demands would destroy its credibility and weaken its position in future bargaining.
"No one will take them seriously in the future when they make a final offer," he said. "They’ll assume there’s more to be had every time and you’ll never get a deal."
Ultimately, Levitt said, neither the university nor the union can afford to offer employees more.
"The union has to pretend to support the people who’ve rejected the recommendation but in real life they won’t because it puts them in a terrible position."
According to Levitt, the best case scenario might actually be a protracted strike action. The university might be more inclined to sweeten the deal — and both parties more likely to save face — if the next offer comes after employees have gone for months without pay while on strike.
"Maybe then they can offer more money," Levitt said, "because (the employees) are never going to make up for what they’ve lost. In that case, they might do it. Otherwise, they’d better hold tight."
