After 14 long weeks, the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) staff have ratified a deal, ending the strike. This would not have been possible without the support and solidarity of people of conscience within the labour movement and the York University community. The solidarity received gave us that strength, and means the world to us.

The agreement that ends the strike protects the scope clause of the collective agreement, therefore defending the integrity of the bargaining unit. While YUFA is proceeding with their plan to hire one or more managers, the protection of the scope clause means that they will not be permitted to do bargaining unit work. There are also temporary protections from layoffs for the life of the collective agreement. Other wins include increased funds to support equity in the bargaining unit, and the administration of those funds by the union, as well as modest improvements to leave provisions.

Unfortunately, there are no gains for health and safety. YUFA made it their hard line to refuse to address the harassment and discrimination that their staff face in the workplace. They were willing to keep their staff on strike – and their members without support – indefinitely in order to avoid adding uncontroversial provisions to make their workplace safer. The provisions they refused as unreasonable exist without issue in other similar collective agreements.

It is essential to recall the context of this strike: YUFA hired a union-busting law firm and tabled over 100 proposals designed to gut the collective agreement of the vast majority of its existing provisions. Fighting off these vicious attacks constitutes a win; yet we can’t help but feel that this situation is a net loss for the labour movement as a whole. It harms our movement when unions not only engage in union-busting, but also refuse to bargain for weeks on end and derail various labour spaces, like labour councils and the Ontario Federation of Labour, with employer messaging to shame striking workers.

CUPE 1281 is looking forward. We will continue to address harassment and the toxic workplace with the other tools available to us. Even though the YUFA Executive commenced a hiring process during the strike,we will vigorously defend bargaining unit work and our scope clause. There is much work to be done to make YUFA a workplace that is not toxic to the point of rampant staff turnover. We hope future YUFA executive committees will work with us to make that a reality.