
YUFA staff held a practice picket on October 6.
After months of bargaining and following the first day of conciliation on October 3, CUPE 1281, representing staff at the York University Faculty Association (YUFA), requested a “No Board” report from the Ministry of Labour conciliator. This step is taken when negotiations reach an impasse and allows the Union to be in a legal strike position 17 days after the Ministry formally issues the report if no agreement is reached.
CUPE 1281 has worked very hard to move talks forward after YUFA stalled discussions. The first day of conciliation on October 3 was consumed entirely by YUFA’s push to create an Executive Director. This new managerial position would be outside the bargaining unit, causing the erosion of collaborative workplace structures and the weakening of the staff collective agreement. Additionally, YUFA had no explanation regarding how it would afford this position, raising the possibility of job losses.
Conversely, the Union’s demands for stronger protections against harassment and discrimination, and meaningful job security, were left unanswered or outright rejected.
Despite these misgivings about the Executive Director, on October 7 the Union tried to work with the Employer’s stated goals while being mindful of YUFA’s budget by presenting a counter proposal for a staff coordinator model. This model would be similar to YUFA’s own model where departmental chairs retain bargaining unit membership.
The Union draws a hard line when it comes to maintaining consultative and democratic union practices, the scope of staff duties, and continues to seek stronger protections for meaningful job security and against harassment and discrimination.
The employer has not responded. They have also yet to respond to CUPE 1281’s counter proposal tabled in August that keeps the staff lawyer demanded by the Employer inside the bargaining unit. YUFA has publicly claimed it dropped 45 proposals. While this is progress after months of intransigence, they entered conciliation with more than 100 proposals on the table, and the proposals that remain continue to push top-down, union-busting restructuring, threatening both staff health and safety and job security. YUFA has yet to table their monetary proposals, where they could introduce new concessions.
A third conciliation session has been scheduled for October 22. CUPE 1281 believes that an expeditious and fair settlement can be reached if YUFA reciprocates by making significant movements on the Union’s key proposals and dropping all union busting concessions. We invite YUFA to take conciliation seriously and come to the table in good faith on October 22.