Striking CUPE 1281 members employed at the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) attended a bargaining session on the morning of January 8 ready to negotiate and address the impasse on Health and Safety procedures and protections for CUPE 1281 members.
Despite saying that they were available on this date, YUFA’s bargaining team chose not to attend.
Health and safety is at the core of workers’ dignity, security, and ability to do their jobs without fear of harm. Failing to appear at the table when these matters are up for discussion sends a troubling message about YUFA’s priorities, especially after what the union believed to be a constructive side-table discussion on December 29.
CUPE 1281 remains prepared to bargain in good faith, and engage constructively on Health and Safety with a full proposal package to follow. We call on YUFA to return to the table promptly and to treat the remaining issues with the seriousness they demand and bring an end to the 11 weeks of a difficult strike.
CUPE 1281 plans to show up at the next scheduled session on January 12th and we hope YUFA’s bargaining team will do the same.
YUFA members: hold your elected representatives accountable. While you are fighting York, your executive is failing to take the steps necessary to get the staff that help you every day back to work. You can sign the CUPE e-action as a simple way to get your voice heard! Many of your colleagues have also signed on to this open letter (YUFA rank & file initiative).
On November 25th, as eight CUPE 1281 members working for the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) entered their 5th week on strike, YUFA posted a job advertisement for an Executive Director and in-house legal counsel position. The job posting confusingly lists two positions that are quite distinct, yet says they would prefer a single individual do both — as well as other specialized work such as communications and facilitation — presumably for the same wage.
What is clear is that the posted job description lists a number of responsibilities and duties routinely performed by striking staff, such as providing legal advice to YUFA Executive officers and members, handling grievances, drafting legal contracts, and dispute resolution, among others.
Hiring non-unionized workers to perform the work of striking employees is using scab labour and marks YUFA’s most aggressive union-busting tactic to date. Strike breaking, i.e. hiring replacement workers to cross a picket line to weaken the strike and a union’s efforts to improve working conditions, is often called scabbing because it is disgusting, anti-worker behaviour.
By actively replacing experienced unionized staff with confusingly defined strike breaking positions, YUFA undermines good-faith negotiations at a time where they have finally claimed that they want to return to the bargaining table as early as next week. This move attacks the very principles of progressive trade unionism that YUFA claims to uphold. In fact, YUFA appears to have forgotten how strongly they condemned their employer, York University, for hiring scab labour as recently as the 2024 CUPE 3903 strike
The labour movement must not hesitate to hold bad employers to account. This is especially true where that employer is a union. If we can’t hold each other to basic respect of collective agreements, how do we expect to hold other employers to those standards? CUPE 1281 calls on labour movement bodies such as the Toronto & York Region District Labour Council and the Ontario Federation of Labour to condemn this escalation by YUFA and its violation of core union principles.
As of 12:01 am on October 27th 2025, the staff at the York University Faculty Association (YUFA), represented by CUPE 1281, have been pushed to strike given YUFA’s refusal to engage with CUPE 1281’s proposals unless the union accepts the contracting-out of their own work to non-unionized workers.
Also at stake in this dispute is the union’s fight for improved health and safety in the workplace. YUFA has also proposed concessions that weaken the union’s existing language on job security and democratic workplace structures.
With the YUFA Executive’s proposals to move YUFA’s resources away from front line service and toward managers, staff’s ability to provide responsive, high quality representation for YUFA members would be compromised. The work of YUFA staff ensures the smooth day-to-day functioning of YUFA, and it is with very heavy hearts that they withdraw their labour.
The Employer has forced CUPE 1281 staff out on the picket line by failing to take bargaining seriously and to participate meaningfully in conciliation as the strike deadline drew near, despite repeated urges by the union to do so.
CUPE 1281 has expressed willingness to return to the table whenever YUFA is prepared to productively discuss the core issues and negotiate a fair deal. We await the employer’s response.
In the meantime, supporters can join the CUPE 1281 picket line located at Vari Hall, 100 York Boulevard, on the main York Keele campus from 9am to 2pm Monday, October 27th to Thursday, October 30th and from 10am to 2pm on Friday, October 31st.
York community members have recently been invited to reflect upon the legacy of Rhonda Lenton on the occasion of her retirement from her post as President of York University.
Under Lenton’s leadership, the neoliberalisation of post-secondary education has proceeded at York University with profoundly deleterious effects. Shortly following the announcement of Lenton’s retirement from York, the YUFA Executive called out the destructive nature of Lenton’s leadership, including financial mismanagement, job loss, and tumultuous labour relations on campus.
Leaving with Lenton is Assistant Vice-President Labour Relations, Dan Bradshaw. He has been central to supporting Lenton’s agenda in relation to difficult labour relations at York.
Striking YUFA staff bid farewell to Rhonda Lenton and Dan Bradshaw, two key architects of the neoliberal, anti-labour agenda at York University. (Right-hand picture credit: Richard Wellen)
At this critical juncture, the YUFA Executive had an opportunity to work with its staff and other campus partners to demand new leadership at York University, a leadership that is more consultative, more democratic, and more fiscally responsible.
Instead,YUFA has spent the last eight weeks fighting its own staff, seeking to restructure itself in a manner that mimics what York has done to its workers.
In the eight weeks since October 27, striking YUFA staff have been information picketing and knocking on doors at the various York campuses. We have engaged with students, community members, YUFA members, and members of other unions at York. We have heard from workers across York about how the restructuring project at York, spearheaded by Lenton at the behest of the Board of Governors and supported by Bradshaw, has intensified work, transformed secure jobs into precarious jobs, and changed functional workplaces into unhealthy and toxic workplaces.
We have heard from union siblings about how the labour relations regime has changed under Lenton and Bradshaw, where instead of resolving workplace disputes, the Bradshaw labour relations approach has consistently pushed issues to expensive litigation.
Normally, YUFA staff work alongside the Chief Stewards and JCOAA Co-Chair to protect the YUFA contract and YUFA members’ terms and conditions of work. We attend meetings alongside YUFA elected officers to discuss with members the multifaceted challenges to collegial governance. We explain, alongside elected officers, how it is necessary to protect the Collective Agreement – and we also help explain how grievances alone are, in many cases, not sufficient as a response to the restructuring Lenton and Bradshaw have spearheaded.
Instead of doing this important work over the last two months, staff at YUFA have been walking a picket line while the YUFA Executive has blamed its staff for outcomes that are firmly the result of the actions of Lenton, Bradshaw, and the Board of Governors.
YUFA staff are not the progenitors of neoliberal restructuring at York and we are not the architects for how that restructuring has been articulated. The proof of this lies in the many conversations we have had with other unions on campus who have all identified the same dynamics and issues that YUFA faces: increased litigation costs, increased workload due to increasing issues flowing from restructuring and rationalisation, and the work of addressing the concomitant pressures on the union.
YUFA staff know that the only possible way to fight back against the ongoing restructuring project at York is for unions to pull together, to educate, to mobilize. This involves a lot of hard work, and a lot of hard conversations. We have always been invested in trying to connect, where possible, defending YUFA’s collective agreement and labour relations issues with support for the political projects with which YUFA has chosen to engage.
The time to start this work is long past due. YUFA members: why are you allowing your elected leaders to waste your union’s resources fighting us, when we could be fighting York together?
YUFA staff have called on YUFA to engage in mediation with a 3rd party mediator. We also continue to work with the Ministry-appointed conciliator.
We want a fair deal and we want to get back to work. We look forward to supporting, as best we can, YUFA’s efforts to organize and mobilize its members, and to connect with other unions on campus.
We look forward to YUFA redirecting its energy towards the cause of the issues – its employer, York University Board of Governors.
On Wednesday, December 3, striking staff at the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) met with the employer and the government-appointed conciliator for the first time since the strike began on October 27th. Some progress was made, which gave the union hope for a resolution to the strike. CUPE 1281 made a third pass in the afternoon but unfortunately by the end of the day, the parties remained at an impasse.
Job Security Still Under Threat
YUFA has now officially withdrawn its proposals to amend the scope of the collective agreement. This is a much necessary step towards a resolution. However, they have not withdrawn the job they have posted, which clearly indicates that they intend to proceed with hiring managers who would undeniably do the work of the bargaining unit.
Hoping to work with the employer, the union proposed some options to ensure that disputes about managerial positions are resolved promptly and that these hires will not impact job security for the unionized staff. CUPE 1281 proposed stronger language to protect the staff complement, improve layoff provisions, including an order where union-excluded positions will be laid off first.
YUFA did not engage with key elements of these job security proposals.The conciliator advised the union that YUFA had no appetite to continue bargaining after three passes, and the day was called at 6pm.
Health and Safety Remains a Sticking Point
YUFA has indicated that they expect all existing grievances on harassment and discrimination to be dropped to reach an agreement. However, they were reportedly not willing to discuss any of the proposals regarding staff’s health and safety, including harassment and discrimination provisions. Obviously, harassment is a serious issue and those grievances can only be dropped as part of bargaining if real solutions are reached at the table.
The Way Forward
Job security and health and safety remain at the crux of the union’s demands. CUPE 1281 is grateful for the support and advocacy from the labour movement and community activists in pressuring YUFA to drop proposals that would negatively impact the scope of our work. It is in recognition of this move that CUPE 1281 made significant movement to settle the strike so that we can return our joint focus to defending YUFA members’ against York University’s top-down restructuring. It is disappointing that YUFA continues to push top-down restructuring of its own, and leave its staff out on the picket line.
Nonetheless, we see a way forward. The union has proposed that the parties seek assistance of a third party mediator and is awaiting a response from YUFA.
It has recently come to the attention of the striking staff at the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) that they received their regular pay on November 12. Staff received this payment despite being on strike for job security, stronger protections from harassment and discrimination, and to protect unionized work at YUFA.
Given YUFA’s history of blaming their staff for their own mistakes, we feel it unfortunately necessary to state publicly that the union promptly informed the employer, via the government-appointed conciliator, of their mistake.
Payroll, among other financial transactions, is a well-established automatic process that has been in place for years, with which YUFA’s Treasurer is very familiar. It was the executive’s responsibility to pause these payments.
It is also worth noting that this kind of inattention to YUFA’s fiduciary duties towards its members is exactly why we continue to have serious concerns about the employer’s plan to hire expensive managers, as that plan has not been realistically costed. They have not yet explained to CUPE 1281 or to YUFA’s membership how they plan to pay for the two additional positions without laying off the current unionized staff.
CUPE 1281 staff at the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) are on strike. Our small team of 8 workers are fighting for our job security and for a safe, fair, and democratic workplace — the same values YUFA members and our allies fight for across the university.
Our employer is pushing a top-down restructuring model that shifts resources away from frontline staff to hire more managers, undermines job security, and weakens our union. When YUFA refuses to meaningfully address harassment, discrimination, and job security, our employer is not just attacking our working conditions. YUFA is sending a message about what kind of workplace and campus they think is acceptable.
We are saying NO to union-busting, NO to more managers doing union work, and YES to:
Safe, harassment-free workplaces
Real job security for front-line staff
Democratic structures where workers retain their voice and agency
On November 13 at noon, we’re calling on students, trade unionists, YUFA members, and community allies to rally with us on the picket line, outside Vari Hall. Your presence makes our strike stronger and sends a clear message to our employer.
Bring your coworkers, friends, signs, and noise. Show up. Strike with us. Help us win.
Location Information
Vari Hall is located on York University’s Keele Campus (4700 Keele St). It is a distinctive-looking round beige building with a peaked roof. Exiting the subway at York University Station, it is directly West across the green area. The closest paid parking is the York Lanes lot (75 Vanier Ln).
On October 29 2025, CUPE 1281 filed an unfair labour practice (ULP) complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) against the York University Faculty Association (YUFA).
The complaint argues that YUFA has failed to bargain in good faith with its staff, in contravention of the Ontario Labour Relations Act.
The crux of the issue is about what is called ‘scope’, i.e. who is covered by the collective agreement and benefits from union representation.
Throughout bargaining, YUFA sought changes to the Collective Agreement that would take work out of the bargaining unit. The employer’s goal is to hire an Executive Director outside of the bargaining unit, explicitly so that this non-union position could take over work regularly performed by staff without any restrictions.
Since August, YUFA made clear they would not bargain with the union unless these changes were agreed to, despite the fact that the Labour Board has long established that “it is a violation of the duty to bargain in good faith to bargain to the point of an impasse a proposal relating to the scope of the bargaining unit.”
While YUFA has withdrawn its proposal to explicitly change the scope clause, YUFA continues to push for proposals that would in effect create “non-bargaining unit positions doing bargaining unit work,”.
If YUFA “did not believe that the creation of these positions required effective amendments to the scope, YUFA would not have insisted on all of the various components of the Scope Proposal. It would have simply created these positions,” as the filing further explains.
The union has engaged with the employer’s stated concerns by providing counter-proposals to keep work inside the CUPE 1281 bargaining unit. YUFA rejected the union’s proposals and continued to demand the creation of positions that violate the scope of the bargaining unit. For a labour union to engage in such anti-worker behaviour is shameful and contrary to their stated commitments.
Given YUFA’s ongoing refusal to meaningfully bargain, CUPE 1281 had no choice but to commence a strike on October 27, 2025.
YUFA staff remain on strike to protect job security and prevent work from leaving the bargaining unit, and to secure protections against harassment and discrimination and improve staff health and safety.
On October 22, staff represented by CUPE 1281 and the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) met for a third time with a Ministry of Labour appointed conciliator. Instead of moving negotiations forward and responding to CUPE 1281’s counter-offer, YUFA’s bargaining team squandered over two weeks between conciliation dates and left CUPE 1281 waiting for the entire day of conciliation. Their eventual response, delivered in the evening, ignored the Union’s significant movements on October 7. YUFA also refused to meaningfully engage with CUPE 1281’s core issues: health and safety and job security.
CUPE 1281 provided a comprehensive response at the last conciliation date on October 7, including a proposal for a Staff Coordinator position. This proposal directly addresses the tasks that the Employer envisions its Executive Director would do. The Union counter-proposed the hire of an in-house lawyer earlier in the summer. Both of these counter-proposals keep work within 1281’s bargaining unit and preserve the democratic principles and structures of YUFA.
Disappointingly, in the proposal that the employer finally provided to the union at 7pm on October 22, YUFA rejected both counter-proposals and continued to demand an Executive Director and in-house lawyer outside of the CUPE 1281 bargaining unit, even while assigning these positions duties and tasks covered by the collective agreement.
YUFA’s approach irresponsibly diverts resources away from frontline services for members so it can expand management, weaken the staff union, and undermine the very democratic structures YUFA proudly advocates across the university sector.
YUFA’s approach leaves CUPE 1281 with fewer and fewer options. YUFA is pushing its staff toward a strike on Monday, October 27.
Despite YUFA playing hardball, CUPE 1281 remains committed to reaching a fair and satisfactory deal that averts a disruptive strike and allows staff to continue supporting YUFA members and strengthening the faculty association. The union has conveyed to YUFA that the union will make itself available to exchange meaningful proposals over the weekend to avoid a strike.
It’s not too late to make sure CUPE 1281 staff at YUFA show up to work on Monday morning rather than a picket line.
Deliver a strong message to YUFA’s bargaining team and Executive Committee members – President Ellie Perkins, VP Internal Art Redding, VP External Anna Zalik, Equity Officer Ena Dua, Recording Secretary Merouan Mekouar and Prof. Gertrude Mianda – and tell them to return to the bargaining table with a fair deal and avoid a strike.
The staff at the York University Faculty Association (YUFA) sent the letter below to YUFA members earlier today. Today is the last scheduled day of conciliation, but as we feared, the employer is not taking it seriously. There may very well be a strike due to their inaction.
CUPE 1281 YUFA Sub-local staff are writing to you with a live update from conciliation
As many of you may know, this is the final day of conciliation before Monday, October 27, when YUFA staff will be in a legal strike position.
Over the two weeks since our last conciliation date, staff have proactively tried to get a package in response to the union’s counter sent October 7, 2025. We were proactively reaching out to the YUFA bargaining team before the final day of conciliation in an attempt to make full and productive use of this final day of conciliation. We were unsuccessful in those efforts.
Instead, we have been waiting since 10:00 am this morning for YUFA’s counter. We are still waiting.
