Strike to Win!
Welcome to the CUPE 3903 Strike online HQ. This is intended to be a place to find all relevant information about the CUPE 3903 strike at York University.
We’re still working on getting everything set up so check back regularly as we will be adding more content soon
By Matthew Dunleavy
“What, you’re still on strike? I thought it ended last month,” a friend recently said to me as I was sharing with them the difficulties of remediating in August a course that began in September 2017. With the disingenuous PR statements by York University and the anything-but-objective news coverage the CUPE 3903 strike has received, it is not surprising this friend had assumed classes had resumed and the strike was over. However, two of the three striking units of CUPE 3903 are still on strike and are still fighting for a new, fair collective agreement.
Back at the end of April I wrote a short post reflecting on whether units 1 and 3 would be on strike if unit 2 did not exist. Now we are in July, I would say it is worth rereading that post to better understand a couple of the issues at stake for the two remaining units: claw backs and the “no work commitment” language advertised by York.
In addition to that post, I wanted to write a little something to answer a question that I have heard uttered numerous times since Doug Ford won the provincial election and, more importantly, since a minority of unit 2 signed a Motion of Settlement and ratified an offer with the University: if back-to-work legislation is coming, why not settle?
Before I begin, let me just state that I am not a bargaining team members for CUPE 3903, I am not on the executive, in fact, I am not even on the strike committee, so these views are solely my own as a rank and file member of this union.
York has already made it clear that in-class remediation for courses will only begin on July 23rd. Therefore, any claim that units 1 and 3 need to ratify York’s terrible offer right now to “get students back to the classroom” has been revealed as the empty rhetoric it truly is.
Throughout negotiations (both before and after the strike began) the CUPE 3903 bargaining team, sometimes to the dismay of some members, have amended and dropped many of our bargaining positions, as is par for the course for collective bargaining negotiations. This was justified to the membership as an attempt to try our hardest to reach an agreement with York for a new collective agreement and return to work. York stubbornly dug its heels in the ground and refused to budge (give or take the odd slight movement to pretend they were bargaining in good faith). If we voluntarily opted to go to arbitration now we would go there in this weak position, whereby many of our demands have been so diluted that the university would easily get what it wants and they would be rewarded for the obstinance. Should we be legislated back to work, many of those dilutions will have timed out and we will enter arbitration closer to where we started in March.
Speaking of back-to-work legislation. Since the strike began, no government has placed any pressure on York to reach an agreement with CUPE 3903: the Liberals failed to do so and the Conservatives definitely haven’t. Back in 2015 the Supreme Court of Canada, in Saskatchewan Federation of Labour v. Saskatchewan, held up the right to strike under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. This case clearly acknowledged “the deep inequalities that structure the relationship between employers and employees, and the vulnerability of employees in this context” and the need for fair collective bargaining and the right to strike should bargaining be unsuccessful. CUPE 3903 voted to go on strike when our employer refused to bargain in good faith (i.e. decline to make any effort to reach a middle ground between the employer and their vulnerable employees). Should back to work legislation be unfairly wielded against us and, therefore, support York’s intransigence, I would hope that CUPE 3903, CUPE Ontario, CUPE National, and all rank-and-file members of the union will be ready to fight that legislation.
York has done everything in its power to villainize CUPE 3903 and its members while simultaneously doing nothing to resolve this labour dispute. The Conservative government is hilariously calling themselves the “Government of the People” to disingenuously pretend they are working for the poor and working classes. Should this “government of the people” look at an institute of higher education that pulls high tuition rates from tax-paying students while paying their workers a below living wage, yet paying disproportionately high salaries to administrators and wasting money on union-busting lawyers, and decide to side with the institution, then it is very clear exactly which “people” this government privileges.
By Sasan Issari
As the strike hits its 19th week, there are serious concerns over how the strike has impacted the mental health and well-being of students, faculty, and staff. The duration and intensity of this labor dispute has impacted the well-being of York community members in various ways. Whether it is the financial strain that students and contract faculty experience, or the uncertainty of future employment, there are real stressors. The rise of precarious employment in Universities across Canada impacts the mental health and well-being of everyone in academia, including students, staff, and faculty.
So where can students and community members go for supports when they feel hopeless, anxious, stressed, exhausted, overwhelmed, and depressed? There is a list resources below that can help. This is just a small list of supports in the community, as there are other supports that are tailored to the unique needs of individuals in our communities. It is important to connect with the right supports that fits for you. It takes bravery to reach out and ask for help, as no one should suffer in silence. This strike has been very stressful for several reasons, and it is critical to reach out if you need to talk to someone.
Resources:
Good2Talk is a free, confidential helpline providing professional counselling and information and referrals for mental health, addictions and well-being to post-secondary students in Ontario, 24/7/365. – 1-866-925-5454
Toronto Distress Line – this centre is run by volunteers and offers help through either their phone line, online chat, or text chat options. The 24- hour line is available at 416-408-4357. The online chat or texting service is available between 2pm and 2am. To chat online, go to: https://www.torontodistresscentre.com/ontx. To text, simply send your first text message 741741.
Gerstein Centre. Located downtown, this community mental health crisis centre also boasts a crisis line and a mobile team. – Crisis line: 416-929-5200 – http://gersteincentre.org/
York Support Services Network: 1-855-310-COPE (2673); 1-866-323-7785 (TTY). If you, or someone you care about, are depressed, distressed, lonely, anxious, scared or angry, you can call York Support Services 24/7. They have been serving York Region for over 15 years and have now expanded their telephone support to include North York.
Online Counselling:
If you don’t feel like going for formal counselling, there are online resources that might be of service. 7cups.com is an online free one-on-one chat with trained listeners and also offers inexpensive therapy options. betterhelp.com is another online, phone, or text relatively inexpensive therapy.
The Senate adjourned while I was speaking because they were offended by the following:
Fourth statement in the senate
Sorry I couldn’t make it to the last senate meeting, but if past experience is any indication, I’m sure I didn’t miss anything and no one was held accountable for running this university into the ground by destroying any semblance of academic integrity.
While this administration’s provisional grades scheme is sold as a benefit to our students, other university graduate programs have already started rejecting them.
In attempts to keep business running without the majority of actual teachers, the university’s priorities are as transparent as ever: contain student anger for stealing their tuition money by slapping fake grades on their transcript in order to keep exploiting the most precarious educators that do the actual teaching.
If indeed York University teaches anything, it’s that a small group of overpaid administrators can erode the public good of education for their own benefit.
You’ve never cared about students, and you’ve never cared about the concerns of your most vulnerable workers Rhonda, all you’ve cared about is your illegitimate career as a detestable administrator rising to the top of a heartless institution.
But as much as you may try to hide it, the fact is you’ve lost any legitimacy as a leader, any respect as a colleague, and any integrity as an academic. The wave of non-confidence in you and Rick Waugh’s Board of Governors is clear for all to see. And while you may be able to slip through this undoubtedly embarrassing chapter in the history of university leadership, this has less to do with your deluded ability to weather the storm, and everything to do with the absolute loss of accountability in the university as a whole.
This couldn’t be clearer than in the highest decision making bodies of York, these Senate chambers and the corporate Board of Governors. Both bodies are meant to be open and accountable to our community, but have routinely been closed sessions with no adequate student witness or representation.
And when students are barred from accessing the only public forum available to hold the administration accountable, they feel helpless, lied to and cheated, disenfranchised from the very institution they’ve invested so much in.
President Lenton, you’ve said that you and your administration respects “civil and respectful debate or dissent.”
What debate?
When has there ever been space for dialogue or discussion? All you’ve done is cut students and workers out of the conversation.
You’ve used security to intimidate and assault students and bar them from the Senate. And again students were physically barred from accessing the May 1st Board of Governors meeting despite the purported dedication to openness.
And, most egregious of all, in 102 days of strike your bargaining team has met with CUPE 3903 twice.
That’s 100 days your administration refused to acknowledge a debate, refused to engage in dialogue with your most vulnerable and precarious teachers.
100 days you’ve tried to forget our existence.
100 days you’ve continued to collect your pay cheque while thousands of students and union members are pushed further into poverty.
And yet, you insist that York is a social justice university.
I’m sure it’s been a while since you’ve stepped foot inside a classroom, but students at this social justice university are taught to stand up to injustice. Students are taught that when the most powerful and privileged try to trample over the most vulnerable there is an ethical responsibility to push back, to disobey, and to disrupt.
They’re taught that when they are systematically silenced in supposedly democratic spaces, it’s time to shut these spaces down.
If we cannot be in the Senate, if we cannot be in the Board of Governors meetings then they have no legitimacy, they do not represent us, and they should not be taking up space on our campus.
This is the meaning of civil disobedience, you may find it uncomfortable, but you’re supposed to find it uncomfortable. You’re supposed to be shaken out of your privileged position, and you’re supposed to think twice when you systematically shutout the very community you’re supposed to represent.
Being a social justice president does not mean congratulating Doug Ford on his election victory. And it certainly doesn’t mean congratulating that anti-queer, anti-trans politician with a pride flag in your twitter profile picture.
It also doesn’t mean wielding the student code of conduct to threaten and pursue sanctions against students that criticize you for this disgusting display of support for the most reactionary and damaging figure in Ontario politics.
But it’s not surprising that the administration hides behind the language of respectability while actively pursuing attacks on students and workers. I’ve witnessed this myself when York security threatened Reclaim students with calling the police, only for the official York twitter to deny that these threats were even issued. I heard the threats; I was there, yet a remote administrator felt entitled to use the account of a leading institution to lie to the public.
Lies, deceit and violations of charter rights seem to be the norm of this administration’s approach to the ethical and moral actions of outraged and disenfranchised students and workers. So much so that the Canadian Civil Liberties Association has had to repeatedly call on York to back down from its draconian attempts to quell debate and dissent.
The student code of conduct has never been about protecting the civil rights of students on campus. From its origins in Lorna Marsden’s presidency through to the current regime, it has always been a tool used by the powerful to assert their will over student protestors.
But this will never stop our collective resistance to your neoliberal, managerial administration. This is about more than fighting your sad administration; it’s about the future of education and the soul of this university.
So I ask you senator Lenton, will you immediately withdraw any complaint you’ve filed against your own students and refrain from unjustly wielding the code of conduct to threaten and punish dissent?
By Sasan Issari
As the strike at York University enters its 15th week, there is a growing possibility that the strike may end soon. After all, the Conservative party has officially become the majority government in Ontario. If history tells us anything, it tells us that neoliberalism and the corporatization of education have become the new norm in Canada. After all, it was Doug Ford who said after he got elected that the only victims of the strike at York University were the students. This statement needs to be problematized, since it erases the reasons why teaching assistants, contract faculty, and staff are asking for fairer working conditions across campuses in Canada. And yes, many of them are students as well.
The corporatization of education means that academic labor, student life, institutional governance, and university research are dictated by dollars, not on the value of critical thinking, innovation, social justice, and higher learning. This is precisely why the Board of Governors at York University are comprised mostly of bankers and corporate heads. This is precisely why the number of casual academic positions at York University has increased by more than five times the amount compared to tenured professor positions since 2000. In the neoliberal and corporate climate of academia, none of these issues really matter. The bottom line is profit, not the social conditions in academia that impact the well-being of teachers, students, and staff.
Students are drowning in student debts, and workers in academia are getting fed up with ‘business as usual.’ Students do not have the privilege to freely enjoy their academic journeys, as they face growing pressures to find a job after graduation. Workers, many of whom are graduate students with families to support, are tired of their working conditions and want job security and a decent salary to live. The fact is that education was commodified years ago in Canada. The question remains: Where do we go from here? Firstly, I want to us to not lose hope. It may sound cliché, but it is understandable to feel exhausted, angry, and defeated. But it is inspiring to witness and be a part of a critical mass of people who are advocating for fairer working conditions across campuses in Canada, and it is time to listen to their voices.
Gamal Abdel-Shehid, School of Kinesiology and Health Science
Greg Albo, Department of Politics
Steve Alsop, Facuty of Education
Philipp Sebastian Angermeyer, Department of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics
Pat Armstrong, PhD, FRSC, Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology
Marie-Christine Aubin, School of Translation, Glendon College
Aimé Avolonto, French department, Glendon
Harjeet Kaur Badwall, School of Social Work
Steve Bailey, Department of Humanities and Graduate Program in Communication and Culture
Alison Bain, Department of Geography
Isabella Bakker, Fellow, Royal Society of Canada, York Research Chair, Distinguished Research Professor
Ian Balfour, Department of English
Himani Bannerji, Professor Emerita, Senior Scholar, Sociology
Deb Barndt, Professor Emerita, Environmental Studies
Amélie Barras, Department of Social Science
Tereza Barta, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Ranu Basu, Department of Geography
Jon Peter Baturin, Professor Emeritus, School of the Arts, Media, Performance & Design
Paul Baxter, Department of Social Science
Barbara Beardwood, Senior Scholar, Department of Social Science
Shannon Bell, Department of Politics
Richard Bello, Department of Geography
Jody Berland, Department of Humanities
Faisal Bhabha, Osgoode Hall Law School
Amar Bhatia, Osgoode Hall Law School
Katherine Bischoping, Department of Sociology
Malcolm Blincow, Professor Emeritus, Anthropology
Marcus Boon, Department of English
Philippe Bourdin, French Studies and Lingusitic Program, Glendon
Rob Bowman, Department of Music
Martin Breaugh, Department of Politics
Linda Briskin, Department/School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Deborah Brock, Department of Sociology
Heather Campbell, Department of English
Nergis Canefe, Department of Politics and Public Policy and Administration
Eduardo Canel, Department of Social Science
Tuan Cao-Huu, MDS Department, Itec/Computer Science, Glendon
Marc Cauchi, Department of Humanities
Jon Caulfield, Senior Scholar, Division of Social Science
Sheila Cavanagh, Department of Sociology
David Cecchetto, Depeartment of Humanities
Chris Chapman, School of Social Work
Soma Chatterjee, School of Social Work
Claudia Chaufan, School of Health Policy and Management
James Check, Department of Psychology
Lily Cho, Department of English
Sylwia Chrostowska, Department of Humanities
Matthew Clark, Department of Humanities
Colin Coates, Canadian Studies, Glendon College
Elaine Coburn, International Studies, Glendon
Derek Cohen, Senior Scholar, English Department
Sheila Colla, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Bruce Connell, Linguistics and Language, Glendon
Diana Cooper-Clark, Departments of English and Humanities
Marc Couroux, Department of Visual Art and Art History
Cheryl Cowdy, Department of Humanities
Warren Crichlow, Faculty of Education
Alison Crosby, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Raju J Das, Department of Geography
Tania Das Gupta, Department of Equity Studies
Elizabeth Dauphinee, Department of Politics
Megan Davies, Department of Social Science
Nancy Viva Davis Halifax, Faculty of Health
Lykke de la Cour, Social Science
Kathryn Denning, Department of Anthropology
William Denton, York University Libraries
Gene Desfor, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Susan Dion,Faculty of Education
Mario DiPaolantonio, Faculty of Education
Dr Nombuso Dlamini, Director, Youth in Politics (#Yip), Faculty of Education
David Doorey, School of Human Resource Management
Susan Driver, Communication Studies
Lisa Drummond, Department of Social Science
Christo El Morr, School of Health Policy and Management
Denielle Elliott, Department of Social Science and Social Anthropology
Lorna Erwin, Sociology
Barbara Evans, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Geoffrey Ewen, Canadian Studies and History, Glendon
Sarah Flicker, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Honor Ford-Smith, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Scott Forsyth, Senior Scholar, Cinema and Media Arts/Politics
Jennifer Foster, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Gail Fraser, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Soren Frederiksen, School of Public Policy and Administration
Amber Gazso, Department of Sociology
Liette Gilbert, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Wenona Giles, Professor, Anthropology
Stephen Gill, FRSC, Distinguished Research Professor of Politics, Department of Politics
Rosalind Gill, Senior Scholar, School of Translation, Glendon
Amanda Glasbeek, Department of Social Science
Harry Glasbeek, Professor Emeritus, Osgoode Law School
Luin Goldring, Department of Sociology
Mark Goodman, Sociology
Andil Gosine, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Ted Goossen, Department of Humanities
Laurence Green, Cinema & Media Arts
John Greyson, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Ricardo Grinspun, Department of Economics
Shubhra Gururani, Department of Anthropology
Ratiba Hadj-Moussa, Department of Sociology
Jan Hadlaw, School of the Arts, Media, Performance, & Design
Laam Hae, Department of Politics
Alison Halsall, Department of Humanities
Barbara Hanson, Department of Sociology
Eve Haque, Department of Languages, Literatures, Linguistics
Jin Haritaworn, Associate Professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Phillip Harland, Department of Humanities
Douglas Hay FRSC, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Osgoode Hall Law School and Department of History
Sharon Hayashi, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Lyse Hébert, PhD, School of Translation, Glendon
Judy Hellman, Professor Emerita, Social Science and Politics Departments
Stephen Hellman, Professor Emeritus, Department of Politics
Craig Heron, Professor Emeritus, Department of History
Rob Heynen, Department of Communication Studies
Philip Hoffman, Cinema and Media Arts
Teresa Holmes, Department of Anthropology
Jennifer Hyndman, Department of Geography
Pablo Idahosa, Department of Social Science
Susan Ingram, Department of Humanites
Merle A. Jacobs, Equity Studies
Stanley Jeffers, Associate Professor Emeritus, Department of Physics and Astronomy
William Jenkins, Department of Geography
Jennifer Jenson, Faculty of Education
Sherry Johnson, Department of Music
Jan Kainer, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Hong Kal, Department of Visual Art and Art History
Ilan Kapoor, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Eva C. Karpinski, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies.
Ali Kazimi, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Magdalena Kazubowski-Houston, Program in Theatre and Peformance Studies
Peggy Keall, Dept of Social Science
Patricia Keeney, English, Theatre and Performance Studies (FGS)
Joseph Keeping, Departmetns of Humanities, History
Roger Keil, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Phillip Kelly, Department of Geography
Kamala Kempadoo, Department of Social Science
Didi Khayatt, Faculty of Education
Sean Kheraj, Department of History
Isabel Killoran, Faculty of Education
Stefan Kipfer, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Christina Kraenzle, German Studies
Avron Kulak, Department of Humanities
Abidin Kusno, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Hannes Lacher, Deparment of Politics
Larry Lam, Department of Sociology
Paul Lampert, Department of Theatre
Sam Lanfranco, Professor Emeritus, Economics
Ganaele Langlois, Department of Communication Studies
Suzanne Langlois, Department of History, Glendon College
Nick Lary, Senior Scholar and professor emeritus of Humanities and Graduate English
Frances Latchford, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Yam Lau, Department of Visual Art and Art History
Bonita Lawrence, Department of Equity Studies
Marie-Elaine Lebel, Language training centre for studies in French
Becky Lee, Professor Emerita, Department of Humanities
Louis Lefeber, Professor Emeritus, Economics and Social and Political Thought
David Lidov, Department of Music, Senior Scholar
Carla Lipsig-Mumme, Department of Social Science
Kenneth Little, Department of Anthropology
Jaime Llambias-Wolff, Senior Scholar, Dept. of Social Science
Brenda Longfellow, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Libby Lunstrum, Department of Geography
Meg Luxton, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Willem Maas, Political Science, Glendon
Marcia Macaulay, English, Glendon
Robert MacDermid, Senior Scholar, Department of Political Science
Heather MacRae, Department of Politics
Edelgard Mahant, Professor emerita, Glendon
Terry Maley, Department of Politics
Guida Man, Department of Sociology
Nancy Mandell, Department of Sociology
Joy Mannette, Faculty of Education
Janine Marchessault, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Jocelyn Martel, Biology, Multidisciplinary Studies, Glendon
Ian Martin, English Department, Glendon
Atsuko Matsuoka, School of Social Work
John Mayberry, Department of Theatre
Patricia Mazepa, Department of Communication Studies
Carlota McAllister, Department of Anthroplogy
Patricia McDermott, Department of Social Science
Gillian McGillivray, History, Glendon
Wendy McKeen, Department of Social Work
David T. McNab, Department of Equity Studies/Humanities
David McNally, Department of Politics
Andrea Medovarski, Department of Humanities
Merouan Mekouar, Department of Social Science
Gertrude Mianda, School of GSWS and GWST program, Glendon College
Jacinthe Michaud, School of GSWS
Aparna Mishra Tarc, Faculty of Education
Allyson Mitchell, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Radhika Mongia, Department of Sociology
Jean Michel Montsion, Canadian Studies, Glendon College
Esteve Morera, Department of Philosophy, Department of Politics
Brian Morgan, Department of English, Glendon
Marina Morrow, Chair, School of Health Policy and Management
Mary Jane Mossman, Professor Emerita, Osgoode Hall Law School
Georges Moyal, Department of Philosophy, Glendon
Arun Mukherjee, Professor Emeritus, Department of English
Nick Mulé, School of Social Work
David Murray, Department of Anthropology
Karen Bridget Murray, Department of Politics
Marcelo Musto, Department of Sociology
Natasha Myers, Department of Anthropology
Eric Mykhalovskiy, Department of Sociology
Taien Ng-Chan, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Michael Nijhawan, Department of Sociology
Jonathan Nitzan, Department of Politics, Social and Political Thought
Naomi Norquay, Faculty of Education
Liisa North, Professor Emeritus
Anne O’Connell, School of Social Work
Andrea O’Reilly, School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies
Michael Ornstein, Department of Sociology
Deborah Orr, Department of Humanities
Laurence Packer, Department of Biology
Leo Panitch, Professor Emeritus
Hyun ok Park, Department of Sociology
Viviana Patroni, Department of Social Science
Mark Peacock, Department of Social Science
Linda Peake, Department of Social Science, Director,The City Institute
Muriel Péguret, Dépt. d’études françaises et Faculté d’éducation, Glendon
Elizabeth Pentland, Department of English
Roberto Perin, Department of History, Glendon
Patricia E. (Ellie) Perkins, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Nalini Persram, Department of Social Science
Randolph Peters, Department of Music
Kelly Pike, School of Human Resource Management
Dennis Pilon, Department of Politics
Sergei Plekhanov, Department of Politics
Justin Podur, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Brayton Polka, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Humanities
Ann Porter, Department of Politics
Anna Pratt, Department of Social Science
Valerie Preston, Department of Geography
Norene Pupo, Department of Sociology
Audrey Pyee, Department of History, Glendon College
Roberto Quinlan, Department of Biology
Indhu Rajagopal, Department of Social Science
Dennis Raphael, School of Health Policy and Management
Art Redding, English
Markus Reisenleitner, Department of Humanities
Geoffrey Reaume, Critical Disabilty Studies
Marie Rickard, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
André Robert, Department of Geography
Joanna Robinson, Department of Sociology, Glendon
Ray Rogers, Faculty of Enviromental Studies
Nick Rogers, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus
Wade Rowland, Department of Communications
Don Rubin, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Dept of Theatre
Cate Sandilands, Environmental Studies
John. S. Saul, Professor Emeritus, Social Science and Politics
Rachel Schlesinger, Senior Scholar, Dept. of Social Science
Ellen G. Schraa, School of Health Policy & Management
Dayna Scott, Osgoode Hall Law School
Jamie Scott, Department of Humanities
Shirin Shahrokni, Department of Sociology, Glendon
Theresa Shanahan, Faculty of Education
Victor Shea, Department of Humanities
Joel Shore, Department of Biology
Marlene Shore, Department of History
Nicola Short, Department of Politics
John Simoulidis, Department of Social Science
Brian Singer, Sociology, Glendon
David Skinner, Communication Studies
Lisa Sloniowski, York University Libraries
Bruce Smardon, Department of Political Science
Ian Smith, Assoc. Prof. Emeritus, Department of Languages, Literatures and Linguistics
Brenda Spotton Visano, Department of Economics, School of Public Policy and Administration
Glenn Stalker, Department of Sociology
Jennifer Stephen, Department of History
Penny Stewart, Department of Sociology
Karen Swift, Social Work, Professor Emerita
David Szablowski, Department of Social Science
Laura Taylor, Faculty of Environmental Studies
Patrick Taylor, Department of Humanities
Thomas Teo, Department of Psychology
Mark Thomas, Department of Sociology
Ozgun Topak, Department of Social Science
Robert Tordoff, Associate Professor, Humanities.
Temenuga Trifonova, Associate Professor, Dept of Cinema and Media Arts
Roopa Desai Trilokekar, Faculty of Education
Eric Tucker, Professor Emeritus, Osgoode Hall Law School
Steven Tufts, Department of Geography
Unnamed (12)
Dorin Uritescu, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, French Studies, Glendon
Karen Valihora, Department of English
Peter Vandergeest, Department of Geography
Gail Vanstone Department of Humanities
Jim Vernon, Department of Philosophy
Livy Visano, Professor, Department of Equity Studies
Usha Viswanathan, Glendon
Colleen Wagner, Department of Cinema & Media Arts
Philip Walsh, Department of Sociology
Andy Weaver, Department of English
Richard Weisman, Professor Emeritus, Department of Social Science
Fredric Weizmann, Senior Scholar, Department of Psychology
Richard Wellen, Social Science
Kimberley White, Department of Social Science
Walter Whiteley, Department of Mathematics and Statistics
David L. Wiesenthal, Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar, Department of Psychology
Daphne Winland, Anthropology
Ted Winslow, Department of Social Science
Howard Wiseman, Department of Cinema and Media Arts
Lesley Wood, Department of Sociology
Patricia Wood, Department of Geography
Jenny Wüstenberg, Department of Politics
Douglas Young, Department of Social Science
Lélia Young, Department of French Studies
Anna Zalik, Faculty of Environmental Studies
As I am writing this post, 228 faculty members have signed a statement under the label “concernedprofs” an extension of “Profs4Change,” a collection of self-proclaimed “moderates” who support York’s attempt to gut the CUPE Unit 2 conversion program (a program that has successfully been in place for decades and has resulted in providing full-time employment to dedicated, renowned professors).
This website, hosted on a York University server, contains a statement from the group calling upon unions and the institution to “negotiate non-strike clauses in their collective agreements” because they believe this is the only way to avoid the “collateral damage to our students.” Although the group presents itself a apolitical (they are not “taking sides in any labour disputes,” something which is undermined by their support for the gutting of the conversion program, as outlined above) the fact that this statement is released right now, during the lengthy CUPE 3903 strike, clearly shows an anti-CUPE sentiment. It is also misleading to suggest that they are not “taking sides” when their statement is anti-union and not anti-capitalist or, at the very least, offering any criticism towards the way the current York administration has handled labour relations since Rhonda Lenton was named President (after many factions of York spoke out against the promotion).
While I agree that it is awful and heartbreaking that students are left in limbo and struggling during this strike, suggesting that unions at York, especially unions made up of front-line workers like CUPE 3903, should lose one of their primary ways to fight against a management that holds all the power, shows very little understanding of working-class struggles and the legitimacy of strike action.
What is most disconcerting with this group is the very privileged position they write from. Of the 228 members currently on the list, salary information is available for 197 of them in 2017 (the information has been copied below). Of the 31 with no salary information available, 16 are retired professors who are reaping the benefits of pensions that were fought for in a YUFA strike in 1997. The other remaining 15 are new hires for 2017 or part-time lecturers who enjoy careers outside of the university.
The 197 that we can account for have a mean salary of $168,720.56 and a median salary of $158,967.84. I do not bring up these salaries to suggest that they do not deserve them (most are well accomplished educators and researchers), but simply to illustrate the position of comfort they write from. This punching down to early career researchers and teachers is an awful abuse of the power they have as full-time, tenured faculty members; they should be using these positions of power to demand accountability from Rhonda Lenton and the Board of Directors and joining the cacophony of voices across campus asking for the governance crisis at York to be addressed.
York University sits on the edge of Toronto and York. In 2015, the median income for the York region was $103,009 and the median income for Toronto was $65,829, placing the average for these professors $50,000 – $100,000 better off than the average household that surrounds our campus. As members of CUPE 3903 struggle to make ends meet each year, I would suggest these “concerned profs” consider their socio-economic realities before they continue to punch down in the future.
| Name | Department | Department | Salary (2017) | |
| 1 | Ali Abdul Sater | Assistant Professor | Kinesiology and Health Science | 112,566.68 |
| 2 | Ola Adegoke | Associate Professor | Kinesiology | 142,374.72 |
| 3 | Scott Adler | Associate Professor | Psychology | 142,916.94 |
| 4 | Nirupama Agrawal | Associate Professor | Disaster and Emergency Management | 166,480.92 |
| 5 | Ahmet Akyol | Associate Professor | Economics | 165,011.68 |
| 6 | John Amanatides | Associate Professor | EECS | 194,245.04 |
| 7 | Lynne Angus | Full Professor | Psychology | 180,694.64 |
| 8 | Marcia Annisette | Associate Professor | Schulich School of Business | 257,850.20 |
| 9 | Elie Appelbaum | Professor | Economics | 251,410.96 |
| 10 | Costas Armenakis | Associate Professor | Earth & Space Science & Engineering / Lassonde School of Engineering | 140,082.76 |
| 11 | Mary Armour | Associate Lecturer | Faculty of Science | N/A |
| 12 | Ali Asgary | Associate Professor | SAS | 157,813.68 |
| 13 | Gerald Audette | Associate Professor | Chemistry / Centre for Research on Biomolecular Interactions | 136,400.08 |
| 14 | Preet Aulakh | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 306,602.32 |
| 15 | peter backx | professor | biology | 269,339.92 |
| 16 | Kee-Hong Bae | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 351,750.64 |
| 17 | Joe Baker | Professor | Kinesiology and Health Science | 137,706.59 |
| 18 | Alena Barysevich | CLA | Glendon | N/A |
| 19 | Thomas Baumgartner | Professor | Chemistry | N/A |
| 20 | Mark Bayfield | Associate Professor | Biology | 129,454.52 |
| 21 | John Beare | Associate Professor | Economics | 205,750.48 |
| 22 | Danielle Beausoleil | Assoc. Lecturer | French Studies – LA&PS | 147,436.60 |
| 23 | James Bebko | Professor | Psychology | 186,534.64 |
| 24 | Jacob Beck | Associate Professor | Philosophy | 110,784.32 |
| 25 | Nantel Bergeron | Professor | Mathematics and Statistics | 205,912.28 |
| 26 | Christopher Bergevin | Assoc. Prof. | Physics & Astronomy, York University | 111,450.70 |
| 27 | S bhadra | Professor | Physis | 135,700.92 |
| 28 | Markus Biehl | Associate Professor | Schulich | 294,555.44 |
| 29 | Sunil Bisnath | Associate Professor | Earth and Space Science and Engineering | 140,551.60 |
| 30 | Michael Boni | Assistant Lecturer | Kinesiology | 102,499.96 |
| 31 | Deborah Britzman | Distinguished Research Professor and York Research Chair | Faculty of Education | 193,181.88 |
| 32 | Shirley Ann Brown | Professor Emerita and Senior Scholar | Humanities and Art History | N/A |
| 33 | Marcus Brubaker | Assistant Professor | EECS | 112,566.68 |
| 34 | Mat Brzozowski | Associate Professor | Economics | 143,671.72 |
| 35 | Neil Buckley | Undergraduate Program Director | Economics | 170,024.88 |
| 36 | Sam Bucovetsky | Professor | LAPS/Economics | 182,003.98 |
| 37 | Martin Bunch | Professor | Faculty of Environmental Studies | 145,188.60 |
| 38 | Ed Burns | Adjunct Professor | Schulich | N/A |
| 39 | Alexandra Campbell | Associate Professor | /Marketing Dept, Schulich Business School, | 216,328.20 |
| 40 | Ada Chan | Associate Professor | Mathematics and Statistics | 140,238.68 |
| 41 | Jennifer Chen | – | Chemistry | 104,680.72 |
| 42 | Shin-Hwan Chiang | Professor | Economics | 207,487.60 |
| 43 | Charles Cho | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 213,750.00 |
| 44 | Avi Cohen | Professor | Economics, LA&PS | 181,132.38 |
| 45 | Jennifer Connolly | Professor | Psychology | 189,577.02 |
| 46 | Michael Connor | Associate Professor | Kinesiology & Health Science | 157,989.06 |
| 47 | Wade Cook | Professor Emeritus | Schulich School of Business | 130,524.84 |
| 48 | Matias Cortes | Assistant Professor | Economics | N/A |
| 49 | Julia Creet | Associate Professor | Department of English | 135,726.98 |
| 50 | Robert Cribbie | Professor | Psychology | 158,509.64 |
| 51 | Anne Crozier | Associate Lecturer | Nursing | 146,615.30 |
| 52 | Michael Daly | Associate Professor | Earth and Space Science and Engineering | 150,802.84 |
| 53 | Peter Darke | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 265,220.68 |
| 54 | Fay Dastjerdi | Associate Professor | Faculty of Health, School of Nursing | 146,605.14 |
| 55 | Michael De Robertis | Professor | Physics and Astronomy / Faculty of Science | 176,058.02 |
| 56 | Xavier de Vanssay | Professor | Economics/Glendon | 175,217.28 |
| 57 | Paul Delaney | Senior Lecturer | Physics and Astronomy | 161,399.60 |
| 58 | Minoo Derayeh | Associate Professor | DES | 165,355.00 |
| 59 | Joseph DeSouza | Associate Prof | Psych | 148,017.42 |
| 60 | Mary Desrocher | Associate Professor | Psychology | 142,981.24 |
| 61 | Adam Diamant | Assistant Professor | Schulich | 157,816.32 |
| 62 | Susan Dion | Associate Professor | Education | 146,014.64 |
| 63 | Igor Djordjevic | Associate Professor | English, Glendon College | 132,971.26 |
| 64 | Dale Domian | Professor | School of Administrative Studies | 196,028.40 |
| 65 | Logan Donaldson | Professor | Biology | 155,383.56 |
| 66 | Janessa Drake | Associate Professor | Kinesiology and Health Science | 131,532.92 |
| 67 | Walter Dyba | Senior Lecturer | Kinesiology | 153,790.04 |
| 68 | John Eastwood | Associate Professor | Department of Psychology | 137,980.60 |
| 69 | Heather Edgell | Assistant Professor | Kinesiology and Health Sciences | 109,518.70 |
| 70 | Carl S. Ehrlich | Professor | History and Humanities | 178,943.18 |
| 71 | Kate Ellis | Sessional Lecturer | Schulich School of Business | N/A |
| 72 | Can Erutku | Associate Professor | Economics/Glendon | 164,727.44 |
| 73 | Berta Esteve-Volart | Associate Professor | Department of Economics | 164,705.76 |
| 74 | David Etkin | Associate Professor | Disaster & Emergency Management | 162,685.64 |
| 75 | George Fallis | University Professor | Economics and Social Science, LA&PS | 201,690.40 |
| 76 | Ilijas Farah | Professor | Mathematics and Statistics | 181,240.24 |
| 77 | Margarita Feliciano | Retired | Glendon College | N/A |
| 78 | Ida Ferrara | Associate Professor | Economics | 174,990.04 |
| 79 | Eileen Fischer | Full | Schulich | 297,089.60 |
| 80 | Alex Fisher | Schulich School of Business | N/A | |
| 81 | David Flora | Associate Professor | Psychology | 138,228.22 |
| 82 | Joshua Fogel | Canada Research Professor, Tier One | History | 257,128.00 |
| 83 | Rene Fournier | Professor | Chemistry | 161,725.08 |
| 84 | Mary Fox | Associate Professor | Nursing | 157,133.76 |
| 85 | Jessica Fraser-Thomas | Associate Professor | School of Kinesiology and Health Science | 125,451.12 |
| 86 | Ed Furman | Assoc Prof | Math and Stats | 142,959.52 |
| 87 | David Gelb | Associate Professor | Design | 116,845.65 |
| 88 | George Georgopoulos | Associate Professor | Economics | 180,092.36 |
| 89 | Markus Giesler | AssociateProfessor | Schulich School of Business | 258,478.68 |
| 90 | Joel Goldberg | Chair & Associate Professor | Psychology Department | 186,770.23 |
| 91 | Dasantila Golemi-Kotra | Associate Professor | Biology | 134,343.92 |
| 92 | John Goodings | Professor Emeritus | Chemistry | N/A |
| 93 | Cameron Graham | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 249,221.66 |
| 94 | Bryn Greer-Wootten | Professor Emeritus | Geography and Environmental Studies | N/A |
| 95 | Rebecca Gunter | Associate Professor | School of Kinesiology and Health Science | 113,453.78 |
| 96 | Tara Haas | Professor | Kinesiology and Health Science | 155,013.20 |
| 97 | Ernst Hamm | Associate Professor | Science & Technology Studies | 159,746.60 |
| 98 | Laurence Harris | Professor | Psychology | 196,225.50 |
| 99 | Jagdish Hattiangadi | Professor | Philosophy | 180,706.74 |
| 100 | Lyndsay Hayhurst | Assistant Professor | School of Kinesiology and Health Science | 110,553.36 |
| 101 | Terrence Heinrichs | Associate Professor | Political Science, Glendon | 127,769.32 |
| 102 | Irene Henriques | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 228,620.72 |
| 103 | Denise Henriques | Professor | Kinesiology and Health Science | 144,713.20 |
| 104 | Vincent Hildebrand | Associate Professor | Economics/Glendon | 171,358.24 |
| 105 | Wai-Ming Ho | Associate Professor | AP/Economics | 172,992.24 |
| 106 | Louis-Philippe Hodgson | Associate Professor | Philosophy, Glendon | 136,072.18 |
| 107 | Marko Horbatsch | Professor | Physics and Astronomy | 176,047.66 |
| 108 | Shelley Hornstein | Professor | Visual Art and Art History (VAAH) | 106,536.40 |
| 109 | Loriann Hynes | Assistant Professor | School of Kinesiology & Health Science | 109,801.54 |
| 110 | Rchard Irving | Associate professor | Schulich | 211,258.48 |
| 111 | Neita Israelite | Assoc Professor Emeritus | Education | N/A |
| 112 | Derek Jackson | Assistant Lecturer | Chemistry | N/A |
| 113 | Joann Jasiak | Professor | Economics | 227,251.32 |
| 114 | Janet Jeffrey | Associate Professor | Nursing | 163,288.04 |
| 115 | Matthew Johnson | Associate Professor | Physics and Astronomy | 111,450.70 |
| 116 | Christine Jonas-Simpson | Associate Professor | Faculty of Health, School of Nursing | 148,666.96 |
| 117 | Joanne Jones | Associate Professor | School of Administrative Studies | 186,637.24 |
| 118 | David Jopling | Professor | Department of Philosophy | 165,285.00 |
| 119 | Mark Kamstra | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 246,537.96 |
| 120 | Tsvetanka Karagyozova | Sessional Assistant Professor | Economics | N/A |
| 121 | Kerry Kawakami | Professor | Psychology | 175,947.92 |
| 122 | Tamara Kelly | Associate Lecturer | Biology | 124,617.20 |
| 123 | Stanislav KIRSCHBAUM | Professor | International Studies/Glendon | 179,071.92 |
| 124 | Thomas Klassen | Full Professor | Politics – LAPS | 158,967.84 |
| 125 | Aurelia Klimkiewicz | Associate Professor | School of Translation (Glendon) | 130,638.72 |
| 126 | Ying Kong | Associate Professor | Economics | 117,117.67 |
| 127 | Hila Cohen | Instructor | Schulich | N/A |
| 128 | Murat Kristal | Associate Professor | Schulich School of Business | 288,335.97 |
| 129 | Jennifer Kuk | Associate Professor | School of Kinesiology and Health Science | 140,415.68 |
| 130 | Alexey Kuznetsov | Associate Professor | Mathematics and Statistics | 130,140.54 |
| 131 | Nils-Petter Lagerlöf | Associate Professor | Economics | 169,856.12 |
| 132 | Linda Lakats | Instructor | Schulich | 163,606.50 |
| 133 | Patricia Lakin-Thomas | Associate Professor | Biology | 153,532.92 |
| 134 | Gino Lavoie | Professor | Chemistry | 154,872.88 |
| 135 | Fred Lazar | Associate Professor | Economics, Schulich School of Business | 198,089.54 |
| 136 | Bernard Lebrun | Associate professor | Economics | 183,314.80 |
| 137 | Jodi Letkiewicz | Assistant Professor | School of Administrative Studies | 129,328.24 |
| 138 | Alfred Lever | Professor Emeritus | Chemistry | N/A |
| 139 | Zhepeng Li | Assistant Professor | Schulich School of Business | 189,942.20 |
| 140 | Bernard Lightman | Professor | Humanities | 197,750.40 |
| 141 | Martin Lockshin | University Professor Emeritus | Humanities/DLLL | N/A |
| 142 | Heather Lotherington | Professor | Education | 159,947.74 |
| 143 | Suzanne MacDonald | University Professor | Department of Psychology | 148,341.66 |
| 144 | Joanne Magee | Associate Professor | Administrative Studies, Public Policy and Administration | 212,765.46 |
| 145 | Gajindra Maharaj | Faculty | Accounting/LA&PS | 102,499.96 |
| 146 | Ilo-Katryn Maimets | Science/Health Librarian | Steacie Science and Engineering Library | 120,674.91 |
| 147 | Sadia Malik | Sessional Assistant Professor | Economics | 114,931.36 |
| 148 | Claire Mallette | Associate Professor | School of Nursing, Faculty of Health | 184,597.88 |
| 149 | Alex Manafu | Assistant Lecturer | Philosophy | N/A |
| 150 | Andrew Maxwell | Associate Professor | Lassonde School of Engineering | 147,317.72 |
| 151 | Marshall McCall | Professor | Physics and Astronomy | 180,869.60 |
| 152 | James McKellar | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 259,716.20 |
| 153 | Scott Menary | Professor | Physics & Astronomy | 161,720.53 |
| 154 | Robin Metcalfe | Assistant Lecturer | Science and Technology Studies | N/A |
| 155 | Moshe Arye Milevsky | Professor of Finance | Schulich School of Business | 264,701.36 |
| 156 | Jennifer Mills | Associate Professor | Psychology | 140,283.28 |
| 157 | Gail Mitchell | Professor | Nursing | 185,452.88 |
| 158 | Seyed Moghadas | Associate Professor | Math and Stat/ Faculty of Science | 127,524.09 |
| 159 | Lewis Molot | Professor | FES | 157,323.82 |
| 160 | Louise Morrison | Associate Lecturer | French Studies, LAPS | 116,175.36 |
| 161 | Merv Mosher | Senior Lecturer | Kinesiology & Health Science | 173,824.72 |
| 162 | Amy Muise | Assistant Professor | Psychology | N/A |
| 163 | Gerard Naddaf | Professor | Philosophy | 176,171.44 |
| 164 | Lilian Ng | Full Professor | Schulich School of Business | 369,550.84 |
| 165 | Laura Nicholson | Assistant Professor | School of Nursing | 126,066.88 |
| 166 | Arturo Orellana | Associate Professor | Chemistry | 126,813.04 |
| 167 | Jonathan Ostroff | Professor | Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science/LSE | 212,349.64 |
| 168 | Ron Owston | Professor | Education | 170,371.16 |
| 169 | Spiros Pagiatakis | Professor | Lassonde School of Engineering – ESSE | 186,243.08 |
| 170 | Ronald Pearlman | Univresity Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar | Biology | N/A |
| 171 | Daniel Perlin | Associate Librarian | Law Library | 132,339.84 |
| 172 | Adrienne Perry | Professor | Psychology | 175,188.92 |
| 173 | Christopher Perry | Associate Professor | School of Kinesiology and health Science | 116,586.50 |
| 174 | Beryl Pilkington | Associate Professor | Nursing | 171,300.30 |
| 175 | Celia Popovic | Director | Education | 147,140.96 |
| 176 | Pierre Potvin | Professor | Chemistry | 175,491.63 |
| 177 | Jill Rich | Associate Professor | Psychology (Health) | 155,856.60 |
| 178 | Nicolette Richardson | Assistant lecturer | Kinesiology and Health Science | N/A |
| 179 | Paul Rilstone | Professor | Economics | 194,326.96 |
| 180 | Josee Rivest | Associate Professor | Psychology, Glendon | 156,631.64 |
| 181 | Shayna Rosenbaum | Professor | Psychology | 157,610.86 |
| 182 | Michael Rotondi | Associate Professor | School of Kinesiology and Health Science | 134,003.12 |
| 183 | Ben Sand | Associate Professor | Economics | 141,861.72 |
| 184 | Nancy Sangiuliano | Associate Director | Health | 166,764.59 |
| 185 | Ron Sheese | Associate Professor | Psychology and Writing | 188,835.84 |
| 186 | Willow Sheremata | Associate Professor | Schulich School of Business | 252,235.40 |
| 187 | Ahouva Shulman | Associate Professor | DLLL | 164,177.20 |
| 188 | Pauline Shum Nolan | Professor | Schulich School of Business | 252,824.80 |
| 189 | Mina Singh | Professor | Nursing | 161,174.54 |
| 190 | John Smithin | Professor | Economics | 101,024.14 |
| 191 | Adriano Solis | Associate Professor | School of Administrative Studies | 194,184.80 |
| 192 | Ted Spence | Professor Emeritus | FES | N/A |
| 193 | Rose Steele | Professor | Nursing | 183,444.16 |
| 194 | Georgios Stefanidis | Assistant Professor | Economics/ LAPS | N/A |
| 195 | Juris Steprans | Professor | Mathematics and Statistics | 171,668.48 |
| 196 | Andrey Stoyanov | Associate Professor | Economics/York | 148,621.88 |
| 197 | Noel Sturgeon | Professor | Faculty of Environmental Studies | 224,368.52 |
| 198 | Bridget Stutchbury | Professor | Biology | 165,433.26 |
| 199 | Paul Szeptycki | Professor | Mathematics and Statistics | 176,203.08 |
| 200 | Wendy Taylor | Professor | Physics and Astronomy | 134,192.34 |
| 201 | Peter Taylor | Professor | Earth and Space Science and Engineering | 127,861.80 |
| 202 | Walter Tholen | Professor | Mathematics and Statistics | 197,294.12 |
| 203 | Mark Thomas | Itinerant Professor | SSB OMIS | 139,448.80 |
| 204 | Linda Thorne | Professor | Schulich | 247,635.68 |
| 205 | Christine Till | Associate Professor | Psychology | 133,037.46 |
| 206 | Maggie Toplak | Associate Professor | Psychology | 125,355.44 |
| 207 | George Tourlakis | Professor | EECS | 228,278.72 |
| 208 | Fuminori Toyasaki | Associate Professor | School of Administrative Studies | 148,915.48 |
| 209 | Cheryl van Daalen Smith | Associate Professor | Nursing/Gender,sexuality & Women’s Studies/Children’s Studies/Interdisciplinary Studies | 158,712.14 |
| 210 | Brandon Vickerd | Chair, | Department of Art and Art History | 146,692.26 |
| 211 | George Vukovich | Professor | Lassonde School of Engineering | 145,195.38 |
| 212 | James Walker | Professor | Languages, Literatures and Linguistics | N/A |
| 213 | Jing Wang | Associate Professor | SHRM | 132,120.72 |
| 214 | Nelson Waweru | Associate Prof | School of Administrative Studies | 164,359.00 |
| 215 | Rodney Webb | Professor Emeritus | Biology | N/A |
| 216 | Jonathan Weiss | Associate Professor | Psychology | 130,743.36 |
| 217 | Laurie Wilcox | Professor | Psychology | 154,993.38 |
| 218 | Frances Wilkinson | Professor emerita | Psychology | N/A |
| 219 | Paul Wilkinson | University Professor Emeritus and Professor Emeritus | Faculty of Environmental Studies | N/A |
| 220 | Carol Wilson | Senior Lecturer Emeritus | Kinesiology and Health Science | N/A |
| 221 | Hugh Wilson | Professor Emeritus | Centre for Vision Research | N/A |
| 222 | Melody Wiseheart | Professor | Psychology | 142,127.24 |
| 223 | Diane Woody | Associate Professor | French Studies, LA&PS | 157,441.60 |
| 224 | Xueqing Xu | Associate Professor | DLLL | 141,030.52 |
| 225 | Mike Zabrocki | Professor | Mathematics & Statistics | 148,770.92 |
| 226 | Farrokh Zandi | Associate Director Undergrads | Schulich | 153,975.44 |
| 227 | Cynthia Zimmerman | Professor Emerita | English dept., Glendon College | N/A |
| 228 | Georg Zoidl | Professor | Science & Health | 208,479.72 |
By Sasan Issari
As the strike at York University continues, there is the growing possibility that this may end up being the longest University strike in Canadian history. There is a growing wave of Torontonians who are questioning why any instructor at York University would support such a strike, knowing that so many of their students are negatively impacted by it. What is lost in this narrative is that there is a growing number of academics who are stuck in low paid, contract-based, and insecure forms of employment. The reality is that precarious employment is on the rise in Canada and worldwide. The rise in insecure forms of employment impacts the mental health and well-being of everyone in academia, including students.
There is extensive research documenting that there is an association between precarious employment and mental health challenges on campus. The United Way and McMaster University conducted research and found that precarious workers are twice as likely to develop mental health and well-being challenges, compared to employees in secure positions. So how does this impact the strike, and the students at York University? Well, many of the students at York are taught by instructors who are in precarious and insecure working conditions. Many of these instructors do not know if they will have the same course load the following term/year, and this can impact their overall well-being. When teachers are not feeling secure in their employment conditions, this impacts the overall quality of teaching and learning in the classroom. Furthermore, when teachers feel insecure in their employment conditions, this impacts the level of confidence instructors, students, and the general public have of education in Canada.
So where do we go from here? Well, we first need to be honest with ourselves about the rise of precarious employment in academia, and work on realistic and practical solutions to create a more equitable and inclusive environment. This needs to go beyond lip service, but real steps to foster a learning environment that values students, staff, and instructors. The cliché saying that ‘we are all in this together’ is true when we discuss the well-being and mental health of academics and students. So, this is the time to address the inconvenient truth, and work past our discomfort to build alliances across all interest groups on campus. This is not about ‘CUPE 3903’ vs ‘York University’, but about the mental health and well-being of our present and future students, staff, and faculty.
By Matthew Dunleavy
Okay, fair enough, the title of this post is a little disingenuous. First of all, President Rhonda Lenton and the York Board of Governors are anything but “friendly” to CUPE 3903 (based on the vast amount of non-confidence votes at the university, I am not sure they have many friends left). Secondly, and more importantly, we are definitely not at an impasse.
Starting with the decimation of Unit 3 in 2015, continuing in bargaining sessions where York’s lawyer, Simon Mortimer of Hicks Morley, would show up late or walk out early if things did not go his way, and reiterated in every PR statement or open letter by Mortimer, Lenton, or Provost Lisa Philipps, York has had one goal: present the bargaining teams as being at an impasse and move to arbitration, voluntarily or forced. As Dr Agnes Whitfield has rightly pointed out, this tactic is simply a “disguised lockout.”
This tactic was successful for the College Employer Council (CEC) last year. After the CEC refused to negotiate in good faith, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) went on strike and was sadly forced back to work and into interest arbitration. Two of the key connections between their struggle and CUPE 3903’s current fight with York University are Hicks Morley and William Kaplan. Hicks Morley represented the CEC and Kaplan was the arbitrator: a law firm and an arbitrator that are helping employers by-pass bargaining and force unions into undesirable contracts. Following the arbitration process, JP Hornick, chair of the OPSEU college faculty bargaining team reflected that, “with any reasonable amount of cooperation from the colleges, there would never have been a strike, students would not have had to worry about losing their semester, and faculty would never have lost five weeks’ pay.” This sounds eerily similar to our current position with York, while they release empty statements to the public about having the best interests of students in mind, even just a “reasonable amount of cooperation” in bargaining could have avoided this strike. However, they would rather continue being stubborn and attempt to place blame on our union.
After members rejected the employer’s initial offer (and, thus, beginning the strike) and then overwhelming voted “no” to their forced ratification vote, York waited for back-to-work legislation to send the union involuntarily into arbitration. As Law Professor David Doorey has reflected, these votes were, “no lose propositions for York: if accepted, great. If hugely voted down, evidence of impasse justifying back to work leg[islation].” York and Hicks Morley knew these offers would be rejected (they had barely budged in six months of bargaining) but it would provide proof of their insistance that we have reached an “impasse.”
Here’s the thing, the CUPE 3903 bargaining team has removed and amended proposals consistently during the bargaining process. It is entirely unfair and fraudulent for York to continue with its narrative of the two teams continuing to be “far apart.” It is also unprofessional for major new outlets (Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, etc.) to continue to regurgitate this information, passing it off as a fact, without actually investigating the positions. York cannot keep claiming that we are at an impasse when they have not returned to the bargaining table and refuse any movement on their proposals: bargaining involves both parties making a concentrated effort to reach an agreement. CUPE 3903 is doing that, York is not.
The little movement on York’s side recently (offering a $5,000 claw-back protection, for example) shows that the employer does have the capability to move. They just need to fire their legal counsel, abandon bargaining in the media, and engage in actual face-to-face bargaining.
I would also recommend anyone who signed up for Hick Morley’s “Bargaining with CUPE” workshop to ask for your money back, because they clearly have no idea what they are doing.
Remaining Bargaining Issues
On Monday, May 14th, the CUPE 3903 bargaining team sent another letter to Lenton and the Board of Governors asking them to return to the bargaining table. In it, the bargaining team clearly outlined how we are not at an impasse even with the most contentious issue between the two parties. Their appendix explaining our relative positions is copied below:
In light of the #MeToo movement, the university has finally recognized the need for a fund that members can access. CUPE 3903 proposed a Sexual Assault Survivor Fund which would allow our members to access resources independent of the Sexual Violence Response Office (SVRO). Our members have identified the SVRO as both limiting and problematic, particularly because it removes a member’s agency when reporting. Throughout and following the SVRO creation process we have brought members concerns regarding the office to York’s attention. These concerns have not been addressed, leaving survivors within our community with few other resources. Therefore we must maintain a level of autonomy over how the funds are distributed to our members. As the university has agreed to an amount of $50,000 it is now clear that the dispute is not over the amount but rather, how the funds should be allocated. This suggests that the two parties are indeed, not far apart. The union is confident that a fair compromise, which protects survivors in our community, can be reached at the bargaining table.
Unit 1 Clawback Protection
A major issue identified by Unit 1 members was the lack of clarity on how merit-based scholarships and/or awards are clawed back. The union is pleased to see that there was movement by the administration on May 7th, albeit a minor one. This indicates what we have said all along – that there is no impasse between the two parties. Unfortunately, an amount merely protecting $5000 is inadequate, as it continues to mean that one-third of awards such as the Ontario Graduate scholarship (OGS) are clawed back from members. This has been an area of dispute that members have repeatedly identified during the length of the collective agreement and was brought to the bargaining table in October of 2017.
Unit 2 Job Security
On two of our key Unit 2 job security proposals, Conversions and Long-Service Teaching Appointments (LSTAs), we are asking for the status quo in terms of numbers of appointments per year. We are seeking 8 Conversions per year (or 10% of Tenure-Track hires per year). That is the same number as in the past Collective Agreement. The vast majority of Tenure-Track hires would not be Conversions. We are seeking 7 LSTAs per year, the same as in the past Collective Agreement. The Employer has agreed to continuing the LSTA program at this level. Some details about the program remain to be discussed. Similarly, we are seeking the return of the Special Renewable Contracts program. The Employer has presented a counter on SRCs, and therefore they do not seem to have any objection in principle to the program. The two sides differ only on some of the specific terms of the program and the gap in appointments per year is only 3. York was offering 5 per year, CUPE 3903 recently proposed 8. We are also asking for some protections to ensure posted qualifications are reasonable for positions and we are seeking improvements to the Continuing Sessional Standing Program (CSSP). Overall, we don’t think these are controversial proposals or proposals that conflict with the stated values of York University.
Unit 3 Graduate Assistant Commitment
A key issue that triggered the current labour dispute was the unilateral devastation of over 700 Graduate Assistantships (GAships). As the university themselves admit, these jobs have not been “lost” per se, but rather, transformed into fellowships. The union wants the university to re-commit to offering job opportunities for graduate students, as was the practice up until 2016. This is not a novel demand that is out of scope, but merely an ask for a process that already existed. When introducing the fellowship model York arbitrarily introduced institutional barriers to the hiring of GAs. The union wants all institutional barriers removed that inhibit principle investigators from hiring GAs – the barriers that, up until 2016, did not exist. Unfortunately, the administration did not address this issue until the end of February – shortly before the first “final offer” vote. Their response, at the very last minute, has been to propose a small Graduate Assistant Training (GAT) fund that PI’s can access to “incentivize” the hiring of GAs. CUPE 3903 continues to believe that a small fund without protection from institutional barriers will be inadequate and fail to incentivize the hiring of GAs. The union remains committed, however, in its flexibility to find a creative solution.”
May 16, 2018
The Honourable Kathleen Wynne, Premier of Ontario
Dear Premier Wynne,
I am aware that you are in an election campaign but I don’t believe this should prevent you from acting, on the contrary.
Ontario’s second largest university, York University, is in a profound crisis, as I have already written to you and the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development.
A self-appointed, unrepresentative and imbalanced Board of Governors, overwhelmingly rejected by York students, staff and faculty, is abusing its power in an attempt to bust a legitimate union. Their tactics are the equivalent of a disguised lock-out, and they are willing to destroy the university in the process.
When can we expect to see you and the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development at York University to confront this illegitimate and abusive Board?
A disguised lock-out
Other governments are able to assume their responsibilities and intervene. Faced with a similar abuse of power by senior administration at the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR), the Quebec Liberal government held a cabinet meeting and the Minister of Higher Education, Hélène David, immediately presented the President of UQTR with an ultimatum to end the lock-out and get back to the negotiating table.
This is a very good example of what could be done. It is not too late for you to act. We have been waiting already 10 weeks for your government to act meaningfully.
We cannot wait weeks and weeks again until after the elections are over.
Associations representing 56,000 York students have lost confidence in the Board and the President
The situation at York University is much more serious than the one at UQTR. The York University Graduate Student Association (YUGSA) representing all of York’s almost 6,000 graduate students and the York Federation of Students (YFS) representing approximately 50,000 students at York have passed votes of non-confidence in the Board of Governors and President Lenton.
Four faculty councils (Glendon, Education, Environmental Studies and Liberal Arts & Professional Studies) and numerous departments and departmental student associations have adopted votes of non-confidence in the Board of Governors and the senior administration.
This wave of rejection is unprecedented. The message is loud and clear: the only way to move forward is to replace the Board and the President.
Your government, by its misguided attempt to legislation back-to-work-inaction and now by its inaction, has directly supported this illegitimate Board and administration and allowed the situation to deteriorate to the detriment of some 56,000 students and York University’s functioning as an educational institution.
Your government is responsible for ensuring that public funds are used respectfully
Your government funds York University on a per-student basis, from hard-earned taxpayers’ dollars. The Ministry of Advanced Education and Skills Development oversees Ontario universities to ensure that, in return for this funding, they deliver quality courses to their students.
The Board of Governors and administration are demeaning York courses and degrees by offering full course credit for only 60-70% of coursework. They are shamelessly intimidating instructors to comply. As professors, we cannot in good conscience be complicit with this kind of educational fraud. It goes against all our principles as teachers, and all the educational values of a university.
York University has been given full funding; it cannot be allowed to deliver 60-70% of its course content. The Ministry cannot allow York University to undermine with impunity the academic quality of its courses.
Your government must hold the York University Board and administration accountable for their misuse of public funds.
We need a new Board and administration
This Board and administration have lost contact with the educational purpose of a university. They are not elected and see themselves as accountable to no one.
Rather than resign in the face of these massive votes of non-confidence, they are brazenly seeking to intimidate students and instructors and impose senseless measures that make a mockery of academic integrity. They are allowing the situation to rot, with no end in sight.
Why have you, as Premier, following Québec Minister David’s example, not convoked a meeting with York University’s Board and President, and gone yourself as Premier to York University with your Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development, to present them with an ultimatum. At UQTR, professors and students formed a guard of honour to welcome Minister David.
I implore you as Premier to help us put York University back together again as a functioning and harmonious educational institution.
This Board and administration have deliberately created confrontation and in their arrogance they are willing to wreak havoc with students’ lives and destroy the whole university. They must be stopped.
I implore you as Premier to help us remove this illegitimate, unrepresentative, disconnected, imbalanced, sexist and heartless Board and senior administration, so that we can put in place a new Board and a new administration, and build together a university that truly reflects our shared values of social justice.
When can we expect you at York University? It’s not too late for you to take action and regain the esteem of the university community and the public.
Sincerely,
Agnes Whitfield, Ph.D., c. tran.
Professor/Professeure titulaire,
Department of English/Département d’études anglaises
York University/Université York, Toronto (Canada)
http://people.laps.yorku.ca/people.nsf/researcherprofile…
Founding Director/Directrice fondatrice, Vita Traductiva
http://vitatraductiva.blog.yorku.ca/
Visiting Professor/Professeure invitee, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, 2017
Bilingual Joint Chair in Women’s Studies, Carleton University, University of Ottawa/Chaire conjointe bilingue en études des femmes, Université Carleton, Université d’Ottawa, 2009-2010
Virtual Scholar, Heritage Canada/Chercheure virtuelle, Patrimoine canadien, 2006-2007
Seagram Visiting Chair in Canadian Studies, McGill University/Chaire d’invité Seagram en études canadiennes, Université McGill, 2003-2004
Présidente, Association canadienne de traductologie /President, Canadian Association for Translation Studies, 1995-1999
This has been adapted with permission from a Twitter thread by Billy Markham. The original can be found here.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s leave aside the absolutely ridiculous gap in logic that informs Kaplan’s report (“York didn’t bargain because the sides are too far apart/the union is too democratic and, look, the strike happened so they were totally right”). This self-fulfilling prophecy is only proof of the employer’s intransigence, and his naivety here is staggeringly ridiculous/partisan in ignoring that failure to bargain (in good faith or at all) results in strikes. If the strike is really at an impasse over conversions (debatable – more on this below), how is this a conflict over values/principles given that the dispute is about the number of conversions and not conversions themselves?
Of course, I’m following the employer in being disingenuous: York is now claiming that conversions are a problem, but this is also a 30 year old program that they lauded as “historic” and “successful” after the last contract. This shows not a conflict over values, but a fundamental shift in values by the employer. So, this isn’t about one side needing to change its values to solve the impasse, but about one side having already changed their values to create an impasse, something the report ignores entirely – because apparently only the “culture” of the union matters, not the culture of the employer (a culture now under fire by governance bodies representing the majority of campus).
Perhaps we need to do a discourse analysis of the emails of York’s presidents over the last 15 years to see what their approach has been? Or maybe the proof is in the pudding and we can just look at the concessionary offer being made (and since Lenton apparently can’t count, a math lesson: 2 is less than 8; 4 years is less than 6 years). Perhaps we need to look at the culture of the law firm representing York – the one that was also behind the prolonged labour dispute with college instructors in the fall, which was solved by back to work legislation? The same law firm that is hosting an event for higher education administrators that includes a section on “negotiating with CUPE”? To save those administrators money, here’s what they will tell you: stonewall and wait for back to work legislation (reputation and education be damned)!
But back to the new critique of conversion, which is predicated on an abject misrepresentation of the program. As with every assault on “affirmative action,” conversion is now being portrayed as a program that rewards those without qualification and undermines meritocracy – meritocracy being the great myth of academia. Shall I pierce the veneer and name names? Like the York tenure-track hires who had friends, or relations, on hiring committees? Or the chairs who tailored job ads to specific candidates? Or the number of hires that were made because someone was friend’s with someone’s supervisor? None of that is meritocracy. Nor can you claim to be a top notch institution while claiming that those that do 60% of your teaching are unqualified.
Many CUPE members who get converted already have the qualifications for tenure when converted, and the rest are on track to achieve them, which is exactly what “tenure-track” means. And not having these qualifications is the main reason people are turned down for conversions – there are qualifications for attaining it, in-line with industry hiring procedures. Moreover, the conversion system – particularly with teaching stream positions – is a way to properly remunerate people who are already doing more work than full time faculty members (if you teach at the CUPE cap, you’d be teaching just shy of 3 times what a YUFA member teaches, and be paid significantly less).
But let’s come back to this idea that issues over conversion are the sole reason for the impasse, which is categorically false. The other issues that Kaplan’s report and the employer ignore and/or misrepresent are Unit 1 and Unit 3 issues. The employer’s line is that “there are no Unit 1 and 3 issues,” which must be shocking to those Unit 1s and 3s on strike. The employer unilaterally cut 800 jobs AFTER the last round of negotiations. The report mentions nothing about this despite the fact that the union has demanded that these jobs be reinstated; the employer claims this is not up for negotiation (because union busting only happens between bargaining rounds, not during?).
Then there’s the attempt to entirely remodel the Unit 1 funding package, though the employer claims there are no Unit 1 issues. The union sees this as a major issue, which is again informed by a change in the culture of the employer: after the last contract was signed, they started to change the structure of funding. Notice that every time the employer does something, it is after a contract has been signed and it is outside the parameters of the contract? Weird, no? Perhaps it’s because they have no interest in collectively bargaining, or engaging with workers, and simply want to unilaterally impose work conditions on CUPE members.
More to the point, the employer offered an identical contract to the 2015 contract on the major/substantive issues around Unit 1 funding, Unit 2 job security and Unit 3 jobs, and didn’t renege on these issues after the contract was signed…and legitimately bargained in good faith around the “other” issues that – allegedly – aren’t a conflict of values (the sexual assault survivors fund, etc)…maybe a strike wouldn’t have happened in the first place. But, again, this is a concessionary offer, which has been pretty standard in bargaining rounds where there have been strikes. And we have an “industry leading” contract because we have continually fought against such concessions. Perhaps Kaplan could have looked at the constant attempts to roll back the benefits of the most precarious employees on campus (y’know: why CUPE 3903 goes on strike), before simply looking at the number of strikes and saying in his best Scooby Doo villain’s voice, “I’ll get those dastardly kids and their democratic practices!” Apparently “dissent matters,” but critical thinking does not.
CUPE 3903 Online Strike HQ 