January, 2009 | York U Contract Faculty

Jan 26 2009

A One-Sided “Deadlock”

Category: Point of Information,Strike Discussion (2008-09) — jonnyj @ 4:35 pm

January 7^th to January 24^th Negotiations Timeline

Wednesday, January 7

The employer gives CUPE 3903 a pass that they call a “comprehensive offer” and asks the CUPE 3903 bargaining team to bring it to the membership for a vote. This “comprehensive offer” fails to respond to the reductions in demands CUPE 3903 made that day, indicating it was likely prepared ahead of time as opposed to as a part of the negotiation process.

Thursday, January 8

At a General Membership Meeting, 85% of the members present vote to deem the Employer’s offer inadequate and send the bargaining team back to the bargaining table.

Friday, January 9

When the employer shows up at the bargaining table, they announce they will be asking the Ministry of Labour to run a forced ratification vote on the January 7^th offer. No Movement from Employer

Friday. January 9- Tuesday, January 20

No bargaining because of call for forced ratification. Employer Unwilling to Bargain

Monday, January 19 and Tuesday, January 20

CUPE 3903 membership rejects (once again) the employer’s Jan 7. offer by a 63% vote.

Tuesday, January 20
The employer announces to the media that they will not be negotiating any further.

No Movement from Employer

Wednesday, January 21

Morning Dalton McGuinty announces he is appointing his lead mediator—Reg Pearson—to bring both parties back to the bargaining table.

1:00pm CUPE 3903 bargaining team returns to the bargaining table. Employer’s bargaining team does not show up. CUPE 3903 Ready to Bargain

Thursday, January 22

CUPE 3903 bargaining team gives the employer a memorandum of settlement offer that cuts demands from a 10.8% increase to a 9.4% increase over 2 years. Movement from CUPE 3903

Friday, January 23

1:30am The mediator (after having kept CUPE 3903 waiting at the table for a response) announces that the employer will not have a response until the morning.

10am The employer’s bargaining team sends back its next pass which is identical to the offer from January 7 except that it has a new cover page and changes one word. No Movement from Employer

3pm CUPE 3903 bargaining team communicates to the mediator its willingness to further narrow demands to a few key priority areas, representing a cut of more than fifty proposals and a decrease from a 9.4% increase to an 8.3% increase over 2 years. Movement from CUPE 3903

5pm: The mediator returns with the Employer’s response: they are unwilling to move on any issues. No Movement from Employer

Saturday, January 24

Midnight: The mediator tells CUPE 3903 bargaining team that he will be calling McGuinty at 7am and that he expects to hear from them by 2am whether they will agree to binding arbitration rather than face back to work legislation.

2:30am: CUPE 3903’s executive and bargaining team vote to reject binding arbitration. CUPE 3903’s bargaining team requests, via the mediator, to continue negotiations with the Employer on Saturday. CUPE 3903 Ready to Bargain

3:30am: Mediator informs CUPE 3903 bargaining team that the Employer is only willing to continue negotiations if CUPE 3903 will agree to the Jan. 7 offer made by the Employer. Employer Unwilling to Bargain

Noon: Dalton McGuinty announces that he is calling the legislature back for a 1:00pm Sunday meeting to legislate CUPE 3903 back to work because of deadlocked negotiations. He ignores the fact that the “deadlock” is one-sided and that the employer is being significantly rewarded for refusing to bargain for seventeen days.

Tags: back to work legislation, strike

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Jan 26 2009

Statement from CUPE 3903 Executive Committee on the Outcome of Negotiations so far

Category: Point of Information,Strike Discussion (2008-09) — jonnyj @ 4:01 pm

To the members of CUPE 3903:

Early Saturday morning, January 24, 2009 the Bargaining Team and the Executive of CUPE 3903 held an emergency meeting. We voted, by a substantial majority, to reject binding arbitration and to offer to continue to bargain.

York University made it clear that they had no intention of bargaining. The mediator indicated that York held their position on the basis of both economic feasibility and principle. Although we significantly lowered our demands, York made no movement and offered the same pass that members rejected by 63% in forced ratification.

At midnight, the mediator made it clear that if 3903 did not accept binding arbitration, then they would be contacting Premier Dalton McGuinty, and the outcome would be back-to-work legislation. We feel that it was inappropriate for the mediator to set us this impossible choice between binding arbitration and back-to-work legislation, with a 7:00am deadline. Although we have no way of knowing how the employer was treated, from our point of view, the responsibility fell on our union to decide between two unpalatable choices.

The Bargaining Team and the Executive feel that our demands are fair. The mediator asked us to reduce our demands to a few key priorities. We dropped our demands on wage increases in response to feedback from the membership at the January 21 General Membership Meeting. We withdrew over 40 outstanding proposals. We continue to emphasize that minimum guarantees, job security, and child care funds are essential to our members. Because York offered a three-year deal with a two-year funding structure, with poor back-to-work protocol, we were unable to accept their offer. At the same time, York has made it clear that regardless of how often we lower our demands, they dismiss the value of our members, and refuse to give our members the respect they deserve. We are convinced that by rejecting binding arbitration, we are keeping members’ best interests in mind. We lose very little by refusing binding arbitration. We have rejected binding arbitration since bargaining began, and it would be inappropriate to accept it now. We considered carefully the larger political implications of our decision. We want to continue to bargain on our own terms. We refuse to undermine the dignity of our members by accepting an offer that our members already rejected.

Tags: back to work legislation, forced ratification

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Jan 25 2009

Click to Send a Letter to your MPP to Support CUPE 3903!

Category: Point of Information — jonnyj @ 12:32 pm

All you do is click, type, click, and the e-mail automatically goes to your MPP, Premier Dalton McGuinty, Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities John Milloy and Minister of Labour Peter Fonseca. Here’s the link: http://www.demandastance.com/cupe/

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Call for On-Line Action: Please comment on the following media stories on line. Register an account with each paper and then comment on the stories, also make sure to click on agree/disagree buttons.

Premier’s decision has little downside

York students in limbo

NDP delays Legislation to end York University Strike

NDP stalls back-to-work bill for York University strikers

NDP stall York University back-to-work legislation

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Newspaper Editorial of the Day: Why I voted to continue strike by Eric McMillan in VaughanToday.ca

Tags: back to work legislation

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Jan 24 2009

General Membership Meeting – January 27

Category: Events — jonnyj @ 7:37 pm

There will be a GMM held on Tuesday, January 27 from 2:30-5:30pm at the Bloor Cinema (between Bathurst and Spadina). All CUPE 3903 members are encouraged to attend.

Early this morning, the bargaining team and the CUPE 3903 executive held an emergency meeting. The executive voted, by a substantial majority, to reject binding arbitration and to offer to continue to bargain. Here is the complete CUPE Executive Statement

Tags: strike meetings

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Jan 24 2009