9:15 pm: The CUPE Local 3903 website is reporting that all three units of the union rejected York University’s contract offer by wide margins.
Here are the results:
Unit 1: 61.7% No.
Unit 2: 59.3% No.
Unit 3: 70% No.
9:25 pm: York University has released a hard-line statement on the union vote, in which university president Mamdouh Shoukri suggests that the rejected proposal was York’s final offer: “We have no intention of negotiating for the sake of appearance,” he said. “This is our offer for settlement. Now it is up to the Union and its members to reconsider their demands and step back from the brink.”
More as the story develops.
9:58 pm: The CUPE 3903 executive has released its own statement on the ratification vote. They say 1466 union members voted “no” — 63% of those voting, and something close to a majority of the full membership of the local.
Key quote: “We are confident the solidarity that has been shown over the past few months will remain through to the end and beyond the strike.”
10:39 pm: The folks at yorkstrike2008 noticed something in the York statement that I missed: They’re talking explicitly for the first time about the possibility of cancelling a semester.
In his statement, President Shoukri said he would be “working with the deans and Senate Executive to prepare plans to further extend the academic calendar to ensure that students complete their fall and winter terms. This will mean reducing or, if need be, cancelling the summer term.”
10:47 pm: Student group YorkNotHostage is renewing its call for binding arbitration in light of the strike vote, and saying that unless unless the two sides agree to a binding arbitration proposal, it will “ask Premier Dalton McGuinty to recall the Legislature and pass back to work legislation as quickly as possible.”
11:04 pm: An online article from MacLeans magazine says the Ontario provincial government is rejecting calls for back-to-work legislation — a government spokesperson says the education minister’s “position from the beginning has been that the bargaining table is the place to resolve this matter.”
11:41 am, January 21: New updates to this story will be posted here.

3 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 20, 2009 at 10:54 pm
York University Strike Vote Results Expected Tonight « studentactivism.net
[…] decisively rejected the university’s offer. Strike will continue. Ongoing updates here. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)York University Strike Update: Ratification Vote […]
January 21, 2009 at 11:28 am
York Strike Update: January 21 « studentactivism.net
[…] Protests, Current Events, Faculty, Finances, Labor, Litigation, Politics, Students As we noted yesterday, the CUPE membership has rejected York University’s contract offer, and York has announced […]
January 22, 2009 at 1:29 pm
York University Strike Update « studentactivism.net
[…] 20 Update: CUPE’s membership rejected the York offer by a decisive margin. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)York University goes on strike, classes […]