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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.
The three units of CUPE Local 3903 are voting at this moment on York University’s most recent contract proposal.
See yesterday’s post for an overview of the strike, now in its 75th day.
Voting will continue until 7 pm tonight, and from 9 am to 7 pm tomorrow, with lunch breaks each day from 1 pm to 3 pm. (Union members can check here for information on where and how to vote.)
In other York strike news, the Canadian Federation of Students, Canada’s national student organization, has come out in support of the CUPE strikers.
“If our colleges and universities do not breed men who riot, who rebel, who attack life with all the youthful vim and vigor, then there is something wrong with our colleges. The more riots that come on college campuses, the better world for tomorrow.”
–William Allen White, April 8, 1932.
The York University strike is coming to a head.
For two and a half months, Canada’s third-largest university has been closed by a strike of CUPE local 3903, representing teaching assistants, graduate assistants, and adjunct faculty. The university has invoked a provision of Ontario labor law to force a one-time vote by the union membership on York’s latest proposal, and that vote will take place this Monday and Tuesday.
If all three units of the local approve the proposal in majority votes, the strike will end immediately and classes may resume as soon as the end of this week. If one or more units reject it, the strike will continue.
The two sides are wrangling over pay increases and job security, but some observers believe that the length of the new contract may be the crucial sticking point. Labor agreements at half a dozen other major Canadian universities expire in 2010, and the two-year deal CUPE is pushing for would allow them to join a multi-campus strike that year, should one develop. (The university is insisting on a three-year contract.)
There has been speculation that the provincial government may attempt to end the strike with back-to-work legislation, but the legislature is in recess until mid-February. The longer the strike goes, the more likely it is that an entire semester will have to be canceled, costing the university millions in lost tuition payments and throwing students’ progress toward degrees into disarray.
Voting begins tomorrow morning, and continues through early evening on Tuesday. Results will likely be announced that night. Check back here for more updates as the story continues to unfold.
January 20 Update: CUPE’s membership rejected the York offer by a decisive margin.
We mentioned yesterday that MTV will be broadcasting from Barack Obama’s Youth Inaugural Ball next Tuesday, in a program that will feature musical performances and live coverage of Obama’s remarks to the ball’s attendees.
This morning the Washington Post is reporting that MTV paid $650,000 for that privilege.
According to the Post, the Obama inaugural committee sold exclusive broadcast rights to four inaugural events to four different networks — three of them on cable.
The most expensive event was Sunday’s Lincoln Memorial concert, which HBO paid $2.5 million to carry. HBO says it is “encouraging” cable and satellite providers to make the event available free of charge to non-subscribers, but many households will be unable to view it even so. Some providers carry the network on digital cable channels only, further restricting access.
In the creepiest bit of merchandising, the committee sold the rights to a prime-time Monday children’s concert to Disney. Michelle Obama and Jill Biden will host the concert, at which various Disney Channel stars will perform.
Ew.
January 21 Update: Obama’s remarks at the youth inaugural can be seen here.
studentactivism.net 
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