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Another update on the York University strike:
- The strike, in its 79th day, is now the third-longest in the history of Canadian higher education, according to the sidebar to this article.
- Students disrupted a meeting of the York faculty senate executive, demanding to know why the partial resumption of classes announced yesterday hadn’t been undertaken earlier or on a larger scale.
- The new labor negotiator deployed by the Ontario government spent yesterday meeting with the two sides separately. Face-to-face negotiations are slated to resume today.
- YorkNotHostage, a student group, will be holding rallies in support of back-to-work legislation next Monday and Wednesday.
January 24 Update: It looks like the strike may be over. The provincial legislature will be called into session on Sunday afternoon to consider back-to-work legislation, and the Ontario premier is hoping to have students and faculty back in the classroom at York by the end of this week.
As we noted yesterday, the CUPE membership has rejected York University’s contract offer, and York has announced that they will not be returning to the bargaining table.
This morning comes word that Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty is sending his top labor mediator to Toronto to “bang some heads” and find an agreement.
McGuinty is reportedly opposed to bringing forward back-to-work legislation in the Ontario legislature, fearing that CUPE would challenge any such law in court, further extending the strike.
2:36 pm Update: Today’s Excalibur article has material from York president Mamdouh Shoukri’s press conference last night that I haven’t seen elsewhere. They quote him as saying that the university’s rejected offer will be “the basis for any future settlement, and that York “will not resume bargaining until we see a significant move” from CUPE. He also said that the university “have not asked for government intervention, nor has it been offered.”
4:34 pm Update: Click here for some background on the strike.
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.
studentactivism.net 
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