Trustees’ Report

For the York University Faculty Association

Paul Baxter (Social Science)

William Denton (Libraries)

March 2025

Introduction

Every year two YUFA members act as Trustees to fulfill Article 3.5.b of our Constitution:

Two Trustees shall be elected from the floor of the Annual General Meeting for the purpose of assisting the members of the Association in performing their duties under this clause. Trustees elected at the Meeting shall prepare an Annual Report for the following year’s Meeting that reviews the Association’s activities and operations during their year in office and recommend improvements in the methods of operation.

We reviewed the agendas and minutes of the Executive Committee, the Stewards’ Council and the membership meetings, as well as financial statements, the web site, reports of previous Trustees, and other relevant records. We also drew on our own experiences and union involvement (Denton is a steward) through the year. Our report is grounded in the clause above with a view to the objective in Article 1.2:

The purpose of the Association shall be to promote the welfare of the University as an institution of higher learning and the social-economic and general welfare of its academic staff, including the regulation of employment relations between the Administration and its academic staff. Further, the Association shall promote the defence and extension of the civil rights and liberties of academic staff and the preservation and advancement of free democratic trade unionism.

The Association continues to fulfill its purpose.

Summary

2024 was an eventful year for York University and the Faculty Association. For much of it YUFA worked in the shadow of the Auditor General’s report on value for money at York, which identified a number of weaknesses in the university’s operation. While the report listed a relatively small number of programs that were under-enrolled, YUFA found itself once again in a pitched battle with the Employer over the “restructuring” of Glendon, and it also faces similar

“restructuring” via Faculties of the Future. While the details of the Auditor General’s report are well known, it is important to remind members that YUFA negotiated our 2024–27 contract in context in which the Employer used its own financial mismanagement as an excuse to demand concessions. Fortunately, our bargaining team (under the leadership of Richard Wellen) was able to hold off the Employer and get us a decent wage increase. Nevertheless, our new agreement comes at a high cost. To date seven colleagues with Special Renewable Contracts have not had their contracts renewed according to the terms of appointment set out in Appendix K, s. 4 of the YUFA Collective Agreement,  and YUFA was forced to leave a number of high-value issues on the table, including governance, workload, and equity. We do not see any potential for improved labour relations at the university in 2025.

Major issues of discussion in the last two rounds of bargaining included administrative over- reach, refusal to rely on internal mechanisms for dispute resolution, executive bloat, and joint governance. While these remain central to our future bargaining, the legitimate threat of strike action in both rounds of bargaining was sufficient threat to force the Employer to make a contract on which we could settle. This process seemed to satisfy our colleagues who view YUFA as a “business” union, and there may be some merit to that position (that the union should do no more than negotiate and enforce our contracts and secure the best possible wages for its members—as compared to a York’s tradition as a “social” union, involved in wider, progressive social change beyond the campus boundaries).

YUFA has been successful in maintaining one of the best collective bargaining contracts in the sector to date. Given the current circumstances, however, even the most “business-like” of our colleagues must now see that the innumerate absurdity of the Employer's economic and academic plans threatens to leave York in ruins. Anyone who thinks the union should attend only to basic matters of employment should now see that even those basics are now under threat.

We predict a major problem in 2027: we will very likely need to strike. YUFA should start preparing for that this year. Last year, the Employer came out fast and tough. We had some good luck and with a lot of hard work we did not end up on strike. Next time we can’t rely on good luck, only hard work. We need to do more than mobilize. We need to organize.

Activities through the year

The Constitution requires for each academic year “a minimum of two General Meetings of the membership of the Association, one of which shall be the Annual Meeting” (3.1.a), at least eight Stewards’ Council meetings (4.2), and at least twelve Executive Committee meetings (5.3). There were eleven Stewards’ Council meetings and twenty-three Executive Committee meetings in 2024, plus one Annual General Meeting (AGM), the fall General Membership Meeting, and five Special General Membership Meetings. There were more meetings than usual because of bargaining. Those events and others are listed in Table 1.

Table 1: Meetings and events in 2024

The relatively low attendance at YUFA meetings is disturbing: even the busiest and most important general meetings had only perhaps 30% of the membership attend. While our constitution stipulates that votes must be taken in person at meetings, the lack of participation by members leaves us vulnerable to the accusation that YUFA lacks a true mandate for its actions. We applaud the current leadership's attempts to increase the participation of members, but we encourage them to continue to try to find ways to increase the participation from sectors of the collegium who tend to not attend.

Recommendations

1. YUFA continue to work towards meeting with all of the departments in faculties that tend to be under-represented at or to under-attend YUFA meetings.
2. YUFA may consider doing a survey of members to discern why colleagues do not attend meetings and what should be done to encourage their participation.

YUFA and CUPE 1281

YUFA is a union and YUFA is also an employer. We have eight staff: seven with the title

Executive Associate and Staff Representative, and one who is the Coordinator, Accounting and Administration (this last is Paula Perez-Smith, who is retiring after many years, and will be missed). The staff are members of a local of CUPE 1281.

It is beyond the capabilities of the Trustees to adequately describe how much the staff do for us, how much they are trusted, the incredible workloads they bear, the support that they give to our members, their expertise, their wisdom, their work on complaints and grievances, and their help to members with problems that could be so serious that employment is in jeopardy. Anyone who has worked with them or received their help can attest to the value of every staff member.

We are concerned to see that 1281 has brought grievances against YUFA. We cannot determine what they were about, but this is some of what is recorded in Executive minutes and agenda packages:

• 11 June minutes: “The Personnel Committees (President, VP Internal and VP External) of the outgoing and incoming Executives met with CUPE 1281 members on May 24 regarding a grievance launched by CUPE 1281. The parties were able to resolve this grievance at the step one stage by agreeing to arrange additional training by the end of July for the Executive on the issues of harassment and discrimination, gender identity, and maintaining a safe and healthy workplace.”
• 09 October minutes: “BIRT Members of the Executive approve the Memorandum of Settlement of a CUPE 1281 grievance, dated October 10, 2024.”
• 27 November minutes: Mention of a “Ministry of Labour inspection.” 11 December package: There is a letter from the president to an OSHA inspector “addressing the points we discussed during your field visit on November 12, 2024, as set out in your Field Visit Report.” A report says, “We have discussed YUFA’s Workplace Harassment, Workplace Violence and Sexual Violence Policy and Program with the CUPE 1281 staff members. I expect that it will be approved at the YUFA Executive meeting on December 11. A copy will then be posted on the YUFA website. We agree to review this document at least annually.”

We cannot determine why harassment training was needed, but it is concerning that it was. Members of YUFA Executive act as the Employer to CUPE 1281, but all YUFA members have a responsibility in helping ensure our staff have a safe and secure workplace.

Recommendations

1. YUFA Executive take action to improve relations with, and working conditions of, CUPE 1281 members.

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee met twenty-eight times through 2024 and its minutes show that it was consistently busy with important issues. July and August were intensely focused on bargaining. Other issues through the year included: Bill 124 and other salary issues including anomalies and pay equity, the CUPE strike, Glendon restructuring, Faculties of the Future, Markham, the proposed medical school, equity issues, York’s finances, international hiring, conduct and behaviour at membership meetings, and the SRC firings and resultant actions. Every meeting had a report from JCOAA/LRP co-chair Philippe Theophanidis full of ongoing problems, and the year is filled with updates on grievances, motions to move grievances to arbitration, and other work by Chief Stewards.

Executive Committee meetings are open to all members, and we encourage curious members to attend one to learn more about how our union works.

Relations with the Employer

Nothing about labour relations at York got better in 2024 for anyone in any union. The Employer claims a financial crisis when it suits its needs, but when dealing with unions the Employer has essentially infinite resources to delay anything for as long as it wants at almost any cost (though, for YUSA and YUFA, not yet up to the cost of a strike). As noted last year, this is the Employer’s strategy, and it is working. It seems impossible for YUFA to ever get ahead when being overwhelmed this way—except, perhaps, with a strike.

Recommendations

1. Executive is encouraged to add a section to the website that provides YUFA members with up-to-date information about ongoing complaints (such as complaints about decanal interference in departmental matters) and grievances (policy and individual) that have been launched against the Employer. The latter should include the specific articles of the agreement under which the grievance is launched, background around the circumstances that lead to the grievance, and any documents that may be made publicly available. It is our view that maintaining such a website will keep members informed of the extent of the work YUFA is doing on their behalf and provide members with important insights into the behavior of the Employer.

Work plans

Bylaw 10.b requires that “prior to 1 September in each year, the Executive Committee shall develop a work plan for the year, including the work plan for each Officer, and shall present them to Stewards’ Council for ratification” and then to the membership. The Executive Committee work plan (essentially only two paragraphs) was presented at the November AGM, but not posted on the web site as it said it would be.

Further, Bylaw 10.c says, “The Executive Committee shall, at the initiative of the President and Chief Stewards, recommend annually to Stewards’ Council a general organising plan, which shall include a summary of budgetary implications.” This was not done.

Recommendations

1. Executive work plans and progress reports should be posted to the web site.
2. Executive and Stewards' Council should be compliant with Bylaws 10.b and 10.c.

Internal matters

Susan Ingram resigned as a Chief Steward, but from Exec meeting packages we cannot determine when or why. Her meeting attendance stops after 01August. On 11 September former Chief Steward and current JCOAA/LRP co-chair Philippe Theophanidis was given “all the powers and obligations of a Chief Steward.” (In January he had been authorized to continue to act as a Chief Steward on nine specific cases.) The 23 October Exec minutes note the “urgent need” to replace her: “Recruitment efforts have been hampered by the unavailability (due to workload, sabbatical, unfamiliarity with YUFA processes, or lack of interest) of suitable candidates.” Gertrude Mianda was appointed in November to fill the position until the term ends in May 2025, so for several months there will in effect be three Chief Stewards. This is not a surplus—they will all be busy. We cannot determine if course releases granted to Ingram were clawed back.

Stewards’ Council

Stewards’ Council has positions for forty-eight stewards and five Caucus members. Its meetings are open to all members, and notification of meetings is sent out on the YUFA-M mailing list. Council meetings are also attended by Executive members and some staff. Generally 25–35 Stewards and Caucus members and almost all Executive members attend each meeting, plus a few interested colleagues from the general membership.

A review of the minutes through 2024 shows many recurring important issues: bargaining (with two special meetings in the summer, and in October a debrief facilitated by two people from CAUT); York’s finances and the Auditor-General's report; Faculties of the Future; the CUPE 3903 strike; the war in Gaza; Glendon restructuring; the Markham campus; equal pay, anomalies, and other salary issues, including Bill 124 until it was finally settled; and workload.

Recommendations

1. Each year Stewards’ Council should have a workshop where members review the Constitution and Bylaws (especially noting Bylaw 21, the YUFA Code for Equity and Inclusion) and the basic procedures of Bourinot's Rules of Order.

Bargaining for a collective agreement

The 2021–24 collective agreement expired at the end of April. As usual planning for bargaining began months earlier, and Exec and Stewards’ Council minutes show work that began in 2023 continuing in January and onwards to gather bargaining proposals and concerns from various people and groups. The bargaining team formed with Richard Wellen as our chief negotiator. The parties began to meet in March. The Employer moved with surprising force and speed, giving notice to bargain while CUPE 3903 was on strike. In mid-July, at its request, the Ministry of Labour granted a no-board report. This was unprecedented: we were now faced with a lockout.

Thanks in part to David Doorey’s excellent Without a Successful Strike Vote, York Faculty Are Sitting Ducks, the strike vote later that month had an almost 84% turnout with 92.3% of members voting yes. Negotiations in August went slowly, then quickly. An agreement was reached on 19 August and then ratified (1212 in favour, 122 against; about 80% turnout) on 26 August after a five-day online vote.

This bargaining round was the most difficult since the 1997 strike. The Employer came to the table wanting many concessions and the bargaining team did very well to win the settlement we got. With some good luck and a lot of hard work by many people, we did not need to strike and we were not locked out. The next round will not be any easier.

(See 2024 Bargaining on YUFA’s site for communications, updates, backgrounders, correspondence, and so on. Our summary here does not adequately illustrate the enormous amount of work done during bargaining.)

Recommendations

1. YUFA must begin to prepare now for 2027 bargaining and, in all likelihood, a strike.

Finances

Finances have been an increasingly serious concern for years, but the problem has not been properly addressed. YUFA has now run a deficit for six years in a row and is not meeting its own targets for the three reserve funds.

Budget deficits

YUFA’s recent budget positions are shown in Table 2 (where a negative surplus, in parentheses, is in fact a deficit).¹ At the May 2024 AGM the Treasurer reported, “YUFA was running annual

1 The expenses given here are what are used as the operating budget to be averaged to calculate the necessary reserve fund amounts. In the Treasurer’s annual summaries, the total income (almost entirely member dues) has

operating deficits for several years up to and including 2021–22. The underlying cause of these deficits was increased staffing and legal costs due to an increased number and complexity of grievances. In 2021 a 0.1% fees increase was approved by the membership. Since then, our revenues have covered our expenses.” It turned out this was not correct. The audited financial statements for F2024 state in Note 2 (p. 7, emphasis added):

The Association has determined that the amount of salary and benefits expenses and accrued long-term employees costs during 2023 were both understated by $396,478, because the accrued benefits for some employees were not included in the financial statements. Consequently, the fund balances as at May 1, 2023, were overstated by $396,478. The Association has also determined that the amount of cash was understated by $18,008, accounts payable by $65, and fund balances by $17,943, as at April 30, 2023, due to an unrecorded void cheque.

The revised statement means that instead of having a very positive year YUFA had a slight budget deficit in F2023. But it was nothing compared to the deficit in F2024, which is the greatest of the six negative years in a row. This cannot continue.

Table 2: YUFA budgets (fiscal years, $000)

The three funds

We have three funds: Operating, Arbitration and Defence.

The Operating Fund is not defined in union bylaws. We take it to be an operating reserve—a rainy day fund—where YUFA sets aside money to help pay for its regular operations when there are sudden extra expenses or an unexpected shortfall in income. The Treasurer’s reports on the funds are clear that the Operating Fund is different from regular operating expenses, but, confusingly, in the auditor's reports they seem to be treated as the same. Below we make a recommendation about this.

Arbitration costs are part of the operating budget, but the Arbitration Fund is a reserve to help pay extra costs when needed. The fund is defined in Bylaw 7: “The Association shall maintain an Arbitration fund … equal to the estimated cost to YUFA of thirty days of arbitration and similar matters.” It is the smallest of the funds, but still important: its purpose “is to guarantee to the members of YUFA that financial resources are available to provide arbitration and similar support under any circumstance, even the most adverse.”

The Defence Fund (other unions might call this their strike fund) is our largest fund. It is defined in Bylaw 6: “YUFA shall maintain a Defense the (sic) Fund that will provide strike defence for YUFA members in the event of a strike or other dispute.”

Fund rules

Rules about these three funds are set out in Bylaw 5. The amount they hold “shall be calculated as a percentage of the Association's average operating budget over the previous three years.”

fees payable (mostly to CAUT and OCUFA) subtracted and the resulting gross income is what is compared to expenses to determine surplus or deficit.

Operating should hold 37.5% of that average, Arbitration should hold 7.5% and Defence should be at 155% (in other words, the Defence Fund should hold one-and-a-half times our entire annual budget, ready and waiting should we strike). Table 3 sets out how much should have been in the funds, and how much actually was, at the end of F2024 when the budget average was about $2.9 million.

Table 3: Funds at end of F2024 ($000)

The rules say that if one or more funds is below target, the Treasurer will present a plan at the AGM so at least 10% of the operating budget will go to replenishing them. If the funds are close to full and don't need 10% to fill them up, transfer less. If there is not enough money to fill them all up at once, replenish the Operating Fund first, then Arbitration, then Defence. The Bylaws do not cover the situation we have been in, where the funds are in shortfall but no money is contributed.

Fund balances

Fund balances from F2017 on are shown in Table 4. The required amounts vary year to year, but we can generalize. Arbitration has been close to its target and is not a great concern. For the past few years Operating should have been at roughly $1 million, but it has never been close. Now it is in deficit! Defence should have been at least $4 million the last few years. Its jump in F2018 stands out, but this was an unexpected bonus: there had been a large settlement over long-term disability premiums, and 35% was given to the fund. Since then Defence has grown by about 10%, presumably from returns on investment. No money was transferred into it.

Table 4: Fund balances (fiscal years, $000)

Fund problems

YUFA is in violation of its own bylaws. It has been for years, and this calls union governance into question. Further, our strike position is weakened because our strike fund is depleted. YUFA needs to speak to its members with confidence that its position is secure and that their personal finances would be safe should there be a strike—yet for years YUFA has been running its strike fund only about two-thirds full. Because YUFA cannot speak confidently to its members it cannot speak unreservedly to the Employer.

Trustees’ Reports in 2024, 2023, 2021, and 2017 said the Defence Fund needs to be made whole. We say it again in 2025.

Recommendations

1. YUFA should prepare a plan to address the ongoing deficits.
2. YUFA should prepare and implement a plan to bring the Operating, Arbitration and Defence Funds to their required targets.
3. YUFA should consider making the Defence Fund the priority. YUFA should work with the auditors so that its annual report clarifies how the Operating Fund is different from operating expenses.
4. YUFA should revise the Bylaws to add a new section defining the Operating Fund and, regarding the Defence Fund, standardize on that spelling of “defence” and correct the wording in 6.1 (“YUFA shall maintain a Defense the Fund”).

Trustees’ reports

Trustees have long complained that earlier recommendations were ignored, but happily last year was different. The Trustee put forward a motion at the AGM that the president address the report at the fall AGM, and this was done! Executive work plans were also presented. What’s more, the minutes of the 23 October 2024 Executive meeting report, “The President reiterated the importance of implementing the report's recommendations.”

Many recommendations remain unfulfilled or unconsidered, however, especially the most important: that YUFA fill the Operating, Arbitration and Defence Funds.

Recommendation

1. Executive should report annually to the membership on whether and how Trustees’ recommendations have been, or will be, addressed. The recommendations should be considered in the context of, and could be referenced in, the annual work plan submission and progress updates.