An image of a pen marking an "X" on a ballot paper

YUFA conducted a by-election from Tuesday, September 11, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. to Tuesday, September 25, 2018 at 2:00 p.m. for the Recording Secretary. The vote was an election because two candidates were nominated for the same position. Voting was by electronic ballot.

Elections and by-elections are governed by YUFA’s by-laws (see: 1. Election Procedures).

The results of the election are as follows:

Recording Secretary

Arthur Hilliker: 318 (58.3%) ELECTED
Marcia Macaulay: 218 (40.0%)
Reject all: 9 (1.7%)
Abstain 1*: 29 (5.0%)
Total voters: 576
Abstain 2**: 2 (0.3%)

Total eligible voters: 1,539
Total voters: 576
Turnout: 37.4%

* Abstain 1 represents the number of voters who opened their ballots and selected "Abstain" as their voting option.

** Abstain 2 represents the number of voters who opened their ballots and selected no voting option.

YUFA is seeking a member to sit on the Retirement Planning Centre Board. The terms of reference for the Board are here. If you are interested, kindly submit a written statement to YUFA outlining any experience or qualifications.

Written statements should be sent to YUFA at [email protected] with the subject line RPC Board.

The deadline for receipt of written statements is Monday, October 15, 2018 at 12:00 p.m.

A photo of a room of people in a meeting, seated in chairs and facing a speaker in front of them

As part of its ongoing engagement with the membership about bargaining, the Executive Committee is planning visits to as many units as possible in the coming weeks. Each visit will be an opportunity for Executive members to provide updates about the state of bargaining, to discuss in more detail YUFA’s key bargaining proposals, and to get feedback from members.

There are two ways that members could help arrange a YUFA visit to their units:

1. Add “YUFA bargaining update” to the agenda of a unit meeting that has already been organized. Try to allot at least 20 or 30 minutes for the item, so there is plenty of time for discussion.
2. Organize a separate meeting that only addresses YUFA bargaining. A separate meeting can be longer in length (an hour is usually enough), which allows more time for discussion.

When you have confirmed the date, time, and location of your meeting, please contact YUFA to request a speaker from the Executive Committee. Email [email protected] (subject line: Unit visit).

There are currently seven bargaining sessions scheduled with the Employer in October. Feedback from members in their units will help us support the Bargaining Team and strengthen the bargaining process.

We remain committed to a negotiated settlement, and look forward to your continued support.

For more information about bargaining, including updates and backgrounders, please click here.

The YUFA Executive Committee is pleased to report that, during Monday’s well attended General Membership Meeting (GMM), a solid majority voted to back the Executive’s decision to consider holding a strike mandate vote, should one become necessary.

The motion reads as follows:

In order to provide a firmer basis for progress in the current protracted round of negotiations, the YUFA membership calls upon the YUFA Executive to conduct a vote authorizing possible job action as per Article 9.3 of the YUFA Constitution if a satisfactory settlement cannot be reached.

After a presentation by Miriam Smith, the Chief Negotiator of the Bargaining Team, and a full discussion of the motion, the members voted as follows:

Yes: 162 (63.53%) CARRIED
No: 93 (36.47%)
Abstain: 5 (1.92%)
Total: 260

Monday’s vote gives the Bargaining Team the additional leverage it needs to kick-start the bargaining process, and to show the Employer that YUFA members really care about our proposals.

“We were grateful to hear so much support from the membership, regardless of how they voted on the motion,” says Smith. “We were impressed by the turnout and by how much members are engaged in the process.”

The Bargaining Team will meet the Employer next week and, based on the meeting’s outcome, will assess with the Executive whether a strike vote is necessary. If the Executive decides to hold a vote, members will receive at least one week’s notice and will be able to vote electronically over a five-day period.

“We’re hopeful that this show of support will encourage the Employer to reach a negotiated settlement as soon as possible,” says Art Redding, President of YUFA. “If we make enough progress at upcoming bargaining meetings, it might not be necessary to proceed to a strike mandate vote.”

The Executive Committee would like to thank everyone who was able to attend the GMM, and especially the members who contributed to the discussion, on all sides of the question.

“Even where there is debate over strategy and tactics, our members remain united in their desire to achieve a negotiated settlement as quickly as possible,” adds Redding. “What’s also clear from Monday’s meeting is our unity in supporting our students, and in striving to make York a better place for everyone.”

To read the FAQ on the motion for a strike mandate vote, please click here.

To read YUFA’s latest bargaining updates, please click here.

For more information, please email [email protected].

YUFA President Art Redding reports on two important developments in bargaining: YUFA has applied for a conciliator and the Executive Committee will bring to the GMM on September 17 a motion on a possible strike mandate vote.

"We believe that these two steps—conciliation and positioning ourselves for a strike mandate vote—have the potential to kick-start the bargaining process, and to focus the attention of the Employer," says Redding. "We remain committed to reaching a negotiated settlement, but we need to give our Bargaining Team the leverage they need to get a fair deal."

Read the FAQ on the motion for a strike mandate vote here. Read the latest bargaining update here.

"The contract we negotiate in the next few weeks will determine your work conditions," says Redding. "And the strength of that contract depends on your support."

The full details of the GMM are here.

To view more videos, please visit the YUFA YouTube channel.

YUFA's Race Equity Caucus (REC) has been instrumental in raising concerns around race equity within the context of YUFA's governance, workload, and bargaining, and the broader socio-political and institutional spheres that condition our lives at York University. On November 2, REC is honoured to present a public lecture by Dr. Zoila Airall, the Associate Vice President, Campus Life, Duke University.

Paradoxes:
The Art of the Mission, Strategy and Commitment to Advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

A public lecture by Dr. Zoila Airall, Associate Vice President, Campus Life, Duke University

With Commentary by:

Nicole Penak, Lecturer, School of Social Work and YUFA Indigenous Caucus Rep

Andil Gosine , Associate Professor, from Environmental Studies.

Friday, November 2
2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Founders Assembly Hall
152 Founders College  |  Map

Join and share on Facebook.

Read Dr. Airall's biography here.

This lecture is open to all members of the York Community.

Please consider printing a copy of the event poster (click here) and displaying it in your unit.

For more information, please email [email protected].

In this round of bargaining, the York University administration (hereafter “the Employer”) is seeking radical changes in our compensation, working conditions, and academic freedom. At the same time, outside of bargaining, the Employer is actively seeking to roll back our members’ rights.

Governance

The Employer is interfering systematically in the process of collegial decision-making in academic hiring for professorial and teaching focus (alternate-stream) positions. York has authorized additional tenure-track hiring across campus. This is positive. It seems that our administration has finally noticed that there are not enough YUFA members to teach our students. However, the administration has failed to provide colleagues with the time to write the job ads and plan the process for these positions. Units have been given less than a week and as little as 48 hours, in some cases, to write the ads for these jobs. Deans are interfering in the writing of these ads and dictating departmental hiring priorities over the will of colleagues who are the experts in their subject area.

This is an unacceptable interference in the academic freedom and collegial rights of YUFA members. By implementing impossible timelines, the administration can pay lip service to open hiring, while undermining the academic collegial processes that constitute the norm at most institutions of higher learning. YUFA’s bargaining proposals on governance arose in response to an emergent pattern of situations like this. They seek to halt the undermining of expert collegial decision-making with respect to the constitution, pedagogy, and direction of departments and faculties. The Employer has said no to YUFA’s governance proposals across the board.

Some colleagues have commented that YUFA cannot expect the Employer to move on these proposals and that YUFA is derailing bargaining by insisting that the administration implement reasonable governance reform. However, in YUFA’s bargaining survey, governance was virtually tied with compensation as the top issue for members. Even while bargaining is underway, YUFA continues to get requests from members who seek YUFA’s support in defending collegial rights against interfering administrators.

Workload and pay

In the last round of bargaining, YUFA members accepted a below-par salary increase in return for an application-based program of research release. While almost every other university in Ontario, including Brock and Windsor, has a two-course load across the board for the professorial stream, the administration wasted YUFA’s time for a decade in bargaining, only to provide a conditional, competitive, and reduced version of what was already standard practice at other Ontario universities.

In 2015, YUFA voluntarily agreed to a restructuring of the York University Pension Plan proposed by the Employer. YUFA is the only employee group at York that has a veto over Plan changes, and this restructuring would not have been possible without YUFA’s agreement. YUFA assented to this change in good faith to ensure the future stability of the Plan. As it turned out, the change did more than assure the future stability of the Plan. It netted an ongoing annual windfall of $8.8 million for York, while YUFA members saw their net pay drop permanently as a result of the increase in their contribution rates. Meanwhile, the York Plan fails to provide full inflation protection, which means that the value of retirees’ pensions erodes over time. YUFA’s current pension proposal seeks to ensure that, after contributing substantially to the Plan on every pay, members will receive a secure pension income.

Working conditions

The Employer is systematically eroding our working conditions. The Employer has told YUFA that members will owe teaching if their courses are cancelled for strike-related reasons. New YUFA members who are starting this Fall have been told that they will owe teaching if their courses are cancelled, despite the terms specified in their letters of appointment. In some units in LA&PS, YUFA members are in ongoing teaching debt to the Employer because of course cancellations brought about by the administration’s own decisions.

In reaction to this, YUFA added a bargaining proposal that would prohibit the Employer from forcing YUFA members to “owe” teaching in the event of course cancellations. That proposal was entirely generated by the Employer’s aggressive approach.

Several Deans, starting with the former Principal of Glendon College, Donald Ipperciel, have told YUFA members that the (every three year) Computer Renewal Program is a dead letter. Ipperciel told YUFA members at Glendon that they did not need a new computer more than once every five years. He claimed to know better than our members what their specialized needs were. Again, the administration threatens to pull back a support that is essential to our doing our jobs. Because of the Employer’s attempt to remove a right that we already have, YUFA moved this item into bargaining and is seeking to entrench the Computer Renewal Program in the contract. These are just a few examples of the way in which the Employer’s recent actions have caused YUFA to add to its bargaining proposals.

We are seeking to retain what we already have, while the Employer systematically seeks to roll back our rights.

Arbitration: Is it the solution?

Some colleagues have suggested binding interest arbitration in place of collective bargaining. Members should know that arbitration is risky and that our results would vary from issue to issue. Arbitrators do not order changes such as the restructuring of pensions. They do not order the Employer to hire tenure-track members (our complement proposal) or endorse innovative Equity policies. YUFA might do well in binding arbitration on an issue such as PTR, on which the Employer is far out of touch with other Ontario universities. But YUFA might not do well on other issues that are important to members.

Arbitrators are trusted professionals. They are also affected by their perception of mobilized member support for union proposals. If YUFA members do not express support for their union’s own proposals, an arbitrator might not take them seriously, either. Furthermore, an arbitrator might not understand the culture of York that continues to draw impressive faculty and students to our institution or grasp the details of micro-situations such as Appendix P release for small programs such as those in Math and Admin Studies. The Bargaining Team can go to bat for those niche proposals that address concrete problems in particular faculties and units, while an arbitrator will not have that detailed knowledge.

If YUFA agrees to refer an issue to binding arbitration, YUFA will not be able to raise that issue in the future, unless conditions change. The Employer will be delighted that they will not have to deal with YUFA’s proposals again any time soon. We do not believe that this approach is in the best interests of our members.

YUFA members should be aware that binding arbitration is very expensive. Every small issue will be litigated by the hour by expensive lawyers, paid for by YUFA member dues on the one side, and by York students and Ontario taxpayers on the other. If forced into arbitration to resolve outstanding issues, YUFA would face a very expensive bill, and possibly on an ongoing basis as each issue slowly makes its way through the arbitration process. Who would benefit if YUFA were weakened by hefty legal bills? Binding arbitration is not a magic bullet that will solve all our problems. Your Bargaining Team must take these issues into account as we strategize about how best to advance our proposals in bargaining.

Your Bargaining Team

As of September 11, the Bargaining Team has met 18 times with the Employer and has spent many hours debating and responding to the Employer’s position. YUFA dropped 20% of its proposals in the middle of the summer, as indicated in a recent bargaining update (see "YUFA 2"). This information is available in full to all YUFA members and to the public. Furthermore, YUFA has offered responsive counters to the Employer on many issues. To give just one example, the Employer states that members do not use their PER and that PER increases are therefore not justified. In response, YUFA withdrew its proposal for PER increases in the second and third years of the contract, and has requested that the money be funnelled into the Minor Research Grant fund, which has not been increased in over ten years.

In response to the Employer’s questions about the pension proposal, YUFA substantially revised our proposal and converted it to a “going forward” proposition, which will reduce the cost while ensuring protection for younger members who will benefit most from the revised proposal. In these and other ways, YUFA has listened to the Employer’s perspective and responded fairly to it, while safeguarding members’ interests. Your Bargaining Team continually engages in reconsideration of our proposal package. It is false to suggest that YUFA is unwilling to change its positions or to consider the Employer’s viewpoint or concerns.

The General Membership Meeting

At the end of the day, you must decide if you want to work in a university that rolls back your rights year by year or in a university that values collegial rights and compensates you fairly for your professionalism and commitment. Should York be able to attract the best new colleagues across the faculties with salary increments and pension security comparable to other universities? Or, do you want us to sink year by year as our compensation, benefits, internal research funds, conference funding, and sabbatical support erode in the face of the escalating cost of living? Do you want administrators telling you how to manage academic matters or do you want to retain professional and administrative autonomy and dignity?

The Bargaining Team hopes that you will come out to the General Membership Meeting on September 17 to discuss the current state of bargaining and to vote on the motion calling for a potential strike mandate vote.

The details of the meeting are as follows:

General Membership Meeting on bargaining
Monday, September 17
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Founders Assembly Hall
152 Founders College

The GMM will be followed by lunch and a social.

For more information about the General Membership Meeting, please click here.

For more information about bargaining, please click here.

To see the FAQ on the motion for a strike mandate vote, please click here.

YUFA is holding an information session on Tenure & Promotion:

Tenure & Promotion workshop
Wednesday, October 17
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m.
519 Kaneff Tower

This session is designed especially for YUFA members (either professorial or alternate stream) in Pre-Candidacy or Candidacy One. The workshop will provide general information on the York tenure & promotion process and timelines, answer questions, and provide clarity concerning how YUFA can support members through this process.

Lunch will be provided.

If you are interested in attending, please RSVP by 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 3 to [email protected].

Please also indicate any dietary restrictions you may have.

(Any librarians and archivists with questions about the continuing appointments process should feel free to contact YUFA to set up an individual appointment.)

Dear members,

This is to notify you that the Executive Committee has given notice of a motion to be discussed at the upcoming General Membership Meeting (GMM) on September 17. Details of the motion, including our reasons for bringing it and what we hope it will achieve, are listed in the following FAQ.

As a reminder, the details of the GMM are as follows:

General Membership Meeting on bargaining
Monday, September 17
10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Founders Assembly Hall
152 Founders College

If you have any questions, please email [email protected].

Respectfully yours,
The Executive Committee

--

1) The YUFA Executive Committee has given notice of a motion to be discussed at the upcoming General Membership Meeting (GMM) on September 17. What does the motion say?

This is the exact wording of the proposed motion:

In order to provide a firmer basis for progress in the current protracted round of negotiations, the YUFA membership calls upon the YUFA Executive to conduct a vote authorizing possible job action as per Article 9.3 of the YUFA Constitution if a satisfactory settlement cannot be reached.

2) Why has the Executive Committee proposed this motion?

After 18 bargaining sessions (almost 60 hours of talks), the Employer remains unwilling to consider the vast majority of YUFA’s proposals, and has so far only offered a minimal across-the-board salary increase—two percentage points below the rate of inflation in Toronto—while also rejecting any increases to Progress-Through-the-Ranks (PTR).

In the judgment of the Executive Committee and the Stewards’ Council, the Employer will not be inclined to make further moves at the table until the YUFA membership reiterates its support for its negotiators.

Read the latest bargaining update here.

Conducting a strike mandate vote is a powerful way for the members to show their support for the Bargaining Team and YUFA’s bargaining proposals. If the Employer is under the impression that YUFA’s proposals don’t really matter to the members, it has no reason to take the proposals seriously.

3) Isn’t the YUFA Executive Committee already empowered to conduct a strike mandate vote, without getting approval at a GMM?

Yes. According to Article 9.3 of the YUFA Constitution, the Executive Committee may conduct an electronic ballot of the members in order to authorize the imposition of any strike action or other sanction against the Employer.

The Executive Committee may conduct this vote at any time during the bargaining process, and does not require approval from a GMM.

4) So why is the Executive Committee bringing this motion to the GMM?

The Executive Committee is bringing this motion to the GMM because it feels confident that the members will support it and give the Bargaining Team the leverage they need at the table to get a fair deal.

The decision to conduct a strike mandate vote sends a much more powerful message if it is endorsed at a GMM than simply passed by the Executive Committee. Getting the members' support at the upcoming GMM is vital to strengthening the hand of our Bargaining Team as they negotiate for the proposals that members have approved in previous meetings.

5) If this motion passes at the GMM, will there be a strike mandate vote?

Not necessarily. The motion is simply a show of support for the decision to conduct a strike mandate vote. Whether a vote actually happens depends on the pace of bargaining. If the Employer picks up the pace and becomes responsive to YUFA’s proposals, there may be no need to hold a strike mandate vote. That is our hope.

However, YUFA must prepare for the possibility that the Employer will continue to reject YUFA’s proposals. Moving ahead with a strike mandate vote would be yet another way to put pressure on the Employer to bargain seriously.

The best way to minimize the need for a strike mandate vote is for members to attend the GMM in large numbers, and to endorse the motion by a wide margin. We want to send a signal to the Employer that members support YUFA’s proposals.

6) If it becomes necessary to hold a strike mandate vote, what happens next?

The Executive Committee will only proceed to a strike mandate vote if the bargaining process continues to stall. We are confident that our recent decision to apply for a conciliator will help the parties reach a negotiated settlement.

However, if the conciliator is unable to help the parties reach a negotiated settlement (which remains to be seen), the Executive Committee will proceed to conduct an electronic ballot of the membership to authorize job action. Notification of the vote, including the exact question on the ballot and the choices members may make, will be given seven days in advance. The vote will likely take place over five days. Accommodations for voting would be available, as per the relevant by-law.

7) If a majority of members vote yes in a strike mandate vote, does that mean that YUFA is on strike?

No. A positive strike mandate merely authorizes the Executive Committee to call a strike. Other steps are required before YUFA would be in a legal strike position (see here). But getting a positive strike mandate would give YUFA a lot of leverage to pressure the Employer to reach a negotiated settlement, hopefully avoiding a strike.

In the event that YUFA proceeds to a strike mandate vote, and a majority of members end up voting yes, the Executive Committee is committed to holding a Special General Membership Meeting to consult the members on whether a strike is actually necessary.

In other words, even if members vote yes in a strike mandate vote, they will have one more opportunity to decide whether YUFA should go on strike. The Executive Committee will follow whatever decision regarding possible strike action that members make at this meeting.

8) Why doesn’t YUFA just send everything to arbitration, and avoid a strike mandate vote entirely?

Conducting a strike mandate vote is a normal part of the bargaining process. It is one of the most effective tools, in addition to the strike tactic itself, that YUFA has at its disposal to pressure the Employer to take our proposals seriously.

Sending everything to arbitration gives the Employer an incentive to disengage in the process, and to bypass bargaining altogether. Collective bargaining is a Charter right, and YUFA is committed to getting a fair deal through the bargaining process.

Conducting a strike mandate vote is also a common practice of other faculty associations across Canada. In the last year alone, five other faculty associations in Ontario have successfully conducted strike mandate votes: Carleton, Guelph, Laurentian, St. Michael's, and Sudbury.

Even when members vote for a positive strike mandate, “[t]he vast majority (over 95%) of negotiations for a new or for a renewal collective agreement are resolved without a strike by employees or a lock-out by the employer,” according to the Ontario Ministry of Labour website.

9) Does the Executive Committee want a strike?

No. The Executive Committee believes the best way to get a fair deal is through a negotiated settlement. We are committed to strengthening the bargaining process, and to pursuing tactics that help us avoid any strike action whatsoever.

We are hopeful that, if our members support this motion at the GMM on September 17, we won’t actually need to go through with a strike mandate vote. That is why we need to mobilize as many members as possible to show our support for the Bargaining Team and YUFA’s bargaining proposals.

10) Where can I get more information about the bargaining process?

For more information about the bargaining process, please see this FAQ on the Ontario Ministry of Labour website.

To see all YUFA’s bargaining updates, please click here.

Dear members,

We are writing to let you know that YUFA has applied for conciliation in bargaining. This is an important step, as we aim to expedite negotiations and obtain a strong Collective Agreement.

YUFA's Collective Agreement with York University expired on April 30, 2018. However, despite meeting eighteen times over three months of bargaining, we have yet to produce a new Collective Agreement. The Employer has been unwilling to address such key concerns of our members as the erosion of our compensation framework (pensions, benefits, and annual PTR increments), as well as issues of governance, teaching load, and equity in hiring.

YUFA is confident that a conciliator will be able to assist the parties in reaching a settlement.

The YUFA Bargaining Team and the Employer have agreed to continue to meet.

More information on YUFA bargaining is available here, including a video update about bargaining from the YUFA president.

More information on conciliation is available here.