Seven YUFA members at York University have been fired since July 2024 as part of the university’s ‘restructuring’ initiatives, which began at Glendon in 2022 and are now underway in the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LAPS). These colleagues hold Special Renewable Contracts (SRCs), which have always been renewed in the past. The YUFA Collective Agreement states, “Such agreements [for SRC renewals] will not unreasonably withheld”.
Several of the seven colleagues were notified during the Fall semester that their contracts would end on December 31, 2024, when they were in the middle of teaching full-year courses.
All SRC colleagues have at least 15 years of teaching experience at York, if not significantly more, and have been highly esteemed professors for decades. They teach courses that are critically important to their academic units, regularly provide valued service to the university, and participate in innovative initiatives to support students and advance the mission of the university.
The non-renewal of their contracts is an outrageous violation of the YUFA Collective Agreement, and YUFA is grieving this violation in defense of the rights of our members.
YUFA calls on the York University administration to immediately renew the positions of all SRC faculty members who have been denied renewals in accordance with their Collective Agreement rights and cease threatening SRCs with the loss of their jobs. We demand that these colleagues be reinstated.
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