CANADIAN LABOUR:

SOLIDARITY WITH WORKERS AT YORK UNIVERSITY:

The following is an appeal from the Canadian Union of Public Employees(CUPE) Local 3903 who represent teaching, graduate and research associates at York University in Toronto. These workers have been on strike for two months now, and the university administration has finally agreed to return to the bargaining table. Please read the following and send the administration a note in support of these workers.

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Help CUPE 3903 win a fair contract and settle the strike at York University!:
More than 3,000 teaching, graduate and research assistants and contract faculty at York University have been on strike for two months. The university administration has finally agreed to return to the table on January 3.

You can help CUPE 3903 in their fight for a fair wage increase and cost of living allowance, restored job security for contract faculty, and increases in funds for extended health benefits, child care and other measures to match the increase in membership.

You can help CUPE 3903 by sending a message to York’s administration and bargaining team. Please go to http://cupe.ca/action/3903-york to send a message to York's administration and bargaining team.

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Please go to THIS LINK to send the following letter to the administration at York University.

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THE LETTER:

I am pleased to hear that York’s administration has indicated its intention to return to the bargaining table and its willingness to negotiate with CUPE beginning on Saturday, January 3. It is my hope that the administration’s bargaining team will present CUPE with a progressive offer: one that has been developed with the sincere aim of ending the strike and helping all of us at York return to the important work of teaching, learning and research.

As you know, the union is eager to settle the strike, and committed to negotiating a set of collective agreements that will improve job security for contract faculty, increase funds to match the growth in our membership, and provide all our members – who do the majority of teaching at York as well as a good amount of its research – with a fair wage increase and a total compensation package that is tied to inflation.

Undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and the York community as a whole are hopeful that this opportunity to reach a negotiated settlement will be used wisely and well. I urge you to do your part to see that York’s administration bargains seriously and in good faith with CUPE, beginning on the 3rd and until this dispute is brought to an equitable and productive end.