The following letter was written by an individual who is not a member of YorkNotHostage, and advocates an end to the strike and a "Yes" vote for ratification. The opinions expressed in this letter are those of the author, not YorkNotHostage. We maintain our neutrality in regard to the bargaining issues, and we maintain our opposition to this strike. Message from a Fellow Grad Student Hello All, My colleagues and I, members of Unit 1, are writing this email with two goals in mind. First, to comment on some of the propaganda circulated by CUPE about the forced ratification vote and second to give a different perspective on the university's offer and CUPE's bargaining agenda to other Unit 1 members. A) After the announcement of the ratification vote, CUPE has been leading an extensive campaign to persuade members to vote down the employer's offer. However some of the things they have put in their documents are misleading. This is taken from CUPE's package on forced ratification (http://www.3903strike.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/cupe-3903-complete-package-on-forced-ratification.pdf) CUPE is saying: "Today the York administration appealed to labour legislation enacted by Mike Harris' government to force a ratification vote on the administration's offer of January 7, 2009. Both the Executive and Bargaining Team are convinced that this is yet another attempt by the administration to derail bargaining" The forced ratification vote is the employer's legal right. The university asked CUPE to bring their latest offer to an official ratification vote, which CUPE did not do. Consequently, the university made the offer to the membership by a forced ratification vote. That does not mean that they want to derail bargaining, that means that they consider their offer adequate and that they want to put a stop to the strike. It is not in the university's interests to derail the negotiations, since that means a prolonged strike which could have very bad consequences for the university. CUPE is saying: "At the General Membership Meeting on January 8, over 90% of the 600+ members in attendance voted that they would reject this offer if it were brought to ratification." These numbers are wrong. According to the meeting's minutes, 429 members voted for the motion, 48 voted against, and 28 abstained, in total 505 members. Far from 600+. Moreover, 429 out of 505 is actually 85% and not "over 90%". CUPE 3903 is representing about 3200 members, which means that only about 15% of the membership was attending the meeting and participating in the vote. CUPE is saying: "What does your vote against this offer mean? It means a rapid settlement which will result in more accessible graduate education, better job security for contract faculty, and improved working and learning conditions at York University." At least as the next two terms are concerned, the learning and working conditions will only get worse the longer the strike continues. Longer strike means less time to compensate for the missed classes, less time for exam preparation, no breaks between terms and perhaps no summer term. It also means more stress for TA's as they have to mark assignments and tests in a shorter time period. If the summer term will be cancelled, there will be no TA work for graduate students. CUPE is saying: "Once the membership rejects not only this offer, but also the offensive manner in which it is being forced upon us, we will be in an exceptionally strong position to come to a speedy and fair resolution to the strike." Again, the forced ratification vote is the university's legal right. Going on strike is a far more offensive action. The exceptionally strong position of CUPE is debatable. No one knows what will happen if the employer's offer will be voted down. CUPE bases its strong statements on past experience. However, right now the economic situation is different, York's government is different and CUPE's demands are not the same. The outcome might not turn out as CUPE expects it. Continuing the strike can potentially lead to a large money loss on the university side due to decrease in enrollment, extended semesters and administrative costs. Continuing the strike will harm undergraduate students even more and put even more pressure on teachers and TAs. Continuing the strike could possibly lead to the cancellation of the summer term and no work and income for graduate students in the summer. B) We also wanted to bring an alternative view on York's offer and some of CUPE's bargaining agenda One of the points still in negotiation is the length of the contract (although it is not stated officially by CUPE). York proposes a 3 year contract (as has been done in the past) where CUPE wants a two year deal. The reason CUPE is asking for a shorter contract is due to the planned CUPE Ontario strike in 2010. If York's offer is voted down and York gives in to CUPE's demands, we will have another strike on our hands in two years. Ask yourselves if you want to participate in another strike. Many of CUPE's demands still on the table, deal with job security for contract faculty. Some of those demands go against the interests of Unit 1 members. CUPE demands to increase the number of conversion appointments. Conversion is a tenure track position given to a contract faculty member. Tenure is intended to protect academics conducting unpopular research from being fired. Since contract faculty do not deal with research, giving them tenure does not make sense. Moreover, since the university can offer only a limited number of tenure track positions, increasing the number of conversions takes away potential employment from new graduates interested in research. CUPE also wants to reserve 25% of the tutor 1 jobs (tutorial leader) to contract faculty. York has transferred some of these positions to TAs due to the increase in the number of graduate students. Giving these positions back to Unit 2 means some graduate students will potentially have no work. (Clearly some of the concerns of Unit 2 clash with the interests of Unit 1, which brings up a question, why are we represented by the same union?) York's offer is substantially different from the offer presented in November and deserves that each of us take a reasonable look at it and ask ourselves if it now suits our needs. CUPE has been telling people to vote no instead of telling people to individually look at the offer. We are all well educated people and can make decisions for ourselves. Let's not let CUPE bully us into voting a certain way. The important thing is that we show up and vote and make our vote an educated decision. Discuss this letter here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=44571865743&topic=7065 (just scroll down on this page, It's posted in a subsequent post) |