MEDIA ADVISORY
CUPE 3903 holds “vote no” rally today at 1 p.m.

TORONTO, Ont. – Members of CUPE 3903 will hold a special rally at 1 p.m. today (Sunday, Jan. 18) outside the Ministry of Labour offices at 400 University Avenue to express their intention of defeating a forced ratification vote next week.  The rally will proceed from there to Queen’s Park.

“We have spent the past week waiting to vote on an offer that we know is inadequate. We could have spent that time at the bargaining table moving towards a real settlement,” said spokesperson Tyler Shipley.  “We can only hope that once this vote is behind us, York University will take the bargaining process seriously so that we can all go back to work.”

Despite the fact that some 500 members had already voted down the current offer at a membership meeting, York walked away from the bargaining table on Jan. 9 in order to force a formal ratification vote on union members.  In the meantime, York’s administration spent thousands of dollars sending Federal Express priority packages, two for each of the union’s more than 3000 members, to present their case.

“Can you believe it?” asked Jordy Cummings, a graduate assistant.  “The money they spent on one mailing could have nearly covered our entire proposal for improved health benefits.  This administration really needs to get its priorities in order, quickly, for the sake of all 50,000 students who are being inconvenienced by this dispute.”

In addition to adequate levels of funding, CUPE 3903 is demanding better job security for contract professors who are currently forced to re-apply for every single course they teach – often not knowing which courses, if any, they will receive until as little as a week before the start of each semester.  The university’s current offer does not adequately address the financial insecurity that this situation produces and remains a major sticking point for the nearly 900 contract professors in the union.

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For further information, please contact:
Tyler Shipley, CUPE 3903 Spokesperson, 647-295-1674
Christina Rousseau, Chair, CUPE 3903, 416-736-5154

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