Dear Premier McGuinty,

On behalf of the over sixty-thousand graduate student members of the National Graduate Caucus of the Canadian Federation of Students — including those at York University — I would like to state our
opposition to legislating the members of CUPE local 3903 back to work.

It is our position that such legislation is one-sided and counter to the guarantee of the right to fair collective bargaining. Indeed, back-to-work legislation was even deemed as substantial interference with freedom of association by the BC Supreme Court.

While we recognise that the strike has been long and costly, the actions of the Ontario Government have not helped.

The forced ratification vote and the use of back-to-work legislation means that the University Administration feels it need only wait long enough to have the government impose a settlement in its favour. This puts the University under reduced pressure to return to the bargaining table and engage in proper and fair negotiations with its employees. The actions of the government have undermined the fair bargaining process and have acted to thwart the union at every step of the process, thus prolonging the strike.

Further, it is our position that much of the reason for the current strike at York University is because of chronic under-funding of post-secondary education and graduate programmes in the province of
Ontario. This under-funding has lead to the replacement of full-time faculty members at universities with stipend/contract academic staff and graduate students who suffer under enormous economic hardships to finish their programmes.

Your statement reported in the CBC on January 24th made it clear that the government recognizes the importance of university research and post-secondary education during the current economic climate. We trust that the Government of Ontario will see this strike as a sign that current policies do not match this rhetoric.

We call on the Government of Ontario to facilitate the collective bargaining process and not pass legislation that is biased against the workers at York University.

Sincerely,

Graham Cox

–
Chairperson
National Graduate Caucus
Canadian Federation of Students