The Ministry of Labour has appointed an industrial inquiry commission to investigate the strike and produce a report for the Minister. This report will take two to three weeks.

CUPE 3903 will cooperate fully with the Ministry’s fact-finding mission. However, we had hoped for a more meaningful intervention by the government. As a public institution, York University should be held accountable. Their refusal to bargain should not be allowed to continue.

This process is neither mediation nor arbitration. It is not an alternative to bargaining, and its main purpose is to inform the Minister of the current situation. The report may still help resolve the conflict, but there is no guarantee of this. Two to three weeks is too long to wait for what is only the potential for a resolution.

The suggestion to suspend the strike for the duration of the commission is a shameless grab for summer tuition. Displacing this conflict to another semester is not good for students, for whom the uncertainty and anxiety would only be prolonged. We expect that York University will return to bargaining while we await the results of the inquiry.

For more information:

Read the Ministry’s announcement
Read the union’s press release