Dear members of the YUFA Executive Committee,
It is with great concern that the Executive Committee of CUPE Local 3903 writes you this letter. It should be inconceivable that a labour organization, especially one with which we are allied in the fight for better working conditions on this campus, would find itself facing the possibility of a strike from its own staff.
There is no justification for asking your staff, who undertake the day-to-day operations of your Association and vigorously defend your members’ rights, to accept concessions. The push for greater collegiality and fairness at York is purportedly at the heart of YUFA’s mandate and work plans, but this mandate acts as a mere facade if YUFA remains committed to eroding the wages and working conditions of its staff.
As allies in the fight against academic precarity and mounting income inequality within the sector, it is indefensible to deny your staff real wage increases knowing that YUFA staff have not had a wage increase beyond the rate of inflation since 2016. As inflation has risen to the highest levels in more than forty years, YUFA is also threatening even the basic protection, demanding staff even concede wage adjustments for inflation .? Workers cannot afford such steep concessions as the cost of living increases, and nor should they be asked to do so .As members and Officers of a unionized Faculty Association, you have a responsibility to use the privilege and power you have gained through your collective voice to fight for your staff, rather than against them..
The concessions contained in the latest passes from YUFA’s bargaining team are even more baffling as they relate to non-monetary proposals. For example, YUFA Staff’s pension proposal would replace RRSP payments with guaranteed minimum pension payments at no added cost or risk to YUFA management. We can only understand YUFA’s rebuff of this reasonable request by staff as a dogmatic commitment to concessionism as a bargaining strategy. After spending their careers amplifying and fighting for the needs of YUFA members, YUFA staffers deserve a dignified retirement.
We urge you to bargain a fair agreement that is free of concessions before a strike is unavoidable. YUFA staffers have been at the forefront of protecting academic freedom, tenure, collegiality, and academic integrity when they are threatened by the university administration.Fair compensation and better working conditions will ensure that YUFA staffers can remain committed to their roles and their servicing of YUFA members without fear of financial precarity or burnout.
In remaining committed to imposing concessions on YUFA staffers, YUFA has also ceded the moral high ground it needs to retain against York University during bargaining negotiations. Extracting needless and inappropriate concessions from YUFA staff now will justify the precedent long-established by York University that concessions are always necessary when negotiating with YUFA and other campus unions. The administration also benefits when campus unions do not stand in solidarity with one another, fracturing our ability to present a united front against austerity in the post-secondary education sector.
Our solidarity with your employees represented by CUPE Local 1281 is unwavering. Should they strike, your staff will have the support of not merely our Local, but from workers throughout the sector, including over 680,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the wider labour movement. It is time to remove all concessions.
Sincerely,
The CUPE 3903 Executive Committee