After a week of intense negotiations with a provincially appointed conciliator, U of T’s Teaching Assistants’ (TA) union have decided not to strike.
On Monday they reached an agreement with the university administration over graduate funding packages, benefits and wage increases.
The TAs’ union, which had originally called a strike vote meeting for January 21, voted instead to put a ratification vote to the general membership after reaching a proposed settlement with the administration on Friday.
Balloting for the ratification vote began shortly after Monday’s meeting and will be completed on Thursday night. Official results of the vote are expected on Friday morning.
After Monday’s decision to put a ratification vote to the CUPE 3902 membership, U of T’s Vice President of Human Resources Angela Hilyard said, “I am very pleased and I’m hopeful that there will be a positive outcome.”
Rob Hanks, Liaison Officer for CUPE 3902, said, “More people will finish their degrees as a result of this collective agreement.”
Similar to their U of T counterparts, OISE’s Graduate Assistants’ (GA) union will enter into conciliation talks over the next two weeks in an attempt to reach an agreement. CUPE 3907 members voted an overwhelming 92 per cent in favour of a strike after an emergency membership meeting and three days of secret balloting were held last week.
If conciliation talks are not successful, a “no board” report will be filed and the union will enter into mediation before an official strike is held.
“We have received a very, very strong mandate from our membership to go forward in conciliation and to get the kind of collective agreement that we deserve,” said Maureen Giuliani, chair of the bargaining team for CUPE 3907. “The university consistently pushes us to this point—basically, it’s a process of us taking stuff off the table and them offering us nothing.”
Citing similar frustrations over the administration’s previous negotiation tactics, Geoff Potvin, chief spokesperson for the CUPE 3902 bargaining team, was pleasantly surprised by the administration’s latest offer. “It was clear in bargaining that they [the administration] did not want a strike. They were willing to pull out the stops to prevent one,” he said.
As part of the revised collective agreement, U of T TAs will receive legally guaranteed funding packages that include individual protection for members against arbitrary changes. In addition, a cap has been placed on the number of hours in individual funding packages, ensuring that members are protected from increased workloads.
CUPE 3902 is particularly pleased with the introduction of a financial assistance fund that will be allocated at the discretion of the union. The fund will include a yearly payment of $225,000, totaling $900,000 over the course of the contract. Unlike the previous agreement, which included differential wage increases for course instructors and TAs over the course of the contract, union members will now receive uniform increases of 2.25, 2.25, 1.75 and 1.5 per cent for the duration of the three year, eight month contract (retroactive to September 1, 2001). The cost of the bargaining unit is projected to increase 13 per cent per year during this time.
Union members will also receive protection against “claw backs” so that if they negotiate an additional wage increase, existing scholarship funds will not be reduced.
Potvin said his biggest “sticking point” was the length of the contract. While the union had originally hoped to limit the contract to three years, he believes that “we wouldn’t have gotten the improvements to our dental fund and the financial assistance package if we had not gone those extra eight months.”
“The bargaining team did the best they could under very difficult circumstances and I think they found a deal that reflected the mood of the membership,” said Hanks. “I think that the results of tonight’s meeting show that CUPE 3902 isn’t an irresponsible organization and that it reflects the best interests of its membership.”
Potvin, who conceded that although the collective agreement “won’t solve everything,” believes most union members were satisfied with the gains they made on several issues.
But, according to Hanks, there is still a lot of “unfinished business.” “All graduate students have to work together for the February 6 anti-tuition campaign. What we can’t achieve in our collective agreement, we have to achieve through political solutions via Queen’s Park. We have to put pressure on Mike Harris to let him know that we need a funded tuition freeze for the greater good of universities in this province.”
Hanks is concerned that without a funded tuition freeze, students will no longer be able to afford education.
“As Vice-President [Ian] Orchard himself admits, his own funding package needs more funding, it’s still incomplete and it needs to be expanded,” said Hanks.
