On February 27, University of Toronto students could arrive to a school on strike, with picket lines dotting the campus, and all tutorials and about half of lectures cancelled.

A strike will be a reality if the university and the union representing some 7,000 teaching assistants, sessional lecturers, and other academic staff are unable to come to a deal on a new collective bargaining agreement — a prospect that seems increasingly likely according to union negotiators.

“There is a widespread feeling that we are not where we need to be in order to realistically get a contract, and there isn’t a plausible way to see getting there given the time, and given how much the employer has dragged its feet, and given how few dates we have left,” says Ryan Culpepper, chief negotiator for CUPE 3902 Unit 1, which has approximately 6,000 members, made up of mostly teaching assistants, but also including a number of other student academic staff.

Unit 1 members voted in favour of a strike mandate in November 2014.

“It is not going well,” Culpepper says in reference to the negotiations.

Erin Black, co-chief negotiator for Unit 3, which represents sessional lecturers and other non-student academic staff, and chair of the union local, echoes this sentiment.

“I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I do wonder logistically how that can be done in only three bargaining days because we have a number of things that are still outstanding,” says Black. “In terms of content of an agreement that would be acceptable to our membership, that is going to be also challenging to achieve.”

The results of a strike vote for Unit 3 were announced on January 27, with 92.1 per cent in favour of striking if no agreement is in place after the February 26 deadline.

Black says that Unit 3 is made up of around 1,000 members who collectively teach upwards of 700 courses.

Both Culpepper and Black say that only three more bargaining meetings are scheduled between the university and each unit, and that, so far, the university has been unwilling to add additional meetings.

When asked if the university is unwilling to add more negotiating dates, Angela Hildyard, U of T vice-president of human resources and equity, did not directly respond. “Please be assured that the University is actively involved in negotiations and is committed to reaching agreements with CUPE 3902 Units 1 and 3 that are responsive to the issues CUPE has raised, and that are responsible in light of the University’s challenging fiscal realities,” she says.

Although both Units 1 and 3 are currently mandated to strike, the possibility exists that the university could come to an agreement with one of the units while another takes to the picket lines.

PROVINCIAL ROLE

Both Culpepper and Black say that the university is pushing for net-zero increase in the total dollar value of the deal. This means that any increase in compensation would likely have to be offset by a takeaway of equal value somewhere else in the contract.

Culpepper claims that university negotiators told Unit 1 that a “directive from the provincial government” states that, as a public employer, U of T is “not permitted to negotiate net financial increases of any kind with public employee groups.”

Unit 3 was allegedly told something similar. “[The university] said that they believe they are restricted in what they can do, money wise,” says Black, adding that university representatives have been pointing to the last provincial budget and to a 2012 mandate from former finance minister Dwight Duncan.

Neither of the negotiators feel this is accurate. Culpepper believes that there is no obligation to hold the line at zero because the majority of university funding does not come from the government.

Black says that the province has only limited additional funding, and that they have not interfered with institutions granting increases if they already have the money to do so. “Since U of T has posted a surplus in the last two years, it is certainly 3902’s perspective that they have money in the operating budget to grant increases,” she says.

When asked about a provincial directive and whether a net-zero increase is a hard line in negotiations, university representatives did not provide specific answers.

The University of Toronto is forecast to have a net income of $194.4 million in the 2014–2015 financial year, university administration said during last week’s Business Board meeting.

May Nazar, team leader for Issues Management and Media Relations at the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, was asked if any and what kind of directions the provincial government had given U of T. “Our 2014 Budget made it clear — we will not provide any new money for compensation increases,” she says.

“We have been clear with our partners that any additional compensation costs must be found within existing funding, while ensuring that service levels continue to meet public needs,” she adds.

Nazar says that the provincial government is providing assistance during the negotiation process, but adds that the agreement is ultimately up to the two parties.

“Ontario universities are autonomous institutions with responsibility for their own labour relations and human resource issues, including collective bargaining,” she says.

ISSUES OF NEGOTIATION

Significant issues remain to be negotiated, with the most prominent being pay, benefits, and job security.
Sessional lecturers have a variegated pay scale, but Black says the average is around $7,500 per course they teach, and that they have been on a pay freeze since August 2012.

Black also says that sessional lecturers are currently teaching some 750 classes at U of T and administer 35 per cent of undergraduate education at the university.

Sessional instructors also face uncertainty as to where their next job will come from. They operate on per-course contracts and are pushing for greater certainty in the hiring process.

“Sessional lecturers are frequently hired sometimes as little as two weeks or one week before a course actually starts,” says Black, who went on to say that this can have real impacts in the classroom. “This past year I didn’t get access to a Blackboard page until two days into a term, for example.”

Culpepper says the average yearly take-home pay of Unit 1 members is $15,000 a year, plus waiver of tuition fees. Any external awards or scholarships lower the funding or revoke the tuition waiver.

“I can tell you what would get us to an agreement,” he says, adding, “An increase to the overall minimum level of funding… right now we have been told that is impossible and there has been no increase since 2008. An increase to our benefit funds, at least to the level of long term sustainability… And some kind of tuition credit or tuition relief for unfunded members.”

THE ROAD AHEAD

If a strike happens, bargaining will continue and so will many classes, according to an information session held by CUPE 3902 to reach out to students last week.

Yolen Bollo-Kamara, president of the University of Toronto Students’ Union (UTSU), says that, while the UTSU has taken no official position, the union would like to see the university bargain in good faith.

“We hope that the University and CUPE 3902 are able to reach compromise and avert a strike,” she says.

“If there is a strike, I would encourage students to demand that the University prioritize reaching [a] compromise expeditiously and compensate students for any lost class hours,” she adds.

For her part, Hildyard says that the university will update all members of the U of T community of any future developments that impact students.