Members of five CUPE 3902 units voted overwhelmingly in favour of a strike mandate against U of T, St. Michael’s College, and Victoria College. The two colleges are federated, and operate independently from the university. 

Voting began during a CUPE 3902 unit membership meeting on March 5 and closed on March 7.

The vote follows months of stalled negotiations between the units and the university over signing new collective agreements. In an email to The Varsity, CUPE 3902 President Eriks Bredovskis wrote that since the fall, negotiations have focused on “fair pay, more opportunities for advancement and job security, increases to benefits and protections, and respect for all” — with little progress.

The strike mandate allows each unit’s Executive Committee to call a strike if the university fails to reach an agreement, giving the units’ bargaining teams considerable negotiating power. 

“Our members are sending a strong message of worker unity and organization to U of T,” wrote Bredovskis.

Who are the players?

CUPE 3902 represents around 10,000 members, including the university’s sessional lecturers, postdoctoral researchers, and teaching assistants (TAs). This year, five of CUPE 3902’s seven units are at the bargaining table, each pushing for its own set of proposals. These units represent a diverse range of academic workers across U of T and its federated colleges.

Unit 2 includes writing instructors, undergraduate peer tutors, TAs, and course instructors at Victoria College. Unit 3 covers U of T employees hired for teaching, tutoring, or marking on contracts of less than one year, including sessional lecturers and music professionals. Unit 4 represents writing instructors, TAs, and course instructors at St. Michael’s College. 

Unit 6 consists of workers in the International Foundations Program and the International Summer Academy at New College. Lastly, Unit 7 represents graduate assistants at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Together, these five units represent around 2,000 workers. All units are collectively demanding that the university provide “wage increases to keep up with the substantial cost-of-living increases in the GTA,” especially after the repeal of Bill 124 in February 2024 — which imposed a one per cent cap on wage increases for public sector workers in Ontario.

The units’ key bargaining proposals on compensation include wage parity for undergraduate tutors in Unit 2 in comparison with other units, compensation for course development and preparation time in Units 3 and 4, and a wage increase for Unit 6, whose pay has risen by less than one per cent in over a decade. Unit 7 is pushing for higher take-home pay — earnings after tax — and more paid work opportunities outside funding packages, which provides financial support to students.

The units voted in favour of the strike mandate with the following approximate percentages: 95 per cent, 87 per cent, 75 per cent, 86 per cent, and 99 per cent, respectively.

The lowdown 

All five units filed notices to bargain with the university between August 28, 2024, and October 18, 2024, which is the first step in beginning the negotiation process for collective agreement renewals.

This was followed by initial bargaining meetings between the units’ teams and the university: Unit 3 on January 13, Unit 7 on January 21, Unit 2 on February 7, Unit 4 on March 7, and Unit 6 has a meeting scheduled for March 17. 

On February 6, all five units collectively requested a conciliation officer from the Ontario Ministry of Labour, due to delays in negotiations. Conciliation involves a neutral third party assisting both sides in reaching an agreement when both parties are unable to reach an agreement themselves. The request was approved, and the officers are now working with the units and university to facilitate a tentative agreement. 

“[Conciliation] does turn up the temperature in negotiations when one party takes steps toward a strike … [it] can really incentivize the parties to come together to work out their issues,” Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resource PhD candidate and Unit 3 member Jennifer Harmer wrote to The Varsity in an email.

Enacting a strike mandate is another important step when dealing with stalled negotiations. “The university prefers it when our members are disconnected from each other and apathetic about the bargaining process… [a strike mandate] puts our Bargaining Committees in a more powerful position to make critical gains at the bargaining table,” Bredovskis wrote. 

If conciliation does not result in agreements between the two parties, the Ministry of Labour will file a “no-board” report — meaning a conciliation board will not be appointed. This can lead to the units requesting a notice from the Ministry to begin a 17-day countdown toward entering a legal strike or “lockout” position — the suspension of work.

“There is a high likelihood that this stage will move quickly and the Ministry will approve the request, if no agreement can be made,” Harmer wrote.

What’s next

Negotiations between the units and the university are ongoing — for example, Unit 4 has recently completed meetings on March 7, 12 and 14, and Unit 6 has meetings scheduled for April 4, 16, 17 and 22–25 in addition to their March dates. These developments follow last year’s agreement for Units 1 and 5, which secured expanded healthcare benefits and across-the-board pay increases for Unit 5’s postdoctoral fellows.

As of writing, Units 2, 3, and 7 have not disclosed their next meeting dates. 

CUPE 3902’s website contains proposal trackers for each unit’s proposals, with updates on the university’s responses. The vast majority of demands are still under consultation, with the remainder roughly split between those agreed upon and those rejected.

In the meantime, the union is circulating a petition among unit members, urging the university and its federated colleges to agree to the proposals the bargaining teams have tabled.

Harmer called into question how far unit members will be willing to go. “[Workers] may not be interested in a prolonged strike at this time… there is a lot of economic uncertainty with the trade dispute ongoing with the [United States],” she wrote. 

When asked whether he anticipated new agreements being signed with the university before a strike, Bredovskis explained that it depends on how negotiations proceed, as the units are now working with a conciliation officer. “We are hopeful in reaching tentative agreements before any strike deadline, but it depends on whether the University of Toronto is ready to move on their proposals, too,” he wrote.

When asked the same question, a spokesperson from the university wrote to The Varsity that “Labour relations are addressed directly with the relevant labour unions in the normal course, including through the collective bargaining process. The university has no further comment regarding ongoing collective bargaining at this time.”