Friday, January 16, 2009

York -- the strike must end

I recognise the strike at York University is not a national matter, but that doesn't detract from its importance, at least to York students. The strike has continued for so long now that it threatens the academic year. York's reputation is in tatters. Indeed it is obvious that anyone with a choice would hesitate to go to York in the future precisely because of the strike and York's appalling track record of labour disputes.

And yet the University administration seems silent. The President has said nothing and it seems the University is content to let the strike cancel the year. (There may be financial advantages to such a result; not the least could be the collapse of the union).

The part-time faculty union has adopted a stance of no backing down and may win the battle but lose the war.

It's time for binding arbitration.
James Morton
1100 - 5255 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
M2N 6P4

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes! Thank you very much writing this post. And perhaps this should be more of a national issue given CUPE's plans for the rest of Ontario in 2010, as you can read about here: http://74.125.113.132/search?q=cache:nY7Q0d4XUiIJ:www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081227.CUPE27/TPStory/TPNational/%3Fpage%3Drss%26id%3DGAM.20081227.CUPE27+high+stakes+for+higher+learning+elizabeth+church+globe&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=ca&client=firefox-a

I am a student at York University and many students here including myself are looking anxiously to the Ontario government for support in the form of back to work legislation that would lead to binding arbitration - something that the University has agreed to but the union is refusing.

While I suspect the right to strike, there must also be limits when one side, in this case the union, asks for things that are so unrealistic that the other party cannot possibly agree to them. If the union is so certain that it's demands are reasonable, then it should not be concerned about entering binding arbitration.

There must also be more steps to protect third parties in labour disputes, because in the battel between two giants, the undergraduate students are only loosing.

Anonymous said...

Don't hold out any hope for Dolton to ever come close to doing the right thing, after all he's a Libtard.

Anonymous said...

I feel very sorry for the students at risk of losing their academic year. They've been in limbo far too long. I think the time for arbitration is defintely here!