Labour Issues - Strike at York

As society speeds into the future, we are constantly bombarded with changes and unexpected twists and turns. What the world was like one hundred years ago is vastly different from what the world is now. This is especially true when we talk about work and labour relations. With the introduction of mass production and better business practices in our society, people seem to be more and more concerned with making profits and therefore more concerned with how to cut costs, cut labour and keep themselves financially afloat. This is especially true in the recent past as we have been experiencing a global recession that has affected the way that many businesses function. But even without this global economic recession, we have seen in recent history a growing trend with businesses trying to keep production as lean as possible. In this paper I will be examining the York University strike of 2008/2009 throughout a number of different sociological perspectives in order to better understand the sociological significance of the ongoing strike.

Currently there is a strike being held at York University by the local CUPE 3903 union. Even though negotiations have been going on from months, the union and the university have not been able to reach an agreement. As of November 6, 2008, CUPE 3903 which consists of 1850 graduate students working as teaching assistants, 550 who work as research and administrative assistants ,and 950 contract faculty members have been picketing on the grounds of the university demanding better wages, more job security as well as more funding (Brown). The union has stated in many newspaper articles that what they are looking for is not unfair; as York University would have the public believe. The biggest change that the union is fighting for is a two year collective bargaining agreement that would allow them to join the province wide university sector union initiative in 2010 (Upping the Anti) which would allow them to team up with other Ontario universities. This province wide union would help union members stay competitive for their salaries as cost of living rises and give them more bargaining power to fight for more funding and improvement of working conditions in the future. CUPE 3903 is also looking for a competitive wage increase to meet the needs of a rising cost of living. They are asking for 7 percent in the first year and 4 percent in the second year of the two year deal they are willing to sign (Brown, and Ogilvie). The union is also fighting hard on the issue of job security. The contract faculty of York University currently teacher 40-60 percent of the curriculum (Upping the Anti), yet have no job security. The university took away the five year contracts they were offering back in 2001 and ever since contract faculty has had to re-sign their contract at the end of every term even if they have been teaching at the university for 10-15 years (Brown, and Ogilvie). The university on the other hand has mentioned that they cannot meet these demands as they feel the union is being unfair in these troublesome economic times. They state that they cannot meet these demands as they themselves are being forced to make 2 percent cuts from their overall operating budget in each of the next three years. It is clear that the two sides are not sitting on any common ground and that the strike is the result of two opposing sides not being able to meet anywhere in the middle. The strike is affecting over 50,000 students and has no indication of letting up any time soon.

The first sociological perspective that I will be focusing on is that of C. Wright Mills and his ideas on the sociological imagination. We can see how the strike has clear sociological significance as we examine in it using our sociological imaginations. Mills talks about how using our sociological imagination allows us to see situations from different angles as well as allows us to see how personal troubles are usually found within the context of greater public issues. "The sociological imagination is the most fruitful form of this self-consciousness. By its use men whose mentalities have swept only a series of limited orbits often come to feel as if suddenly awakened in a house with which they had only supposed themselves to be familiar." (Mills, 6) The significance of analyzing this labour issue from Mills' perspective is that it allows us to see that this is not just a private trouble of contract faculty members wanting more money or more job security, but rather a public issue that has been plaguing our society for some time now. As contract positions become more prominent in our society, full time jobs in all sectors of the working field are becoming increasingly scarce. Not only do contract workers get paid less then their full time counterparts in all kinds of jobs, but they are not eligible for benefits, jobs security or piece of mind that they will be able to take care of their families. Employers benefit from this by saving money while workers in all areas of labour suffer the consequences.

The private trouble of a strike also quickly turned into a public issue in 2000 when the union again went on strike. Although the strike finally ended after 11 weeks of suspended classes, the greater issue of fair working wages and job security was picked up by a number of other universities in the coming months. The University of Toronto and Carton University were able to reference CUPE 3903's collective agreements in their own fight to get comparable contracts (Upping the Anti). Again through this example we can see that the private trouble of contract faculty at York actually is a public issue that is plaguing workers all over Ontario. Both of these strikes at York have opened the public's eyes and have let them see that it is not contract workers that are greedy but that there is a greater societal trend towards more part time, insecure and poor paying jobs.

The York University strike is just one of many businesses that has cut back full time positions and is relying on contract and part time workers to pick up the slack. This labour dispute has brought this issue to the forefront for Canadians and shows us just how much of an impact this growing trend has on individuals everywhere. Recently Howard Hampton of the NDP made a comment about the ongoing strike and his thoughts on the back to work legislation that is currently being debated in parliament. He makes a point by saying that introducing this legislation would only show employers that rather than negotiating with their employees, all employers would have to do is just wait until the government steps in and sends them back to work (Delaney). It is clear that Hampton is using his sociological imagination in this case as he is showcasing how introducing back to work legislation for striking faculty members at York will actually have a much larger