Strike continues at York as vote by contract faculty overturned by CUPE

About 3,000 education workers at York University continued their 101-day strike Thursday after a vote by contract faculty to return to work was overturned due to irregularities in the tally.

“The YES side won, but there were significant discrepancies in their vote count that may or may not have reversed the result,” Julian Arend, vice-president of CUPE Local 3903, Unit 2, said Thursday.

As a result, CUPE National made the unusual move of nullifying the Wednesday evening vote and calling for a re-vote, said Arend. The new vote will be held Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.

If ratified, about 1,100 contract faculty would be back at work on Monday. However, the other two striking units, representing about 1,900 teaching assistants and 130 graduate assistants, have no plans to vote on the university’s latest offer and would remain on picket lines.

The news comes on the heels of a Star report on Wednesday that Premier-designate Doug Ford plans to recall the legislature briefly next month for several reasons including ending the York strike.

Arend said in an email he has never seen a situation like the re-vote called for by Local 3903’s parent union.