Toronto, ON AUGUST 8, 2024 – The York University Faculty Association (YUFA) is in a lockout/strike position due to the York University administration’s aggressive labour tactics towards its professors, librarians, and archivists.
Top-down restructuring at the university’s Glendon and Keele campuses is increasing some class sizes ten-fold and reducing direct contact between students and professors, a process the administration is attempting to accelerate. YUFA is pushing back against these changes: Professors’ and librarians’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.
The York administration claims that it lacks funds, even as senior management salaries have ballooned. The administration-created labour crisis draws attention away from poor financial planning for the new Markham campus and a new School of Medicine.
In its December, 2023, response to the Ontario Auditor General’s value-for-money report on York University, the senior administration boasted of its solid financial position including a positive net asset balance of $1.9 billion at the end of the 2022-23 fiscal year. “The University agrees with the auditor general’s overall conclusion that York is financially sustainable” (YFile, Dec. 6, 2023)
The University’s most recent audited financial statements also indicate a strong financial position. Indeed, the University’s operating cash and cash equivalents increased by $11 million from 2023 to 2024, to a total of more than $90 million (p. 132).
YUFA President Professor Ellie Perkins states: “The administration is spending millions on labour-related legal bills, consultants and high-paid managers. These resources should be directed towards lowering class sizes and responding to students’ needs. Instead, the senior administration is reducing the number of teaching and front line staff who work directly with students.”
YUFA members remain committed to achieving a renewed collective agreement without a lockout or strike. York professors insist that students and parents should not pay the price for the senior administration’s irresponsible management decisions. YUFA is determined to continue bargaining for faculty participation in academic decisions, and a safe working and learning environment at York University.
The York University Faculty Association / Association des professeur.e.s de l’Université York is the professional association and certified bargaining agent for approximately 1,700 faculty, librarians and archivists, and post-doctoral visitors at York University.
CONTACT: For more information contact YUFA President, Professor Ellie Perkins at pesperk@gmail.com