CUPE: York University refuses to negotiate with student employees, CUPE resquests conciliation

Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1356-2 has requested conciliation after they say York University has refused to negotiate with student employees, CUPE has reported.

York has refused to negotiate with students who work part-time in student parking, closed circuit television (CCTV), and GoSafe (a walk home program at York) until they withdraw proposals the university claims are "unreasonable."

It is unclear to CUPE which proposals they have put forward are "unreasonable" however and the union says the university has not provided any clarification on this topic.

CUPE leadership believes the proposals in question center around issues of equal pay for students doing the same work as non-student workers as well as the provision of sick time.

As York has refused to negotiate for now, CUPE has requested a conciliation officer from Canada's Ministry of Labour to hopefully break the impasse in negotiations.

Just last year York University saw the largest post-secondary sector strike in Canadian history when professors, teaching assistants, and graduate students went on strike for 143 days. CUPE is surprised that this experience did not prompt York University to alter its approach to negotiating with employees.