York University students not optimistic strike will end anytime soon
TORONTO — York University students aren’t feeling hopeful that they’ll be back in class soon, even after some of the school’s striking contract workers voted to accept the university’s latest offer.
CUPE 3903 Unit 2 said more than 1,000 course directors and some teaching instructors who are not full-time graduate students will return to work on Monday, but about 2,000 other teaching and graduate assistants, who belong to two other units, will remain on the picket line of the 15-week strike.
Students, and even some staff, say they are confused about when, or if, classes will resume in lieu of Unit 2 accepting the offer and don’t feel optimistic that the uncertainty caused by the battle that began in March over wages and job security will end anytime soon.
CUPE 3903 chairman Devin Lefebvre did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but in a Friday news release, stressed that the units that have yet to agree to the offer “cannot accept precarious work and the decline of academic integrity at York” and “will continue to work toward a fair contract.”