Hello,
I thought that I would share this letter that I received.
Dear President Shoukri:
I am a faculty member in the Arts sociology department and I will be retired in 3 days. I have been at York since 1971 and from 1975 through until 1997 when the 8 week YUFA strike took place, I havebeen close to and often deeply involved in the negotiating process atYork.Based on all of my experience and insider knowledge of how thisprocess works, I have to say that it is time for a RADICAL change inthe way the York Administration manages its side of the process.Please understand that I am not putting all of the trouble at thefeet of the York Administration side. I know about two sides and howeither side and both sides can get stuck in their principles andpositions. I want you to know that when I have thought it necessaryin the past, I have confronted the union side, including my own unionYUFA, about its responsibility for working toward, through the giveand take of negotiations, the settlement of disputes.However, during one of my deep involvements in the process in the mid1980s, a senior administrator who shared responsibility fornegotiating collective agreements boldly told my side that the onlyway to bring about a resolution to our dispute at the time was forus, the union, to see if we could pull off a strike and that onlywith the pressure of the strike would there be any movement in thepositions of his side. This approach to bargaining has become deeplyingrained in the Administration culture at York. It predates yourPresidency and although it has been shaped from time to time bycharacteristics of particular Presidents, every President at Yorksince the early 1990s has had their term of office negatively markedby the way York handles labour negotiations .
Whatever may be theinternal reasons for the long life of this approach, York Universityand especially its educational mission and its students have beenharmed by it.I was present during the last long CUPE strike and now my formalcareer is ending in the midst of this one. I can tell you as a frontline teacher that no one benefits from this. I worked hard onorganising the two courses i began to teach in September because Iknew that they would be my last as a full-time faculty member. Theirpedagogical integrity is now seriously threatened and if the strikecontinues into January as it will surely do if an agreement is notreached now, they will lie in ruins - along with the courses of mycolleagues. We can't calculate the negative effects on students fromexperiencing one of their precious years in university this way.Imposing these effects on them is a profoundly serious matter and formy part, nothing in these negotiations is worth it.Some body has to take leadership in bringing this to an end. I knowthat you, as President, cannot in good conscience authorise thegiving away of York's financial stability to settle a strike (shakeyas financial stability can be at this time). But in reality, itcannot be argued with any credibility that CUPE 3903 is going topersist with demands that contain such a potential. I am appealinghere to your Administration's moral responsibility to take the kindof leadership that will lead to productive discussion and resolutionof the outstanding issues. Among other things, that means beingwilling to show one's hand first, so to speak, rather than waitingfor the other side to weaken its resolve. This is what I wasreferring to earlier about the York Administration needing toradically change its deep rooted habits of negotiating collectiveagreements.As a new President at York, you have a chance to make this shift inapproach and we - by which I mean not only the faculty and staff butalso our students - are calling on you to do it. In the past,Presidents have tried to stand back from the negotiating process.Having been involved, I understand how that can be a necessary thingto do - to not interfere with or undermine your own negotiators. Butyour negotiators are acting in a context. I am talking about the needto change that context and to take the lead in breaking away fromnegotiating through defensive lenses.
Sincerely,
Janice Newson, Department of Sociology
