There won’t be another strike at York this fall, since the York professors union (YUFA) ratified a new collective agreement last week.
The results were 81% in favour of accepting the new 3 year agreement, which gives faculty a modest raise and established a new process for review of York’s patchwork quilt of varied teaching loads across faculties and units. The union hopes to establish a maximum teaching load of 2.0, which works out in general to four half year courses. At present, the teaching loads vary widely across the university with many professors having a load greater than 2.5, and some having a load less than 2.0. The new agreement doesn’t directly change course loads, but instead creates a committee that will attempt to find an agreeable solution that would bring York towards a standard 2.0 load. The novel aspect of the agreement is that, if that committee cannot come to a solution on teaching load, the employer is required to put $1..5 million dollars into faculty salaries in the 3rd year of the settlement.