Picketers block the Keele street entrance to York University in Toronto, Ont. on Tuesday March 3, 2015. Even as access has greatly expanded, most universities have decided that, to staff their classrooms at reasonable cost, they must turn, in varying degrees, to contract instructors and teaching-track faculty.J.P. Moczulski/The Globe and Mail
Two of three bargaining units representing teaching assistants at York University have rejected a tentative agreement reached last Friday night.
CUPE Local 3903 says one unit voted 59 per cent against and another voted 77 per cent to turn down the agreement and that both units remain on strike.
Those units also represent graduate and research assistants.
However, a third unit representing contract faculty voted 65 per cent to accept the agreement, but the union said the impact on suspended classes was not yet known.
York had cancelled classes last Tuesday for 40,000 students after the 3,700 teaching assistants set up picket lines,
Local 3903 chairman Faiz Ahmed says the local's executive and bargaining team will now try to schedule a meeting to map out their next steps. He says they hope to resume bargaining with York University quickly.
Nearly 1,300 members took part in Monday's vote on the agreement reached with the assistance of a provincial mediator.
CUPE says about two-thirds of undergraduate courses at the universities are taught by non-tenured staff who are paid about $15,000 a year.
About 6,000 teaching assistants at the University of Toronto walked off the job last Monday after rejecting an offer, but most classes at U-of-T have not been cancelled.