Dear colleagues,

We find ourselves in the midst of another strike at York. This time, we think it can be different.

With journalists, academics and academic associations across the country (and beyond) speaking

out about the dangers of ever-increasing budget cutbacks to higher education, and the

deteriorating conditions for so many that work in this setting, these issues are in the public eye.

Strikers have the support of the public. Let's make sure they have the support of the faculty.

313 YUFA members have signed a statement expressing solidarity with CUPE 3903 (see text

below). The statement, which is open for additional signatures, emphasizes that full time and

contract faculty share a number of common interests: better teaching and learning environments,

including fair compensation for RAs, GAs, and TAs who work and study; just compensation and

job security for the contract faculty that teach more than half our undergraduate courses; and

strengthened university governance, collegiality and academic freedom.

64% of undergraduate teaching at York is carried out by underpaid and overworked contract

faculty, while student tuition is rising at unprecedented rates. Based on available data, since

2006, tuition has increased 42% for domestic students, while for international students, it has

risen by more than 50%. CUPE won the indexing of their pay to tuition increases in 1998, and

are threatened with losing it in this contract. All units of CUPE face increasingly oppressive

conditions for studying and teaching and the dispiriting knowledge that they bear

disproportionate loss in budget planning.

It is very important that York University hears our individual and collective voices in relation to

these trends. Please add your name to the statement of solidarity, and help mobilize to get the

signatures of your colleagues.

If you want to add your signature, please send your name to Jody Berland <jberland@yorku.ca>

and Ricardo Grinspun <ricardo@yorku.ca>. So as to avoid more inbox clutter, please send name

additions and minor points directly to us (including suggestions to improve the statement), and

let's keep lists for substantive discussion. If you have indicated your support and your name is

not in the list, or if there is an inaccuracy, do let us know.

All the best,

Jody and Ricardo

OPEN STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FROM YUFA MEMBERS

We the undersigned members of YUFA, representing full time faculty at York, express our full

public support for the striking workers of CUPE 3903. It is clear that CUPE 3903 at York and

3902 at U of T are both struggling against the growth in poorly paid contingent and contract

labour in universities, a trend that threatens tenure-stream faculty and the institution in myriad

ways.

While Ontario has the worst per-student funding formulas in Canada, York has the worst

proportional ratio of tenure track hires in Ontario. The growth in contingent labour in the

academy contributes directly to the undermining of YUFA work, as our numbers decrease in

proportion to the number of students and the research, governance and graduate teaching needs

of the university.

In addition to harming the teaching and learning environment, the expansion of academic

insecurity more broadly harms the university as a public institution, with its chilling effects on

faculty governance, collegiality, and academic freedom. The rise of contingent faculty is further

developing in tandem with the bloating of senior administration and salaries. Our two unions --

CUPE 3903 and YUFA -- stand together in opposing these trends. We call upon the university to

negotiate fairly and respectfully and to resolve the strike equitably in the interest of our teachers

and students.

Signatories (as of March 8, 2015, 10:00 pm):

Teresa Abbruzzese

Gamal Abdel-Shehid

Anna M. Agathangelou

Farah Ahmad

Greg Albo

Joan Allen

Sabah Alnaseri

Pat Armstrong

Alireza Asgharzadeh

Marie-

Christine Aubin

Aimé B. Avolonto

Ibrahim Badr

Harjeet Badwall

Isabella Bakker

Ian Balfour

Annemarie Barnes

Amélie Barras

Sarah Barrett

Tereza Barta

Ranu Basu

Jon Baturin

Sylvia Bawa

Dawn Bazely

Margaret E. Beare

Shannon Bell

Jody Berland

Guillaume Bernardi

Georges Bérubé

Ulrich Best

Kym Bird

Katherine Bischoping

Marcus Boon

Philippe Bourdin

Martin Breaugh

Deborah Brock

Stephen Brooke

Mauro Buccheri

Donald Burke

Barbara Cameron

Mora Campbell

Eduardo Canel

Donald L. Carveth

Sheila Cavanagh

P.

Christopher Chan

Chris Chapman

Lily Cho

Matthew Clark

Colin Coates

Rina Cohen

George Comninel

Diana Cooper-Clark

Marc Coroux

Natalie Coulter

Cheryl Cowdy

Warren Crichlow

Alison Crosby

Raju Das

Tania Das Gupta

Elizabeth Dauphinee

Deborah Davidson

Megan J. Davies

William Denton

Susan Dion

David Doorey

Susan Driver

Lisa Drummond

John Dwyer

Susan Ehrlich

Christo El Morr

Denielle Elliott

Sesil Erdogan

Lorna Erwin

Jose Etcheverry

Barbara Evans

Geoffrey Ewen

Esther Fine

Caitlin Fisher

Stephen H. Ford

Honor Ford-Smith

Scott Forsyth

Jennifer Foster

Gail Fraser

Michael Friendly

Amber Gazso

Sakis Gekas

Liette Gilbert

Wenona Giles

Stephen Gill

Amanda Glasbeek

Terry Goldie

Luin Goldring

David Goldstein

Mark Goodman

Rachel Gorman

Andil Gosine

Laurence Green

Michael Greyeyes

John Greyson

Ricardo Grinspun

Altana Guia

Shubhra Gururani

Ellen Gutterman

Ratiba Hadj-Moussa

Jan Hadlaw

Laam Hae

Nancy Davis Halifax

Barbara Hanson

Eve Haque

Jin Haritaworn

Philip Harland

Sharon Hayashi

Lyse Hébert

Terry Heinrichs

Judy Hellman

Stephen Hellman

Rob Heynen

Philip Hoffman

Teresa Holmes

Asher Horowitz

Hernan Humana

Jennifer Hyndman

Pablo Idahosa

Susan Ingram

Stanley Jeffers

William Jenkins

Cameron Johnston

Janet Jones

Jan Kainer

Hong Kal

Ilan Kapoor

Eva C. Karpinski

Ali Kazimi

Magdalena Kazubowski-

Houston

Peggy Keall

Roger Keil

Philip Kelly

Kamala Kempadoo

Robert Kenedy

Gerald Kernerman

Sean Kheraj

Janice Kim

Stefan Kipfer

Andrea Kosavic

Ildiko Kovacs

Christina Kraenzle

Sailaja Krishnamurti

Avron Kulak

Fuyuki Kurasawa

Hannes Lacher

Sam Lanfranco

Suzanne Langlois

Robert Latham

Yam Lau

Bonita Lawrence

James Laxer

Richard Leblanc

Becky Lee

Ute Lehrer

Laura Levin

Nina Levitt

Joel Lexchin

Shanna Lino

Carla Lipsig-Mumme

Kenneth Little

Jaime LLambias-Wolff

Rodney Loeppky

Brenda Longfellow

Stephen Longstaff

Libby Lunstrum

Meg Luxton

Willem Maas

Marcia Macaulay

Robert MacDermid

Margaret MacDonald

Teresa Macias

Heather MacRae

Neal Madras

Terry Maley

Guida Man

Nancy Mandell

Janine Marchessault

Alina Marquez

Aryn Martin

Ian Martin

Emiro Martinez-Osorio

John Mayberry

Carlota McAllister

John McCullough

Pat McDermott

Gillian McGillivray

Susan McGrath

Wendy McKeen

David McNab

David McNally

Merouan Mekouar

Gertrude Mianda

Jacinthe Michaud

Michael Michie

Radhika Mongia

Felipe Montoya

Esteve Morera

Gabriele Mueller

Arun Mukherjee

Nick Mulé

Carmela Murdocca

David Murray

Karen

Bridget Murray

Marcello Musto

Natasha Myers

Eric Mykhalovskiy

Janice Newton

Nancy Nicol

Michael Nijhawan

Shobna Nijhawan

Jonathan Nitzan

Bobby Noble

Naomi Norquay

Anne O'Connell

Mona G. Oikawa

Andrea O'Reilly

Michael Ornstein

Deborah Orr

Leo Panitch

Hyun Ok Park

Viviana Patroni

Mark Peacock

Linda Peake

Elizabeth Pentland

Roberto Perin

P.E. Perkins

Nalini Persram

Kelly Pike

Dennis Pilon

Sergei Plekhanov

Carolyn Podruchny

Justin Podur

Maurice Poon

Ann Porter

B. P. Powe

Norene Pupo

Saeed Rahnema

Indhu Rajagopal

Dennis Raphael

Geoffrey Reaume

Art Redding

Darryl Reed

Markus Reisenleitner

Ester Reiter

Karen Robson

Nick Rogers

Sylvie Rosienski-Pellerin

Stephanie Ross

Amy Rossiter

Robin Roth

Don Rubin

Nick Ruest

Anne Russon

Anders Sandberg

Leslie Sanders

Cate Sandilands

Jan Sapp

Richard Saunders

Gabriele Scardellato

Marlis Schweitzer

Sonya Scott

Victor Shea

Khatereh Sheibani

Joel Shore

James Simeon

Brian Singer

Hira Singh

Lisa Sloniowski

Bruce Smardon

Brenda Spotton Visano

Anne St. Onge

Glenn Stalker

Karen Stanworth

Jennifer A. Stephen

Martha Stiegman

Bill Swanson

David Szablowski

Yvette Szmidt

Patrick Taylor

Matthew Tegelberg

Mark Thomas

Temenuga Trifonova

David Trotman

Steven Tufts

Dorin Uritescu

Karen Valihora

Peter Vandergeest

Gail Vanstone

Jim Vernon

Livy Visano

Usha Viswanathan

Leah Vosko

Colleen Wagner

Philip Walsh

Duff R. Waring

Andy Weaver

Richard Weisman

Kimberly White

Walter Whiteley

Agnes Whitfield

Sandra Whitworth

Deane Williams

Daphne Winland

Ted Winslow

Howard Wiseman

Lesley Wood

Douglas Young

Suzie Young

Anna Zalik