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After a lengthy hiatus, York University and its striking teaching staff are set to get back to the bargaining table today. It's about time.
It's been three weeks since 3,340 teaching assistants and contract faculty walked off the job at Canada's third-largest university. The administration responded by shutting down the campus. Let's hope everyone involved is finally serious about bargaining an end to the strike. The 50,000 students, watching their university year slip away, can't afford to wait any longer.
When talks broke off, the two sides were far apart on wages, benefits and job security, but the union's negotiating team now has a reprioritized list of demands and a beefed up mandate to reach a deal.
Ideally, when the mediator meets with both sides this morning he'll see enough change to re-engage them in full bargaining aimed at a quick agreement so that students can get back to their classes. But if that's not the case, the province shouldn't hesitate to intervene.
This dispute has gone on long enough. Three-week strikes have happened at Ontario universities before, most recently at Windsor, and the time was made up by simply extending the university year. But there's a troubling history at York, where students suffered through an 11-week strike in 2001 by this same union.
There will have to be some class changes to accommodate the days already lost. The longer this strike continues, the more difficult those accommodations will be for students whose apartment leases are up or who have committed to jobs over the holidays to help pay their ever-increasing tuition.
