HOW CUPE 3903 STRUCK AND WON

JUST LABOUR vol. 1 (2002), 77-85                                                     77

HOW CUPE 3903 STRUCK AND WON

Clarice Kuhling
Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903, Department of Sociology, York
University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

THE ISSUES

United under the slogan “Strike To           bargaining. By 1998 we had bargained
Win”, Canadian Union of Public               successfully for tuition ‘rebates’ and
Employees (CUPE) Local 3903,                 tuition ‘indexation’ (thus regulating
representing teaching assistants (TAs),      tuition) in the context of funding cuts,
contract faculty, and graduate assistants    deregulation of tuition fees, and massive
(GAs) at York University (Toronto),          tuition increases initiated by the Harris
stopped working on October 26, 2000.         Tories (see Healy’s article in this issue).
The strike followed four months of           Similarly, by 1999 we had secured a
contract talks which had failed to secure    second job promotions program that
the basic provisions of previous             gave a portion of contract faculty some
collective agreements and a first            semblance of job security. Post-
contract for a newly organized               secondary administrations (as well as
bargaining unit. Tuition indexation, a       the government) watched closely,
provision guaranteeing TAs monetary          knowing that our strike would
rebates for every dollar that tuition        inevitably impact bargaining across
increased (essentially preventing TA         Ontario.
wages from being eroded by tuition              After 11 weeks (78 days) and one of
increases by ‘freezing’ tuition) was to be   the longest strikes in Canadian
eliminated for incoming students.            university history, local 3903 celebrated
Similarly, the promotions programs           a hard-fought victory. The contract,
providing some job security for contract     especially the deal with teaching
faculty were threatened with near            assistants, was widely understood as a
extinction. At the same time, requests       capitulation by administration to CUPE
by 3903’s newly organized GAs for a          3903’s demands. Drawing upon the
fair wage that was uniform across            principles, practices, and strategies of
departments, tuition indexation, a small     democracy, solidarity and militancy, we
amount of summer funding, and some           struggled for change in ways that
minimal health benefits, were routinely      expanded our capacities for self-activity
and systematically denied.                   and self-organization. The approach
   Our strike was built on the               was very much grounded in a ‘socialism
foundations of earlier (albeit less          from below’ perspective, which David
dramatic) battles fought and won in          McNally (2001, 24) describes as
previous rounds of collective                “building the self-activity,
                                             consciousness, combativity and self-

78                                                                       Kuhling

organization of workers and oppressed       bargaining team liaisons and through
peoples.” In the process, we gained a       constant bargaining updates and
better understanding of the world           messages relayed to the picket line in
around us and expanded the horizon of       the form of newsletters and pamphlets
possibilities open to us for changing the   as well as via email. Members often
world.                                      communicated their feelings and
                                            analysis regarding bargaining team
BUILDING POWER: RANK-AND-FILE               strategy over our union listserve and
UNION DEMOCRACY                             often e-mailed us directly with concerns
                                            and ideas. Bargaining team members
Two aspects of organizing are               also gave in-person report-backs at our
particularly worth noting for any           weekly General Membership Meetings
adequate understanding of the               (GMMs). During periods when the
development of our union’s democratic       bargaining team was not bargaining,
capacities: the relationship between the    attempts were made by some
bargaining team and the membership at       bargaining team members to walk the
large; and the implementation of            picket line as much as possible and give
membership-driven decision making           verbal accounts of what had been said at
structures and processes.                   the table. Our bargaining practices
   In previous rounds of collective         gradually coalesced around a model
bargaining, some members felt that the      that discouraged the bargaining team
settlements negotiated had been             (and Executive) from constituting
undermined by the isolation of the          themselves as disconnected entities
bargaining team from the rest of the        separate from, and unaccountable to,
membership. Starting with                   the membership. I would describe it as
recommendations emerging from the           a type of ‘bargaining from below’ that
Women’s Caucus in 1998, as well as          strove to take cues from the
subsequent Executive Committee              membership as much as possible. This
recommendations, a series of motions        model conceived the bargaining team as
was passed at general membership            accountable and responsive to an active
meetings that demanded more                 (rather than passive) membership,
accountability from, as well as             taking direction from the membership
communication and consultation with,        on an ongoing basis. The bargaining
the bargaining team.                        team was not, however, free from
   We sought to strengthen and deepen       internal tensions and philosophical
these principles during the strike by       differences regarding this open type of
passing motions at joint executive-         approach – indeed, far from it. But
bargaining team meetings committing         implementing bargaining structures and
the bargaining team (of which I was a       practices allowing more transparency
part) to almost daily communication         and accountability facilitated
with the Executive Committee and            membership participation and
membership. This was achieved               mobilization and contributed to a more
through the establishment of Executive-     democratic union culture.

JUST LABOUR vol. 1 (2002), 77-85                                                 79

   Throughout the strike we sought to       hands. Hence, an eighth ‘guerilla gate’
extend democratic decision-making           was born, replete with a cow skull and
processes in our union as a whole and       horns hung from the tree as a signal to
thus implemented mechanisms that            potential entrants of our omnipresence
allowed for an even greater degree of       on campus. Our weekly (and
democratic (and less-hierarchical)          sometimes more frequent) general
membership-driven decision-making.          membership meetings (GMM) were
For example, during the strike, we          attended by four to six hundred of our
created a Strike Committee open to all      twenty-two hundred members. At these
members that met daily and made the         meetings, touching, inspiring and often
day-to-day decisions about the strike       humorous anecdotes were shared, and
and planned complementary rallies and       motions establishing the principles
occupations. How often should we let a      regarding bargaining, strike strategies,
vehicle through the gates? Should we        and tactics were debated openly. For
picket during convocation? What kind        instance, at one meeting, a motion was
of direct actions should we undertake in    overwhelmingly passed committing the
addition to regular picketing? These        bargaining team to specific language on
kinds of decisions were taken up            tuition protection thereby preventing
regularly in Strike Committee meetings      the language from being diluted by
and vigorously debated. Picket              weaker language. When the mediator
representatives from each of York’s         demanded (most likely at the behest of
seven picketed main entrances and           the employer) that we bargain under a
York’s other campus at Glendon, were        media and communications blackout
strongly encouraged to participate in       prohibiting the bargaining committee
these meetings so as to give voice to,      from communicating with our
and address, the experiences, problems      membership, we held a GMM to decide
and situations that were unique to each     if we should proceed to bargain under
gate. While participants in Strike          such conditions. Our membership
Committee meetings made general             decided that a restricted time period of
decisions governing the strike, each        two days, after which a full report
picket gate also took some autonomous       would be forthcoming, would be
authority, making group decisions           acceptable, as a one-time-only exception
appropriate to the situations that each     to our normal open bargaining process.
picket line encountered. For example,       At yet another GMM, the bargaining
when police ordered us to cease using       team was instructed not to accept any
our blue-safety gates (i.e. metal gates     wage package for the newly organized
used to protect ourselves against           graduate assistants below what was
vehicles), it was left up to each picket-   presently proposed. While a few
line to decide what steps to take.          members challenged the efficacy of this
Similarly, when members noticed             strategy which was referred to as ‘tying
vehicles sneaking into the main campus      the hands of the bargaining team’, such
through a narrow section of bush, they      motions made it extremely difficult to
immediately took matters into their own     even consider bringing back tentative

80                                                                         Kuhling

agreements that did not stand up to          expanding the degree of membership
members’ expectations. It is often far       involvement and participation during
too easy for bargaining team members,        our strike – something at odds with
under constant pressure, deprived of         many traditional bargaining processes
sleep, isolated from the membership in       and union structures - we began to
hotel rooms, and generally driven crazy      develop a sense of our capacities, as
by the employer and each other, to           well as an understanding of where we
misinterpret the resolve and demands of      stood in relation to a coercive employer.
the membership. Ultimately, strong           As we gained confidence and skills, we
links to the members prevent ratcheting      began to exert our power as workers, a
down demands.                                consciousness which did not always
   The strike illuminated the                come easily to some of us. And as we
interconnectedness of militancy and          exerted our power as workers, we began
rank and file democracy in a very            to see how our collective power
concrete way: it served as a living          increased - and watched in amazement
demonstration of how democracy               as we collectively transformed into
facilitated both the exertion of our         something far more than the sum of our
power as well as our collective and self-    individual members.
conscious understanding of ourselves as
workers in struggle. In addition, it         SOLIDARITY
forced many of us to start to think of our
union not as something that existed          The three units of CUPE 3903 – contract
solely to ‘service’ us, but rather as an     faculty, (newly unionized) graduate
extension and expression of our class        assistants, and teaching assistants –
power, and as a vehicle and mechanism        bargain all three contracts
for collectively organizing and              simultaneously as we negotiate to
struggling for social change. While a        secure the best agreement for all units.
large percentage of our young                Our unique alliance, while cumbersome
membership had never before                  at times, has provided the leverage for
participated in a strike, some of us had     aggressive bargaining. As a result, we
been emboldened by real-life examples        have been able to secure exceptionally
and successes of decentralized and           strong collective agreements. As the
democratic decision-making processes         strike progressed, however, the ties of
in the form of affinity-group structures     solidarity became strained as the
and consensus-style spokescouncil            employer tried to play contract faculty
meetings in anti-globalization protests      off against the other units by offering a
like Seattle, Washington and Windsor.        deal the employer predicted would be
These experiences served as a source of      accepted. The employer then called for a
inspiration for many of us, both inside      forced ratification vote (a recent
and outside of bargaining, to build          provision legislated by the Tories which
structures eliciting high degrees of         allows employers to force unions to
active membership participation and          present an offer to members for
decision-making. By drastically              ratification). Philosophical differences

JUST LABOUR vol. 1 (2002), 77-85                                                   81

around transparency and the power of        individuals showed their support on a
the bargaining team in relation to the      regular basis. Prior to the strike we had
Executive and general membership also       already created a Flying Squad which
emerged early on between individuals        acted in solidarity with other unions
and intensified as the strike continued.    and organizations struggling against
But we were able to maintain a              deportations and evictions, lending
remarkable degree of cohesion,              strike support, and participating in
especially given what the employer had      other mass anti-capitalist protests. The
thrown at us.                               number of CUPE 3903 members who
    The principle of solidarity extended,   signed-on to our Flying Squad more
however, beyond the internal                than tripled during the strike, as our
differences among the three units. We       members became increasingly
forged links with undergraduate and         mobilized, politicized and radicalized.
graduate student groups and other              We did not, however, take solidarity
unions on campus. Undergraduate             with the public for granted and
students occupied administrative offices    launched a media campaign and
in support of, and solidarity with, CUPE    outreach strategy at the outset of our
3903. At one point, some                    strike. While our outreach was often
undergraduate students allegedly            limited mainly to the campus through
hacked into the computer system and         the distribution of many colourful
posted “rally” announcements for            leaflets, we did try to branch out to
CUPE 3903. York University Faculty          other public places. Our strike
Association (YUFA) support was              inevitably evoked questions regarding
extremely important – support that had      the erosion of accessibility and quality
been cultivated during and since            of education and educational work – for
YUFA’s own strike four years earlier        us as workers and as students as well as
when many contract faculty and              for the wider community. And raising
teaching assistants supported picket        these questions allowed for discussions
lines and marched in support of YUFA.       to take place regarding the larger
    Solidarity was also extended beyond     restructuring in universities which was
the confines of York’s campus to the        characterized by privatization and
broader community. Many other union         layoffs (and which intersected with
allies became a familiar sight on our       other forms of deregulation of public
picket lines, too. Other CUPE and           services and programs, and
Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) locals          corresponding changes to legislation).
walked with us regularly, and CAW           While the corporate media usually
Local 112 delivered sandwiches to all of    managed to avoid such issues, we were
our picket lines on a daily basis           able to raise them periodically, and our
throughout the strike. The Ontario          concerns resonated with some of the
Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), the       public.
Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s
Federation (OSSTF), and many other
unions, community organizations, and

82                                                                          Kuhling

MILITANCY                                   near-strikes, and as a result, a significant
                                            portion of the membership was already
An understanding of power was central       well informed and mobilized. As the
to our ability to maintain a militant       strike continued, we began to develop a
stance against the university               multi-pronged approach, embodied in a
administration. Some of us did not          slogan which emerged out of a GMM
begin the strike with this understanding    part-way through the strike: ‘escalate
of power - nor, for that matter, with a     and diversify’. We then sought to find
genuine understanding of the meaning        ways to put increasing pressure on York
and practice of solidarity or               administration, and diversify our
membership driven decision-making.          strategies and tactics to facilitate this
Rather, our understanding of power          process, as well as provide us with
was borne out of concrete collective        ongoing morale boosting. Again, Strike
struggle, out of our experiences during     Committee meetings were the place
the strike, on the picket line, in          where interested members could plan,
bargaining, and in our dealings with the    coordinate, and undertake our
administration and the media. We            expressions of dissent, protest, and
learned that the most well-crafted,         ‘direct action’ both on and off campus.
skilled, persuasive arguments in            Many creative schemes, rallies,
bargaining often counted for nothing.       occupations, and street theatre
This came as a shock to some of us who      presentations were conjured up during
work in an environment celebrating          Strike Committee meetings, such as
(and supposedly practicing) the power       ‘Counter-Convocation’ and the ‘Twelve
of reason. But we quickly learned that it   Dirty Deeds of Xmas’ (which included
was really about power. Winning             occupations of the offices of Liberal
strikes was not about winning               Headquarters and workplaces of Board
arguments, nor about moral persuasion,      of Governor members, as well as
nor about one’s debating prowess at the     subversive Xmas caroling in front of the
bargaining table. Indeed, we gradually      house of the President of York
realized that the bargaining process,       University, to name just a few
while still important, was in the end       examples).
subordinated to the economic and               The ‘escalate and diversify’ strategy
political leverage we could exert over      included internal actions involving the
the employer through the withdrawal of      University Senate as well. While York
our labour power and through our            University’s Senate Policy 8 already
ability to disrupt the normal functions     protects students from academic
and operations of York University.          penalties should they choose not to
   Throughout our strike, we were           cross picket lines or hand in exams or
continually complimented on our             papers, CUPE 3903 members and
efficient picket lines that brought the     supporters in Senate introduced
university to a near standstill. It had     carefully crafted resolutions designed to
helped that several previous rounds of      further exert pressure upon the
collective bargaining had resulted in       employer. One of these resolutions

JUST LABOUR vol. 1 (2002), 77-85                                                  83

allowed classes to be canceled if the      arrests occurred. At one point,
academic integrity of a course was         administration confiscated our fire
seriously compromised by low               barrels, firewood, pylons and safety
attendance due to the strike. At one       gates and only returned them after
point, York University president Lorna     several days. Such tactics left our
Marsden had requested Senate               membership undeterred. Indeed, late
Executive give her powers to overturn      into the strike, the membership
Senate 8. Members of 3903 and              demanded that we lengthen the number
supporters stalled the meeting for         of hours picketed per day.
several hours through an occupation so        Approximately one month into the
the offensive policy could not be          strike, the administration refused to
rammed through.                            bargain with us unless we ‘substantially
    The militancy that we developed was    modified’ our demands, while at the
a lively and spirited one. At one point,   same time accusing us of walking away
close to Xmas, we joined up with those     from the bargaining table. When the
forces opposing changes to the             administration finally made an offer in
Employment Standards Act and sung          mid-December, the membership
“Solidarity Forever” in the legislature.   rejected it at a GMM.
Our militancy expressed itself in drama,      One of administration's final tactics,
song, music, drumming, puppets,            was the request for a government-
theatre, spectacle, games, cookouts,       administered forced ratification vote
teach-ins and poetry on the lines. A       (which they spent an estimated $100,000
queer picket line emerged, ‘history on     organizing and advertising for it,
the line’ was shared, and our Guerilla     including allegedly hiring a consulting
Rhythm Squad sometimes went from           agency). Once again, however, the
line to line. It was militancy that bred   administration completely
solidarity and fostered community, a       underestimated our members’ solidarity
militancy complementing, and in turn       and militancy. Sixty-three percent of
reinforcing, the solidarity and            our members (one unit even voting as
democratic participation of our            high as 79%) voted ‘NO’ to this anti-
members.                                   union attempt at strikebreaking.
    And while our members’ resolve was        On the day before a tentative deal
sometimes challenged by the doomsday       was finally reached, our members were
scenarios that surfaced from time to       building shacks on the picket lines
time during the strike – from the media,   (amidst a massive outpouring of
administration, or some ‘alleged’          solidarity by ‘union muscle’, as one
informant – our determination did          newspaper phrased it). These semi-
prevail. When administrators ordered       permanent structures were as much
us off the property and police             symbols of our resolve that we were not
threatened to charge us with               moving as they were protection from
trespassing, we held an emergency          the biting wind and cold. So while
GMM and decided to resume our              threats of trespassing charges, back-to-
positions and continue picketing. No       work legislation, bad-faith bargaining,

84                                                                            Kuhling

forced ratification votes, and injunctions     obtained for TA’s and Contract Faculty.
did strike fear and doubt in some of us        Finally, we negotiated groundbreaking
at times, we were able to pull together,       language for all units securing an eight-
dispel our fears, gather our wits, and         week transsexual transition leave and
maintain our resolve.                          amending our harassment and
                                               discrimination language to include
VICTORY                                        transsexual transition status, gender
                                               expression and gender identity as the
In material terms, several contract            basis of discrimination.
provisions not only countered attempts            The effects of this victory are still
to gut our collective agreements, but          being felt, reverberating outward in a
also managed to continue incremental           multitude of ways. For 78 days we took
gains through bargaining. For teaching         back our campus, we brought York
assistants, we indexed tuition rebates to      University to a near standstill and
corresponding increases, in the face of a      determined to a large extent how the
government intent on deregulating,             course of events on campus (and
privatizing, and gutting student and           sometimes off-campus) unfolded from
worker rights. Contract faculty secured        day to day. We began to see our
four tenure stream conversion                  connection to our history, to a history
appointments and six special renewable         which we were forging each and every
contracts, as well as language that            day. We began to feel connected with
affirmed the on-going nature of these          each other, as part of a strong union and
job promotions programs. For graduate          a progressive York community– a
assistants we were able to win a first         sentiment many of us repeated over and
contract for approximately 400 people,         over at our various meetings. And we
an incredible feat in the present neo-         began to feel connected to other
liberal climate. Before our strike, the        people’s struggles: from refugees who
employer offered graduate assistants a         were being threatened with
base wage of $4500 with no summer              deportations, to those who were being
funding, no health benefits, UHIP fund,        threatened with evictions, to other
or rebates. As a result of the strike, we      striking workers. Approximately 250 of
secured a uniform base wage of $7,300          our members traveled to Quebec City to
(by the second year of the collective          take part in the protests against the Free
agreement) across all departments,             Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),
$100,000 per year of summer funding,           joining demonstrators at the fence and
an initial tuition rebate, a health benefits   urging others to do likewise. Our union
package (80% paid by the employer in           was also active organizing for the fall
the first year and 100% in the second          2001 campaign of economic disruption
year), as well as discrimination and           in the province of Ontario against the
harassment language and a grievance            Harris Tories.
procedure. A two-year deal was struck              For those of us who had never been
for all three units (a reprieve from           on strike, this was the beginning of a
yearly bargaining) and a 2% raise was          process of politicization and

JUST LABOUR vol. 1 (2002), 77-85                      85

radicalization. If we were not certain or
even aware of our collective power at
the beginning of our strike, we most
certainly were by the end. The threats
facing workers and many other
oppressed groups are formidable, and
these threats are hardly over –
particularly in this era of capitalist
triumphalism. But greater democracy,
solidarity and militancy in our unions
and mass movements will allow us to
transform the world we live in, struggle
by struggle. This is how we struck and
won.

Note:
Shorter versions of this article appeared in issues
#28 and #29 of the New Socialist.

References:

Healy, T 2002 Public exclusion, under funding
   and the intensification of work: universities
   and the erosion of democracy in Ontario. Just
   Labour 1, 68-76.
McNally, D 2001 Mass Protests in Quebec City:
   From Anti-Globalization to Anti-Capitalism.
   New Politics, Summer, 24.