Mediated resolution reached with CUPE

The University of Toronto has reached a mediated resolution to three grievances and a complaint to the Ontario Labour Relations Board filed by CUPE 3902 Unit 1 that will resolve all outstanding issues related to the renewal of the existing collective agreement. 

The agreement applies to the approximately 6,500 teaching assistants who work on the university’s three campuses over the course of a year.  

Angela Hildyard, vice-president, human resources and equity, said the resolution is good news for the university and for teaching assistants. 

“I am very pleased that with provincial arbitrator William Kaplan’s assistance we have reached an agreement, and that the union will now start to flow funds to those of their members who are eligible for this additional financial support,” Hildyard said.

Under the deal reached with the union, the university will increase the amount available in the Graduate Student Bursary Fund by $1 million over the course of the contract. The fund is administered by the union based on needs criteria determined by the local. The $1 million will come from an anticipated surplus in the Tuition Assistance Fund, a new account that was negotiated with the union to provide tuition assistance for eligible graduate students who are members of the union, and will be paid to the union within the next two weeks.

Both funds were established last year as part of an arbitration award by Kaplan. The university and the union agreed last spring to settle their remaining contract issues in binding arbitration following a strike by teaching assistants.

Under the terms of the new agreement, the university also will accelerate its contributions to the Graduate Student Bursary Fund, agreeing to make a $1.045-million payment that is due in September 2017 in the coming weeks. The university also will make a $1.045-million contribution to the Graduate Student Bursary Fund, as planned, in September.

As part of the agreement, the union has agreed to begin allocating bursary funding for 2014-15 to its members as soon as practical and to distribute all of last year’s funding by Oct. 31, 2016.