The job of a labour union is to represent its membership. However, given the recent union rhetoric in the auto industry, the TTC, with elementary school teachers, and the staff at York, one has to wonder if the unions have the best interests of its membership at heart? When York put an offer on the table last week and the union refused to put the offer in front of the 3,340 striking teaching assistants, contract faculty and graduate assistants, York put an end to any further talks and has used its right to force workers to vote on its latest offer. York’s most recent offer included wage and benefit increases of 10.7% over three years. The union rejected the offer, refused to let the membership vote on the deal, and did not present a counter offer.

As a result York asked the Ontario’s minister of labour to organize a supervised vote on its latest offer. This is a right that employers have and may exercise only once during negotiations. This supervised vote will likely take place in the next week or so. As yet there are no details on where and when the vote will take place and whether or not there would be separate votes for each unit - 950 contract faculty, 1,850 teaching assistants, and 550 graduate assistants.

Of course the union is not amused with this latest development. They are encouraging member to vote no to the deal. It is going to be very interesting to see the result of the vote. If the members vote to accept the deal, what does this say about the union? Instead of going on ill conceived strikes will CUPE members take action against a union that has no interest in its members?