Vote “YES” for a Strike Mandate!
Strike Mandate Vote 2024
Where: Online Vote (SimplyVoting).
When: Thursday February 8 at 9AM – Thursday February 15 at 8PM.
How: You will receive a unique voting link via email when the electronic vote opens. You can only vote once. All Unit 1 Members who have received a paycheque for Unit 1 work in the last 12 months can vote.
Results: Results will be available within 24 hours of vote closure.
What is a strike mandate?
The Strike Mandate Vote is a necessary step in any round of bargaining. The vote asks CUPE 3902 Unit 1 members to decide whether or not they grant the Union’s Executive Committee the right to call for strike if strategically necessary to reach a fair contract with your employer.
Why we strike
The University of Toronto (U of T) is Canada’s richest and largest university, and it expands this power at the expense of its most precarious workers. U of T hires an army of lawyers, consultants, and well-paid bureaucrats specifically trained in diluting the ideas we bring to the bargaining table, to protect their bottom line and sow divisions between members of the U of T community. You and your coworkers are not powerless against this. Together, you can enact the ultimate expression of collective power: work-refusal, or going on strike.
Why you need to vote YES for a strike mandate
The University prefers it when you and your coworkers are apathetic about or disconnected from the bargaining process. They will never agree to your demands–no matter how reasonable or necessary–unless they know that you pose a credible strike threat. The best demonstration of your unity and willingness to strike is the strike mandate vote. If thousands of you participate in the vote and an overwhelming majority vote “yes” for a strike mandate, it sends a strong message of worker unity to U of T, and it puts your Bargaining Committee in a more powerful position to make critical gains at the bargaining table. (See our platform here.)
Does this mean we’re going on strike?
Not necessarily. A majority “yes” strike mandate vote does not automatically trigger a strike – it gives the Union the right to call for job action, up to and including a strike, if needed to reach a fair contract with your employer. Without a majority “yes” strike mandate, your Bargaining Committee has virtually no power at the bargaining table.
