In 2000 and 2001, CUPE Local 3903 staged a momentous strike from October 26 to January 10. The work action took place at the height of the Harris years whose vicious neoliberal policies launched a series of unprecedented attacks on working families, students, First Nations, immigrants, the environment, the entire public sector, and almost every marginalized group in the province. It also coincided with the rise of local struggles against poverty and the global justice movement that was just then beginning to mobilize for the FTAA summit in Quebec City.

While at York, the dispute largely focused on an attempt by the university to claw back tuition indexation and other wage concessions, it was exacerbated by the administration's heavy handed tactics during the strike that had only strengthened the union's resolve. Moreover, as the first contract for Unit 3, many Masters' students joined in the pickets, protests, and actions, providing a much needed boost to the round-the-clock picket lines. By the end of the year, the ranks developed an incredible sense of camraderie, huddled over makeshift heat sources in the bitter winter cold, supplied and fed by the larger community including other unions.

After 76 days, the union emerged victorious. Archived below are links to only a few of the articles and photos of that struggle from which the union still draws strength and pride today.

• strike photo gallery
  
  

• Reflections on the CUPE 3903 Strike from York and Beyond
  j_spot, a Journal of Social and Political Thought published a retrospective special issue one year after the strike. The best compilation of commentaries, narratives, artwork, and letters out there, it is fortunately accessible on the web.
  
  

• How CUPE 3903 Struck and Won (PDF)
• Public Exclusion, Under Funding, and the Intensification of Work: Universities and the Erosion of Democracy in Ontario (PDF)
  Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society reprinted these indepth backgrounders to the labour strife at York, the first constituting an account of the strike from a labour organizing perspective and the second a more general look at the declining state of education under the Harris neoliberal onslaught.
  
  

• Striking to Win at York University
• CUPE 3903 Resists Corporatization at York
• Fighting the Neoliberal Agenda in Post-Secondary Education
  Workplace, a Journal of Academic Labor published these three features during the throes of the strike.
  
  

• York University TA's Strike!
• Back to School at York U
  Science Magazine published these two news segments.
  
  

• eye: students or shareholders?
  eye newsweekly published this article on how the strike has exposed the creeping corporatization of the university.
  
  

• now: a deal just in time
  now newsweekly published this article on how the union hung tough and pulled out a decisive victory, thus also invigorating Ontario's sagging labour movement.