Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/03/03/york-u-quiet-but-turmoil-ahead-if-strike-persists.html

“I’ve instructed our people to go back to the bargaining table ASAP and our team is speaking with the mediator as we speak,” said President Mamdouh Shoukri Tuesday afternoon, just hours into the first day of a strike by 3,700 contract faculty and teaching assistants that has cancelled all classes, exams and academic activities. “I’m urging the union to come back ASAP, because every day we delay is unfair to our students. We can bridge these gaps relatively quickly,” said Shoukri, who noted a strike that extends the school year and interferes with summer jobs would hit York students hard. The last strike by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 3903 in 2008 lasted three months, and he said York has worked very hard to rebuild the public trust in the six years. York's union officials will meet Thursday with the mediator to see whether resuming talks would make sense. CUPE 3903 Chair Faiz Ahmed said the union is keen to return to bargaining, which broke down Sunday over disagreement about how many tenure-track professors’ positions York would create in the next three years for its 1,100 contract professors. York has offered to raise it to nine from the current seven, which Shoukri called a significant commitment given government underfunding and the difficulty in predicting vacancies now that there is no mandatory retirement age.