Striking U of T staff to vote today on accepting binding arbitration

WATCH: Striking U of T staff to vote on accepting binding arbitration

TORONTO – University of Toronto teaching assistants currently on strike will vote Thursday afternoon whether to accept the school’s offer for a binding arbitration process to end the labour dispute.

Around 6,000 U of T staff have been on strike since February and have rejected multiple contract offers.

Binding arbitration would get teaching assistants back to work immediately and Meric Gertler, the school’s president, said Wednesday he thinks it’s the most expeditious way of resuming classes.

The union vote will take place at The Fairmont Royal York Hotel located at 100 Front Street West in the Canadian Room at 2 p.m.

Union member Ryan Culpepper told the media during a press conference Thursday morning that both parties are close to an agreement but the university has failed to put in writing the per-member value of the benefits.

“When the tentative agreement was rejected last weekend the employer went public with the numbers,” said Culpepper.

“They said, ‘We offered them $17,500 as a minimum. We offered them tuition reduction to 50 per cent domestic rate.’ If that’s true, we ask them to put that in writing and that would end the strike immediately. That’s all it would take.”