Update on negotiations with CUPE 3902 Unit 3

The University of Toronto’s process for recruiting and hiring new teaching-stream and tenure-stream faculty appointments is being challenged in negotiations with CUPE 3902 Unit 3, the union that represents contract sessional lecturers on U of T campuses. 

The University and CUPE 3902 Unit 3 are in negotiations for a renewal collective agreement. CUPE 3902 Unit 3 represents a diverse group of approximately 1,200 employees working as sessional course and writing instructors on term contracts of less than one year. 

CUPE 3902 has proposed that the University “convert” a minimum of eight sessional course instructors to full-time teaching-stream and tenure-stream faculty appointments in each academic year, without those individuals being required to participate in a competitive hiring process.

In a statement released on Nov. 16, the University rejected those proposals, calling them inconsistent with U of T’s long-standing “open, collegial and academic unit-based hiring and appointment process” where sessional lecturers apply for advertised teaching-stream and tenure-stream faculty appointments in competition with all other applicants.

Read the complete statement