Another Ontario university may soon find its operations severely impacted by a strike.

Sessional instructors at the University of Toronto have voted themselves into a legal strike position.

On Nov. 9, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 3902 will be able to strike. The union represents part-time lecturers and instructors who teach approximately 30 per cent of U of T’s undergraduate courses.

Mikael Swayze, the staff representative for CUPE local 3902, cited three main sources of contention for the union going into negotiations: wages, job security and research.

Most of the University’s bargaining units were in negotiations last year before, during, and after the economic crisis, Swayze said.  He noted that even with the financial troubles, most groups were given annual increases of around three per cent.

“Now, [U of T] is coming to the bargaining unit and saying one point five per cent for three years,” Swayze said. “Our members are only paid on average about $15,000 a year.”

He noted the discrepancy in wages was especially visible when U of T was compared to Ryerson and York universities.

Sessional instructors at U of T only organized under a union relatively recently, compared to Ryerson and York’s units who organized in the 1970s. “We’ve been playing catch-up ever since,” Swayze said.

Sessional instructors at U of T should not pay a premium to work at the school, he added. “Especially when our full-time faculty members are paid much more than their counterparts at York or Ryerson.”

Another issue brought forward was job security. Under current conditions, sessional instructors must reapply for their positions every four to eight months, making it difficult to count on long-term work in Swayze’s eyes.

“It’d be great if we had the same job security as a Wal-Mart worker or a Tim Hortons coffee slinger,” Swayze quipped. “We’re not even talking about the same job security as a civil servant or a professor.”

The union’s final grievance concerns research assistance. While the University provides full-time faculty with resources for their research, sessional instructors are required to do research work on their own time and out of their own pocket.

“[Under the current model] there is no conference funding, no grants to do research, no support for subscriptions to academic journals,” Swayze said.

Laurie Stephens, director of media relations for the U of T, explained the school would not comment on issues currently under discussion.

“The University is committed to getting a fair and balanced result from negotiations,” Stephens said.