In the fall of 1975, the York University Graduate Assistant’s Association (GAA) won (enough of) their case before the Ontario Labour Relations Board to allow for the certification of the third union representing “part-time” academics in Canada, and the first to include course instructors alongside teaching assistants. Two name changes, three new units, seven strikes, thirty collective agreements, and one new affiliation later, CUPE 3903 marks the fifty years following certification with a public exhibition of records, artefacts, and memories from the CUPE 3903 Archive.
Beginning Monday, 22 September 2025 and continuing through Friday, 3 October, CUPE 3903 invites members of the public to explore “A Union for Academics???: Fifty Years of CUPE 3903” at the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery.
Highlights from the CUPE 3903 Archive — the largest archive of “part-time” academic labour in Canada — will be on display throughout the exhibition, inviting visitors to imagine new and different ways of understanding York University; academic work in the modern Canadian university; and the many social, cultural, and activist histories that weave between them. Special presentations of additional records, artefacts, videos, music, and digital objects will be presented over the course of the two-week run.
The exhibition is open weekdays, from 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. at the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery (129 Winters College, York University, Keele Campus). There is no charge for admission, and pictures are welcome! We hope to see you there!
A Union for Academics???: Fifty Years of CUPE 3903 is organized by the CUPE 3903 Archive Committee and volunteers, with support from the Canadian Committee on Labour History’s Small Grants Program and the Eleanor Winters Art Gallery.