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The two-week old strike at York University appears to have no end in sight with the administration and the union representing 3,300 contract faculty, teaching assistants and graduate assistants still "very far apart" in coming to a negotiated agreement.

The university's latest statement on the negotiations issued Wednesday read, "We are now into the second week of the strike and the fact remains that the positions of the university and the union are very far apart."

The latest offer by the university included a wage increase of 9.25 per cent over three years while the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3903 has demanded an 11 per cent increase over two years. Job security for contract faculty also remains an outstanding issue.

Again, the university restated its proposal to end the strike through binding arbitration.

"The university continues to propose binding arbitration, even though doing so relinquishes some control of the bargaining process to a neutral third party arbitrator," the statement read. "We are prepared to take this extraordinary step in the interest of putting our 50,000 students first and getting them back into the classroom as soon as possible."

But CUPE Local 3903 has refused to settle the labour dispute through binding arbitration, stating it just demonstrates the administration's unwillingness to address the real issues and concerns of the union.

Punam Khosla, union member, noted the administration brought up binding arbitration before any real negotiations took place.

Khosla added the university should focus on coming back to the bargaining table and take part in meaningful discussions instead of updating its website on why binding arbitration is the answer.

"It's not useful for students who paid fees to this administration," said Khosla. "It's all propoganda."