[11] It ended on July 25, when the Ontario Legislature passed the Urgent Priorities Act back-to-work legislation.

[12][13][2] For these reasons, York University stated that "after extensive discussion Friday evening and following careful review of CUPE 3903's lengthy and largely unchanged list of demands shared through the mediator, CUPE 3903's positions remain too far apart from the University's best offer to return to bargaining at this time."

Students that refused to participate in academic activities during the labour disruption were promised reasonable accommodations.

[10] On March 12, 2018, the Minister of Advanced Education and Skills Development, Mitzie Hunter, contacted CUPE 3903 and the York University administration to encourage the two sides to bargain.

[18][19] On March 20, York University presented a revised offer and exercised their statutory power to force a one-time mandatory ratification vote.

[23] CUPE 3903 subsequently filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the Ontario Labour Relations Board.

The complaint alleged that York publicly mischaracterized CUPE 3903 demands, incorrectly characterized the demands as illegal, and during a previous labour disruption appropriated the domain name CUPE3903.com to direct internet searches for information on CUPE to the university's own labour page.

[25] CUPE 3903 would learn that "CUPE3903.com" was billed to York University by Michael Schiff, an employee in the office of the Faculty of Graduate Studies.

[40] From the start of the labour disruption, York University adopted a hard line on its offer, and urged CUPE to accept it, or agree to arbitration.

[41] At the conclusion of the inquiry, Kaplan noted in his report that "the parties have reached an impasse and there is no reason to believe that they will be able to resolve their dispute through free collective bargaining.

While praising Commissioner Kaplan's recommendation for the creation of a government task force on precarity in postsecondary education employment, the Ontario Federation of University Faculty Associations condemned York and Kaplan's position that arbitration was the answer and that CUPE 3903 should be legislated back to work.

[51][52] Criticism among students has been directed at both CUPE 3903 and York University President Rhonda Lenton's poor handling of the dispute.

[53][54][55][56] In light of Kaplan's recommendation, on May 7, the Ontario government introduced Bill 70, the York University Labour Disputes Resolution Act, 2018.

[59] Following the vote, York University announced that Unit 2 members would return to work on the following Monday, June 18.

[64][60] On July 16, 2018, the newly elected 42nd Parliament of Ontario introduced Bill 2 into the legislature, formally called the Urgent Priorities Act.

Premier Ford argued that the back-to-work legislation was for the sake of the students, claiming that they were "the only people getting hurt" in the conflict between CUPE 3903 and York Administration.

[66][67] The chairman of CUPE 3903, Devin Lefebvre, spoke out against the legislation claiming that it was a violation of workers rights.

[71] According to Richard Wellen, York University Faculty Association (YUFA) president, at the time of a press conference bringing together representatives from YUFA, the Ontario Federation of Labour, and York University's Graduate Student Association, it was "becoming clearer every day that the major reason for the continuation of this strike is the categorical refusal of the administration and board of governors to bargain with the union."

Wellen also observed that "the administration is determined to break the union and is putting that desire ahead of university and student interests" [72] CUPE 3903 added that York Administration had; attempted to replace bargaining with a public relations campaign, misrepresented union processes, had red lines that it refuses to discuss, and that it had decided to not put students first in its labour dispute.