[9] A "key figure" was historian J. L. Granatstein, who was "determined to help turn YUFA into a certified bargaining agent" when he became its chair in 1975.

Some faculty, especially at the law school, challenged the certification; Granatstein found this "frustrating" and resigned early in 1977 before his term was finished.

[17] The second began on 20 March 1997 and lasted fifty-five days, making it the longest academic strike in English Canada to that time.

[18] The main issues were compensation, workload and class sizes, equity,[19] and the ability to work past the normal retirement age of 65,[20] a right that York eliminated the year before.

In the 2018 York University strike it was CUPE 3093 (contract faculty, teaching assistants and graduate assistants) who were on strike, not YUFA, but it "caused tensions between on campus between the administration and CUPE 3903 and the York University Faculty Association.