It has also changed the locks on the bell tower so they cannot access the bells.
According to the Daily Telegraph the Central Council of Church Bell Ringers says "something has clearly gone wrong" between the volunteers and the Dean and Chapter of York Minster, the group which governs the bell ringers.
The Council also hopes the situation is resolved as soon as possible.
It has been reported that the captain of York Minster bell ringers was not formally accountable to its Dean and Chapter. The governing body wants to make a formal bell ringing position to rectify this.
It is currently unclear what dispute, if any, occurred between the volunteers and the governing body, and what health and safety rules were breached.
The sackings means the York Minster bells (inside the bell chamber, below) will not ring until they have employed someone, they expect this to be around Easter- missing Christmas, New Year, and Remembrance Sunday.
York Minster said: "The Chapter of York is committed to having a fully trained, motivated and engaged body of staff and volunteers by 2020. Since 2014 we've been working with our groups of volunteers to introduce a consistent standard of recruitment, induction, training and development.
"It is also critically important to ensure that there is a consistent approach to health and safety, governance and risk management across all of our volunteer teams.
"In order to make these changes we sometimes need to close existing volunteering roles so that we can move forward with the new processes. This is what has happened with our bell ringers.
"It does mean that they will no longer have access to the bell tower: that is non-negotiable as Chapter is responsible for the safety and security of all of the Minster's spaces."
