Efforts to unionize Carleton residence fellows have restarted after the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has agreed to allow the student employees to join.
Following complaints and accusations of harassment, three residence fellows began to organize in November 2013 after getting support from CUPE 4600, Carleton’s union local representing teaching assistants, contract instructors, and research assistants.
Over a three-day period, 51 per cent of res fellows said by signing union cards they wanted to vote on unionization. When the three residence fellows received word from CUPE’s head office to suspend the campaign, they resigned from their positions and moved off campus.
In a meeting with CUPE president Paul Moist where they hoped to get an explanation for the decision, the three former res fellows were surprised to find out that Moist was reversing the decision.
Moist took full responsibility for what he described as “a communication error,” according to an article published on rabble.ca. CUPE National could not be reached for comment.
“They’ve been willing to recognize that there was a mistake made, and they are making steps to try and rectify that,” said James Meades, president of Carleton’s union local, CUPE 4600.
While he said there was no specific point of miscommunication, it appears as if CUPE National was not aware that union cards had been signed when it sent the email to shut down the campaign.
“We’re very happy that they’ve reversed their decision,” said Marina Tronin, one of the three former res fellows who spearheaded the original bid to unionize.
Tronin, Miranda Moores, and Shelisa Klassen will now support CUPE as organizers, acting as a go-between for the union and the residence fellows.
“I think we taught them a lesson probably about the need to expand their membership to include workers like us, and to include student workers. I think that’s probably the best thing that came out of this,” Tronin said.
The first step to unionize is soliciting at least 40 per cent support from res fellows in the form of signed cards. These were already collected in November 2013 and Tronin said she hopes to send them to the Ontario Labour Relations Board soon.
Five days after they are submitted, a formal secret ballot vote will take place in order to determine if the res fellows want to unionize.
In the mean time, Tronin and Moores are assisting CUPE in holding meetings and information sessions with residence fellows.
Tronin said now that they have support from the union, they hope to pursue a pay increase and bring changes to the res fellow contract.
She said she’d like to see rules around employee protection, sick days, and scheduling, as well as clearly outlined employee duties, and a process to have concerns addressed.
“There’s no basic labour standards followed by the university when it comes to the res fellow positions, and we’d like to correct that,” Tronin said.
