The Carleton University Postdoctoral Association (CUPA) has voted 93 per cent in favour of a strike mandate as the union returns to negotiations Feb. 11 and 12.
CUPA negotiators will have the go-ahead to call a strike during negotiations if they see fit. The vote occurred on Feb. 2 and 3. Results were released on Feb. 4.
William Leigh, president of CUPA, said the mandate was to solidify the participation of the group’s membership, not necessarily with intent to call a strike.
“Part of the process, from our side to make sure [the negotiations] go well is to show that membership is behind us, which is why we have this vote for a strike mandate,” Leigh said.
“People come in,” he said. “We tell them why we are asking for a strike mandate, which is basically to indicate that we have support from the membership, there is unity, and we take that back to the bargaining table and we negotiate.”
“Ideally [we will] reach an agreement with the university and everything is fine. In the slight chance that it doesn’t happen, since once we have the strike mandate we have the ability to call a strike if the negotiations fall through,” Leigh added.
Judith Brown, an executive with CUPA and a Carleton post-doc, said research is the primary job of post-docs.
“We research all day long,” she said. “Post-docs really love what they do. I know I do.”
Negotiation of the 30 articles has been ongoing for a year and a half. Twenty-two articles have been negotiated, but the remaining eight see Carleton’s post-docs asking for better wages and benefits.
Some of those 22 agreements include a collective agreement that will last for three years, compliance of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, and limiting post-docs to working no more than 50 hours per week.
Brown said they are really pleased about the joint achievement to date.
“We have another eight to go, and these are the toughest eight because they have to do with money. Salary, benefits, [and] pension plan,” she said. She added this is the first collective agreement for post-docs at Carleton.
“We will be asking for a higher minimum salary, currently it’s $25,000 and we want to go up to $30,000. We’re asking for annual increases—it’s currently one per cent per annum, but that’s below the rate of inflation, so we’re asking for something that will be bigger than that,” she said.
Brown later added via email that post-docs are asking for an increased minimum salary to reflect more post-docs staying in their jobs longer.
“The market for today’s post-doc is much tighter. Post-docs are also on average older, and they work as postdocs for three to four years on average,” Brown said.
A statement sent to post-docs from the university stated Carleton is “committed to achieving a fair agreement with [CUPA],” adding, “on average, Postdoctoral Fellows in the bargaining unit earn approximately $38,500.”
The statement, however, added, “the union is demanding annual percentage increases that exceed those of any other academic employee group on campus and are higher than the percentage increases generally awarded in the post-secondary sector.”
Since the bargaining process began, CUPA brought in negotiators from the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). PSAC has negotiated collective agreements at Memorial University, Queen’s University, and Western University, Brown said.
The statement from the University concluded by saying “Carleton is committed to continue its efforts to reach a fair and reasonable settlement.”
Brown said she still isn’t happy with the state of post-docs at the university.
“Right now we have no rights as post-docs,” she said. “Post-docs generally don’t stay at the university for very long—they are hoping to land better jobs—however, with the current economic situation it is harder to find that other job, so post-docs are staying longer and longer.”
“If you can imagine what it must be like to do that on a salary of $25,000 per annum that’s horrible. So we’re all pretty outraged by our compensation and we all really want to have better working conditions for sure,” she added.
Negotiations will continue on Feb. 11 and 12.
