The union representing postdoctoral fellows at Carleton are currently in the process of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement with the university.
The Carleton University Postdoctoral Association (CUPA) has been in discussions with the university since the union was approved by the Ontario Labour Relations Board in December 2012, said Carleton media relations officer Chris Cline.
Postdoctoral fellows, informally called postdocs, hold PhDs or doctorate degrees and are hired by the university to do research. They are not considered as faculty or students.
There are 21 postdocs currently in CUPA, said William Leight, the union’s acting president. He estimated there are around 30-40 postdocs at Carleton.
Postdocs can be divided into three categories: those whose research is funded by the university, those funded from external sources, and those who have a mix of both, said Judith Brown, an executive for CUPA and a member of its bargaining team.
The union and university have held three meetings so far. The first issue discussed was who would be included in the union, Brown said.
CUPA and the university agreed postdocs must have at least 50 per cent of their funding from the university for them to be included in the union.
“We wanted a really broad scope clause, what we got was a scope clause similar to other universities,” Brown said.
Postdoctoral fellows have unionized at universities including the University of Toronto, Queen’s University, and the University of Western Ontario.
Leight could not say what else CUPA wanted in the negotiations but said, “we hope to achieve better working conditions for Carleton postdocs.”
Better pay and access to third-party conflict resolution processes were some of the benefits to unionizing, according to CUPA’s website.
In 2012, then-CUPA vice-president Christopher Hassall said one of the benefits he hoped to get out of unionizing is a better health plan.
The university is satisfied with the outcome on who would qualify to be in CUPA.
“We are pleased with the outcome of the process,” Cline said.
CUPA was also “satisfied with the progress of the meeting so far,” said Leight.
Brown also said their effort to unionize was not out of anger.
“It’s not as if we are treated badly but we just want to be treated as employees,” she said.
CUPA has joined the Canadian Association of University Teachers, Brown said.
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