Carleton University has reached a tentative agreement with contract instructors in CUPE 4600.
Contract instructors, which make up unit two of CUPE 4600, will now be leaving the picket lines. Classes will resume as scheduled starting Thursday, according to the university, but members must first vote to ratify the agreement to make it official.
Teaching assistants, which make up unit one of CUPE 4600, have yet to reach a deal and remain on strike.
CUPE 4600 president Noreen Anne Cauley-Le Fevre said unit two’s ratification vote will take place “in the next few weeks,” following informational sessions with members, but no date has been set.
Neither side has shared details of the agreement. Over the weekend, the university had offered 14 per cent salary increases over 3 years and language that protects the intellectual property rights of contract instructors.
There are no set plans for unit one’s return to the bargaining table, but its members, which make up the majority of CUPE 4600, will meet to discuss next plans, according to Cauley-Le Fevre.
Cauley-Le Fevre added contract instructors and faculty are not expected to do the work of teaching assistants, which includes holding tutorials and some grading, while they remain on strike.
“The university still has not addressed the poverty of graduate teaching assistants,” Cauley-Le Fevre said. “Nothing has changed for unit one between yesterday and today.”
With growing concerns about the likelihood of a term extension, the university put contract instructors’ courses back on Brightspace Tuesday without instructors’ consent, leaving many instructors confused and angry.
An email from Carleton provost and vice-president (academic) Jerry Tomberlin obtained by the Charlatan said the university took this decision because “removing student access to course content is unacceptable and unfairly disadvantages students who are registered in ongoing courses.”
Cauley-Le Fevre said the union is concerned and will explore the issue further, but indicated the main priority moving forward would be getting teaching assistants a deal.
“We’re trying to throw all of our capacity now behind unit one to get them a deal,” she said.
Featured image by Nicola Scodro.
