The university and CUPE 4600, Carleton’s union of teaching assistants and contract instructors, have launched the process of forging a new collective agreement to replace the last, which expired Aug. 31.
Being negotiated are two separate collective agreements that deal with the terms and conditions of employment—one for teaching assistants and another for contract instructors, director of university communications Don Cumming said via email.
“The goal is to achieve a negotiated settlement,” Cumming said.
The negotiations have begun but they are still early in the process, he said.
One issue CUPE 4600 hopes to address is a rate of pay for contract instructors that is eight per cent below the Ontario average, according to a joint statement from CUPE 4600 spokespeople Chris Hurl and Tabatha Armstrong.
The statement said contractor instructors at the University of Ottawa receive compensation for larger class sizes, while Carleton’s do not.
It also said the union’s members are under-representated on university governing bodies.
“Even though [contract instructors] do nearly 25 percent of the teaching on campus, we have no say in the governance of the university,” they said.
Hurl and Armstrong said it is too early in negotiations to speak about the university’s responses to the union’s positions.
