The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) will now support Carleton residence fellows who want to unionize, in a reversal of an earlier decision by the organization’s head office.
CUPE president Paul Moist took full responsibility for what he described as a “communication error,” according an article published on rabble.ca.
“We’re very happy that they’ve reversed their decision,” said Marina Tronin, one of three former residence fellows who spearheaded the original bid to unionize.
While they have since resigned as residence fellows, Tronin, Miranda Moores, and Shelisa Klassen will now join CUPE as organizers, acting as a go-between for the union and the residence fellows.
The three met with Moist earlier in the week to discuss the original decision. During the meeting, Tronin said Moist apologized and took full responsibility for the mistake.
“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,” she said.
CUPE National could not be reached for comment.
In October 2013, a male residence fellow was fired after complaints about harassment and intimidation, but Tronin, Moores, and Klassen remained unsatisfied with the way their complaints were handled.
In November all three residence fellows sought help from CUPE in order to correct what they described as unsafe working conditions and unfair labour contracts.
They managed to get the support of 51 per cent of res fellows in three days, before CUPE’s head office sent out an email to end the organization campaign.
Tronin said now that they have support from the union, they hope to pursue a raise increase and bring changes to the res fellow contract.
