The Charlatan spoke to members of CUPE and representatives from the university to verify some of the claims made by both sides, on social media posts and posters, during the negotiations for a new collective agreement this year.
Claim: The university pays undergraduate TAs half what graduate student TAs get paid.
Half-True: According to the collective agreement, which was valid from September 2013 to August 2016, undergraduate TA’s made $22.49 per hour, while graduate TAs made $39.57 per hour.
Claim: Contract Instructors at Carleton get paid 20 per cent less than those at the University of Ottawa (U of O) and Queen’s University.
True: According to data released in a document entitled Facts and Figures by the Canadian Association of University Teachers for the year 2015-16, CIs at Carleton made on average $6,745, while CIs at Queen’s were paid $7,899 and the U of O’s CIs were paid $7,806 per course.
Claim: Carleton’s surpluses are enough to buy every TA and CI a new car each year.
True: CUPE based their numbers on Carleton’s surplus from 2013, which was $51.5 million.
James Brunet, a bargaining team member of CUPE 4600, said in an email that the union has roughly 2,400 TAs, internally funded research assistants, and CIs. The cost of a brand new Honda Fit according to carcostcanada.com is $14,950. With a little bit of multiplication, that works out to $35,880,000, which is below the surplus amount.
Claim: CIs teach 30 per cent of all classes at Carleton
True: This number was calculated based on information released by Carleton’s Office of Institutional Research and Planning.
Steve Tasson, the vice-president of CUPE’s contract instructor bargaining unit, said because the university does not explicitly make these calculations, CUPE broke down the numbers using raw course data.
According to Tasson, in 2015 there were 3,289 undergraduate courses taught at Carleton, of which 1,189 were taught by CIs. This works out to just over 36 per cent.
– Photo by Aaron Hemens
