Bargaining between Carleton and its worker unions is digressing—each party pushing the other as far as they will go, and hurting the university’s image in the process.
Talks have stalled between the administration and CUPE 4600, the union representing contract instructors, teaching and research assistants, and OPSEU 404, the union representing campus safety workers.
Ontario has sent bargaining conciliators to work out the kinks. If history repeats itself, the conciliator’s presence in the CUPE 4600 talks will be fruitless and the union will be in a legal position to strike, or Carleton will be in a legal position to lock them out. That’s what happened four years ago.
The same thing could happen with OPSEU 404. They held a vote Feb. 5 giving their bargaining team power to call a strike.
The administration has also made moves at the bargaining table. They told campus safety workers who are publicly visible not to wear union pins on the job.
They have also withheld teaching assistants’ tuition rebates until the issue is off the table. That move earned the university an unfair labour complaint.
At the end of the day, both sides are firing shots at each other over a failure to communicate.
This style of brinkmanship bargaining—not giving in until the last possible moment—hurts the university’s reputation in the eyes of students and the community.
Both sides need to be prepared to make concessions earlier than they have been. It could save a lot of bad press and help let out the bad blood between administration and the unions, a growing force on campus.
