The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) has shown in the last two years they’re willing to sue and be sued to save undergraduate students money.
Last year they broke their shared health plan with the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA), claiming graduate students are more expensive to insure.
In January the undergraduate union started a second lawsuit against the GSA. The dispute is over a fee for use of CUSA service centres, which the GSA has not paid in years past, and may continue to withhold this year. The GSA maintains it does not owe CUSA this fee in full.
The money being withheld—about $113,000—looks bad for CUSA. At some point the service centres will need the cash. But cash isn’t all that’s at stake here.
The unions’ approach to their conflict this year shows a chronic lack of communication.
Before the lawsuit began, the groups could have used Carleton’s ombudsperson, an independent, free-of-charge mediator, to sort their differences.
They never did. The two offices—located two floors apart in the same building—used email to set up dates for mediation, but never met for a session.
Both blame the other, and there it is: another court document stamped.
While there may be sound legal or financial reasons for the lawsuit, the organizations must consider the profound effects their actions have.
Not only do they impact office morale today, but they influence their successors, and create prejudices between unions that are meant to work together, not in opposition.
At Carleton, lawsuits last longer than elected officials, and our representatives need to remember that.
