Carleton postdoctoral fellows have voted in favour of forming a union this summer in a bid to secure collective bargaining rights from the university, according to Dan Preece, the president of the Carleton University Postdoctoral Association (CUPA).
Approximately 20 people voted, of which 80 per cent voted in favour of unionizing, Preece said. He noted there are around 67 postdoctoral fellows at Carleton.
Postdoctoral fellows, informally called postdocs, have earned PhDs and are employed by the university to do research.
The majority of postdocs at Carleton are funded internally, meaning they are hired by professors who have won grants and are paid through the university’s payroll system. However, approximately 40 per cent are funded by an external research agency such as the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, according to Preece.
The Ontario Labour Relations Board held a vote June 29, but the results were only released in July because the university did not think externally-funded postdocs should be included, Preece said.
Postdoctoral fellows have unionized at several universities, including Western University, McMaster University, and Université du Québec à Montréal, Preece said.
“But each of these are only for internally-funded postdocs,” Preece said. “Because of the similarities between the two in everything except how they are funded, we decided to try to unionize both groups together in one push.”
On Sept. 24, there will be a hearing to determine whether externally-funded postdocs are Carleton University employees, Preece said. If the labour relations board decides in their favour, they can be part of the union.
Once unionized, the postdocs can then negotiate a collective agreement with the university, Preece said.
“The University respects the democratic rights of members of our community. We look forward to working with the Carleton University Postdoctoral Association in the future,” Carleton media relations co-ordinator Chris Cline said.
The postdocs want benefits like a set minimum wage and access to conflict resolution procedures, according to CUPA’s website.
They also want access to the names and contact information of all postdocs who work at Carleton, Preece said.
“One of the biggest barriers we had is that postdoctoral fellows are very spread out throughout the university, and the administration never gave us a full list. This makes it difficult to build a community of postdoctoral scholars,” he said.
“Postdocs are neglected because they only recently came in existence,” said Christopher Hassal, a biology postdoc and a CUPA vice-president.
He said one of the benefits he hopes to get out of unionizing is a better health plan than the one currently offered at Carleton.
“A lot of postdocs are at the point in their lives where they are starting families, so things like maternity leave and dental insurance become very important,” Hassal said.
“We just want to gain the acknowledgement that we are an important part of the Carleton workforce.”
“This wasn’t because we are really angry at Carleton and so we need to find something to protect us,” Preece said. “It’s an attempt to democratize the process and allow us to become involved with it.”
