Carleton faces a potential strike, but the three unions involved are unsure as to when or even if it will happen, representatives from several Carleton unions said at a panel discussion Oct. 26.
“The university does desire to put undergraduates in the middle. They are a bargaining tool,” said James Meades, co-president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4600, whose union is voting this week on a strike vote mandate.
The unions do care about students, but they are also responsible for the interests of their members, Meades added. They have very few options to pressure the administration into changing their offers other than making a strike a possibility, Meades said, but CUPE 4600 is looking into mediation and arbitration.
CUPE Local 2424, the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA) and CUPE 4600 are involved in contract negotiations with the university’s administration.
“It’s a really weird dance, this bargaining, and especially when your dancing partner has their feet cemented to the ground,” said Meades.
Wiz Long, CUPE 2424’s president, said her union’s negotiators have had the same problems with the negotiators for Carleton’s administration.
Patrizia Gentile, chair of CUASA’s internal affairs committee, said the university has moved from their original positions on some of the issues in CUASA’s contract negotiations, but not all of them.
Jason MacDonald, director of Carleton’s department of university communications, said the administration is continuing negotiations and does not want a strike to occur. The union representatives at the panel also said they do not wish to go on strike.
The representatives from the three unions in negotiations started by telling the audience who their union represents, explaining which issues they are bargaining over, and what has frustrated them so far in negotiations.
Long said CUPE 2424 represents support staff around the university, or “any position which works to support the academic climate,” with the exception of management.
CUPE 2424 has been in negotiations since their contract expired on June 30, Long said. The union voted for a strike mandate in late September. Their main negotiation issues involve job security and the direction of post-secondary education at Carleton, she added.
“[Negotiations are] very friendly at the table, but not saying anything and not committing to anything,” Long said.
CUASA, representing contract professors and librarians, voted for a strike mandate in early October after their collective agreement expired on April 30.
They have a few main points they are sticking to at this stage of negotiations, Gentile said. The union’s biggest concern is with promotion and tenure, she said.
Their other concerns include bonus pay, teaching evaluations, intellectual property rights, which refers to any work they produce while under contract, and academic freedom, she said.
“[Academic freedom] allows us to talk about controversial issues without actually fearing for the loss of our jobs, which allows for the freedom of intellectual exchange,” Gentile explained.
In an email sent to students earlier this month, Lise Labine, the assistant vice-president of human resources at Carleton, wrote that CUASA does not have the right to strike.
Gentile said they cannot strike over monetary issues, like salary, but they may strike over non-monetary issues, like academic freedom. MacDonald maintained CUASA cannot strike at all.
Meades represented CUPE 4600’s two separate negotiation groups on the panel: teaching assistants and contract instructors. Their collective agreements expired on Aug. 31, he said.
Both groups are concerned with wage freezes, he said, and the teaching assistants want to reduce the size of tutorials.
“Anecdotes don’t equal data, but I personally taught a tutorial with 66 students. This, to me, is not a tutorial. If you want to do interactive, small group work, doing it with 66 students in 50 minutes is nearly impossible,” Meades said.
They, along with the other unions, have never gone on strike at Carleton before, Meades said, but it is a bargaining tactic they have to use to gain some power and show they are serious.
Brandon Wallingford, Carleton Academic Student Government’s history representative, said he does not want a strike and asked the union panelists what would happen to students’ academic year if a strike occurs.
“I know that something we would push for would be academic amnesty, so as not to jeopardize students,” Meade responded.
“From our point of view, we don’t want to get to that place,” MacDonald said.
The night was hosted by Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) and the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA). Both student unions have passed motions to officially support the three unions.
Another union on campus may soon join the fray. In an email this week, the university announced they have been “given mandate to bargain with CUPE 910.” According to Carleton’s staff relations website, CUPE 910 represents about 70 maintenance workers on campus, and their collective agreement expires on Dec. 31.