By: Sam Heaton
Credit: Sam Heaton
Students arriving for their classes on Feb. 5 were met with a lively information picket by two campus unions at the Bronson entrance of campus to raise awareness about workers’ bargaining on campus.
The picket was organized by Carleton’s teaching assistants (TAs), contract instructors (CIs), campus safety employees, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 4600, and the Ontario Public Service Employee’s Union (OPSEU) local 404, respectively.
While only CUPE 4600 and OPSEU 404 are currently in negotiations with Carleton senior management, they were joined in their picket by professors organized as the Carleton University Academic Staff Association (CUASA), support staff members of CUPE 2424, Hospitality and Service Trades Union local 261 representing Carleton Dining Services workers, members of CUPE 1281 and Unifor.
Student groups such as the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) and the Ontario Public Interest Research Group-Carleton also joined the action.
Since the picket, members of both unions voted overwhelmingly to support taking strike action if necessary. Campus Safety workers voted 97.4 per cent in favour, while Carleton TAs and CIs voted 82.5 and 87.5 per cent in favour respectively.
CUPE 4600 has filed a “No Board” request with the Ministry of Labour, and anticipates a legal strike or lockout position to come into effect at 12:01 AM on Monday, Mar. 10.
This means the ball is now in senior management’s court. The upper echelon of power at Carleton must decide whether to accede to the just demands of workers at Carleton to improve teaching and learning conditions and provide adequate funding to campus safety.
The alternative is for senior management to plunge the campus into a strike no one wants.
Campus safety workers have pointed out that staffing levels have remained virtually unchanged since the 1980s, while Carleton’s community has exploded in size. They are demanding adequate coverage, and an end to compensation far below the provincial average.
Carleton’s CIs say they make 8 per cent less than the provincial average, and are seeking to bring their compensation in line with the norm. They say senior management treats them like outsiders, and are seeking a role in university governance. One goal is to be able to equally access campus health facilities and increase job security beyond their current four month contracts.
Carleton’s TAs say they are fighting to protect their wages from being eaten away by tuition increases.
Safety workers’ overwhelming strike vote shows that Carleton’s infringement of their freedom of expression only backfired. Management had attempted on Jan. 21 to ban the wearing of symbols of support for the union among OPSEU 404 members.
CUPE 4600 members’ demands for respect, a say in campus governance, and to defend their rights have demonstrated that their teaching conditions are students’ learning conditions.
Carleton president Roseann Runte, who earns over $300,000 annually, wrote in a Jun. 2013 editorial for the Globe and Mail that classes should have higher enrolment, and be taught by “less well-paid individuals.”
With senior management’s neoliberal vision for the university looming overhead, the challenge for students is to not allow themselves to be diverted into begrudging the workers and fellow students who TA.
Most students benefit from properly funded public education. Those who make Carleton work – including CUPE 4600 and OPSEU 404 members – are at the forefront of defending public education by defending their own conditions.
When Carleton was brought to the brink of a three-union strike in 2010, the Carleton University Students’ Association, the GSA, and the Carleton Academic Student Government stood together as one in support of our campus workers.
Uniting around the defence of public education and in support of TAs, CIs and Campus Safety workers would be an important contribution of students towards avoiding a strike.
By passing motions, keeping each other informed, organizing events and actions, and engaging in discussion amongst themselves, students can apply pressure to the administration to meet the demands of fellow students and workers organized in their unions.
If Carleton senior management is unable to spread confusion as to whose side is standing up for public education, it is less likely that they will be able to force the campus into a strike, or resolve one to the detriment of workers and students.
This article was first published in the Leveller Vol. 6, No. 5 (Feb/Mar 2014).
