Since March 27, about 3,000 people have been on strike
As the end of the school year nears at Carleton University, students and staff are worried about what will happen with the semester.
The largest union at Carleton went on strike on March 27. This union includes contract faculty, teaching assistants (TAs), and research assistants.
About 3,000 workers at the university are represented by Local 4600 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
“We are still making progress. We still think a deal is almost done, “Pierre Blais, a strike organizer with CUPE, said this.
Since August, talks have been going on, but pay and intellectual property rights for contract instructors are the main points of contention. The union also wants the ratio of students to TAs to get better.
“Carleton’s offer of pay for teaching assistants and research assistants just wasn’t enough. We’re among the province’s lowest-paid workers, and we just need to catch up “Blais said.
He said that even though there had been some progress on intellectual property and pay for contract teachers, nothing was set in stone.
Pay higher elsewhere, TA say
Rayhane Mejlaoui, a TA in the health sciences department of the university, was picketing Wednesday because of pay.
She said from the picket line, “The offers they made us were kind of a joke, like we don’t make as much as the University of Ottawa.”
“It makes me feel like my work isn’t being valued,” she added.
“I do research here, which is a big help to them. I get to help them write papers that they can sign. So I feel like going to Carleton was a mistake and that I would have been better off at University of Ottawa.”
A university policy says that if a labor dispute lasts for 11 days or more, the senate executive must call together the Academic Continuity Committee. This committee will “oversee the process of determining, directing, and taking the necessary corrective actions.”
Thursday will be day 11 in this case.
Carleton told CBC in an email that it is making plans to “minimize disruptions to the academic year for students.”
The university said that it doesn’t expect to have to make the term or graduation dates longer, and it has no plans to cancel the term. It also said that exams would go on as planned and that students’ grades and course progress would not be affected by the strike.
The university also pointed to the most recent bargaining update, which lists the contracts it offered and why it thinks they are competitive.
Stressed student
Students are still worried.
“I need my grades and to sign up for a lot of classes if I want to get funding for this year,” said Indigenous and Canadian Studies student Kiyanaw Bird, who is in her fourth year. His scholarship depends on how well he does in school and how well he can prove he finished the semester.
“I need my class grades to finish my degree, but I won’t be able to get them for a while. I hope this strike will end soon.”
The same thing is going on with Sigmund Ehrlich.
Some of the second-year law student’s elective classes were canceled, and he doesn’t know how to prepare for his exams because he hasn’t gotten all of his grades yet. He’s also worried about paying for next year and getting a job over the summer.
He said, “I don’t know if the year is going to end at the usual time.” “A lot of things are still up in the air.”