OTTAWA, Ont. Sessional lecturers at Carleton University, represented by Local 4600 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), will resume negotiations with the help of a provincial conciliation officer on April 7th, 2005, in a bid to prevent a strike at the university.
We will do our best to reach a settlement, but we have been extremely frustrated with the approach taken by university management in contract talks so far, said Michael Reynolds, MBA, CA, a member of CUPE 4600s negotiating committee. It has a track record of pushing talks to the edge of a strike before reaching a settlement. We hope we can have productive and meaningful negotiations and achieve a settlement without alarming students and the university community.
In negotiations with the support staff earlier this year, Carleton waited until the last moment before a strike deadline to reach a settlement. CUPE 4600 hopes to settle things this round without the threat of a strike, unless it becomes unavoidable.
Sessional lecturers are professors who are hired on a course-by-course basis. Their responsibilities include lecturing, course design, marking, and counselling students. This year they are teaching more than 700 classes in four faculties, including many of the required first- and second-year courses.
The administrations wage offer is low, lower than what all the other groups accepted in their contract talks with Carleton University, said Maureen Korp, Ph.D., a member of CUPEs 4600 negotiating team. We make a lot less than our colleagues at the University of Ottawa; and they have real benefits.”
We seem to be stuck with a part-time label, said Korp. In the last five years, Carleton has expanded its full-time faculty ranks dramatically. Our members tell us they apply for these openings, but are not given the chance to be interviewed, Korp continued. Many of us have been teaching for a long time, hoping to become full-time faculty. We want to address this issue in the upcoming talks.
We hope to achieve a contract that treats everyone fairly and allows our members to take care of their families and continue to make Carleton a leading university in our community, said Reynolds. We are committed to staying at the negotiating table as long as it takes to reach an agreement, but we know it will take a show of good will from management to achieve this goal without a strike.
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For further information, please contact:
Stuart Ryan, Business Agent/Organizer CUPE 4600 613-520-7482
John Gillies, CUPE National Representative 613-237-0115
Maureen Korp, Ph.D., CUPE 4600 Negotiator 613-234-0259
Michael Reynolds, MBA, CA, CUPE 4600 Negotiator 613-851-1163
Robert Lamoureux, CUPE Communications Representative 416-292-3999