Carleton University students will be returning to class on Thursday after the university and the union representing about 3,000 teaching assistants and contract instructors reached a tentative agreement.
“Details of the settlement will be released to relevant parties by their respective bargaining teams,” said a joint statement released by the university from Noreen Cauley-Le Fevre, the president of CUPE Local 4600, and Jerry Tomberlin, Carleton’s vice-president academic.
“The details of settlement will only be released publicly following ratification by members of the bargaining unit and the University’s Board of Governors.”
In a tweet on Wednesday morning, Cauley-Le Fevre said there will be a general meeting sometime Wednesday, but the union is still on strike.
“Any communications from the university that says classes are resuming is trying to obscure that the union is still striking,” she said.
CUPE 4600 has been on strike since March 27. Carleton has been in negotiations with CUPE 4600 since last August.
CUPE’s bargaining priorities include pay parity with workers at the University of Ottawa and a cost of living adjustment on par with inflation. The contract instructors also want the same intellectual property rights as permanent instructors, while the teaching assistants are seeking better teaching-assistant-to-student ratios.
The two sides met over the weekend with a third-party mediator, but the union walked away and asked workers to return to the picket lines.
Carleton released details of a four-year deal for teaching assistants that included a 3.5 per cent raise across the board increase as of Sept. 2022; a 3.5 per cent increase on Sept. 1; a three per cent increase in Sept, 2024 and a two per cent increase in Sept. 2025.
“This means that by September 1, 2025 the hourly rate for Teaching Assistants would be $47.88 per hour,” said the university.
The four-year offer for contract instructors included a six per cent market adjustment as of last September, a 2.5 across the board per cent increase on Jan. 1, 2023; and increases of three per cent in September 2023 and September 2024, and an increase of two per cent in September 2025.
“This means that as of Sept. 1, 2025 the half course stipend would be $8,852, which is a highly competitive rate for part-time instructors in Ontario,” according to Carleton.
But CUPE 4600 disagreed.
“We want to be bargaining, but Carleton refuses to move on their measly offer for TAs that we rejected last week,” said the union in a tweet. “We’re paid five per cent less than TAs at uOttawa.”
CUPE 4600 had planned a rally on Bronson Avenue on Wednesday, but later announced picketing will be done virtually because of freezing rain.
The timing of the strike has raised concerns among students that the academic year would have to be lengthened to make up for lost time.
In the week before the strike, the university released a list of over 2,700 courses that were either proceeding or affected by the strike. Tomberlin advised the faculty that they could move their courses online temporarily.
As of this weekend, Carleton said student grades and course progress were not at risk and the university did not anticipate having to extend the term and the graduation timeline.