Strike At Dalhousie University
HALIFAX — A group of Dalhousie University staff are officially on strike.
The CUPE Local 3912 represents some instructors, teachers’ assistants, markers, and demonstrators on campus. Members and the university couldn’t reach a deal on a new contract, which lead to the beginning of the strike on Wednesday morning.
The main sticking point is wages. Dalhousie teachers’ assistants are paid $24 per hour and have not been given a raise since 2019. According to the union, the university pays its members “substantially less than other comparable Canadian research universities (U15)” for comparable work.
“The wage gap was evident already in 2019, when the CUPE 3912 members received their last raise. Due to inflation, this wage gap has worsened considerably in the three years since,” the union says in a new release.
“Despite soaring inflation, we have not received even a basic cost of living raise for over three years,” said Dr. Gabor Lukacs, who represents the union. “The cost of living in Nova Scotia is high and getting higher, but wages have not kept up.”
Lukacs claimed some union members are resorting to food banks while working and studying full-time.
CUPE says the part-time academics it represents teach courses “with the same responsibilities as full-time professors” but are hired on a course-by-course basis, for a small fraction of a professor’s salary, and without any benefits.
“We love to teach, and love our students, but our members also have to eat and pay their bills,” said Lukacs.
In a Wednesday statement, Dalhousie said the strike was “not the outcome we wanted.”
“We recognize the value CUPE members bring to our campus community and share a commitment to achieving many of the goals the union brought to the table. We believe the university’s final proposal was both significant and responsive to the union’s concerns,” said university representatives Laura Neals and Chris Hattie.
Dal says its campus will stay open during the strike and most classes will continue. However, classes taught by union members that are on strike will be suspended.
The university says students can watch for communications from their instructors or their department or faculty for information on how their courses will be affected.
All other employees who aren’t part of CUPE Local 3912 will be required to report to work as usual. That includes grant-paid employees and members of the DFA, NSGEU, and PSAC bargaining units, as well as members of the DPMG, senior administration and other non-unionized employees.
“As challenging as a CUPE strike will be for our Dal community, we have great confidence in the ability of our students, faculty and staff to work through these circumstances — just as we have successfully navigated other significant challenges over the past few years. We are committed to exploring all options to reach an agreement with CUPE that will bring this strike to a swift conclusion,” the university says.
Steve MacArthur is the news director with CKHZ 103.5 in Halifax, a Huddle content partner.