Dalhousie Strike Continues After Negotiations Sputter
HALIFAX – Teaching assistants and other support workers at Dalhousie University continue to strike after a new round of negotiations brought little progress.
Dalhousie’s administration and the union representing striking workers sat down at the bargaining table on November 2 and 3. They were the first formal negotiations since October 18.
Dalhousie came to the table offering teaching assistants a 23 percent pay raise over four years. The administration offered raises ranging from 11 to 41 percent to other striking workers, including marketers, demonstrators, hourly instructors, and part-time academics.
The university says it has considered the “key concerns” raised by the union and “made meaningful attempts to address” them.
That includes meeting the union’s request for a four-year agreement instead of three and ensuring wage offers are reflective of Halifax’s living wage.
However, the union says Dalhousie’s offer still doesn’t meet its most basic requirements.
CUPE Local 3921 says that after a “productive first day of negotiations” on November 2 Dalhousie came back to the table the next day with “an essentially identical offer.”
“Our impression is that Dalhousie’s administration did not intend to bargain today. Instead, they intend to try and intimidate us into accepting an unfair deal,” the union claimed.
That offer, the union says, didn’t acknowledge the university’s “abuse” of the marker/demonstrator role and “instead wasted valuable negotiating time.”
CUPE argues that Dalhousie uses the marker/demonstrator position to give TAs a 32 percent pay cut for doing the same work.
It also says Dalhousie’s offer of $30.05 an hour to eaching assistants brings it closer to other, similar universities but “is still below our minimum acceptable TA wage determined by the membership surveys we all filled out.”
“In comparison, we presented an offer that would bring… the 2023 TA wage to $32.52 an hour, and the integration of the marker/demonstrator position into TAs. This would cost the university $1.9 million of their $67.4 million annual surplus,” the union says in an update.
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TA wages have been a main sticking point in contract negotiations. Dalhousie teaching 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.
“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.”
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.
For its part, Dalhousie says its bargaining team “has worked diligently to come to a fair agreement with CUPE negotiators.”
“The board has moved substantially on nearly every topic at the table to try and align with CUPE negotiators’ demands. It has not been a quick or easy process but we believe it has resulted in an offer that provides significant gains for our valued CUPE members,” the administration says.
It also blames CUPE for refusing to bring its latest offer to members.
“We entered negotiations this week optimistic we would be able to reach an agreement to end this strike, but CUPE negotiators’ refusal to engage with Dalhousie’s proposals in any meaningful way means we remain at an impasse — one that poses further challenges to our students, our academic community, and our capacity to successfully complete the fall term.”