Carleton University education workers on strike

About 3,000 education workers at Carleton University will strike on Monday after the union and the university failed to come to an agreement by the midnight deadline.

"The bargaining teams for Carleton and CUPE 4600 ... met throughout the weekend but were unable to reach tentative agreements," the university said in a statement. "As a result, the union has chosen to implement its strike."

CUPE Local 4600 represents about 3,000 graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants and contract instructors at the university. 

In an update Sunday evening, Carleton said bargaining teams for the university and CUPE 4600 have been "negotiating all weekend and are still at the table working towards fairly negotiated collective agreements."

However, the two sides were unable to reach agreement on a new contract.

CUPE 4600 President Noreen Cauley-Le Fevre tweeted at 1:40 a.m. that members should check their email.

"We march at dawn. #StrikeToWin," she said.

To all members of @cupe4600: Check your email. We march at dawn. #StrikeToWin

— Nóirín Cauley-Le Fevre (she/they) (@NoreenCauley) March 27, 2023

The university says it remains open and students are expected to attend classes if they are being held, but some classes, labs and tutorials may be cancelled. The university has released a list of classes that will be "disrupted" by the strike.

The union has said its members are looking for wages that will "help catch up the more than 10 per cent they have lost to inflation over the last decade", and want to bring salaries for contract instructors closer to what University of Ottawa contract instructors earn.

"Contract instructors at Carleton earn 15 per cent less than the contract instructors at the University of Ottawa, who are doing the same work, in the same city, with the same cost of living – so salary is a big thing," Cauley-Le Fevre told CTV News on Sunday.

"On campus, graduate students make up about seven per cent of the student population and we make up 80 per cent of the food bank usage. So teaching assistants, both units, have been hit by the rising cost of inflation.

"We're being hit really hard … so we need our wage increases."

The threat of a strike comes three weeks before the end of classes for the winter term and the start of exams. Exams are set to begin on April 15.

Carleton and the union have been in contract talks since August 2022.

OC Transpo won't cross picket line

Carleton University says there will be no OC Transpo service on campus due to the strike.

"OC Transpo will not cross the picket line to enter campus," Carleton said in an update on its website over the weekend.

"Service will operate as usual, but pick up and drop off will be at the corner of Sunnyside and Bronson Avenue."

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 279 President Clint Crabtree tells CTV News Ottawa the labour movement needs to "stick together."

- with files from Josh Pringle and Shaun Vardon, CTV News Ottawa