Dear TAs and RAs,

Our bargaining team met twice with Carleton last week, on December 4 and 5.

We made good progress, particularly with respect to our dental benefits. Due to years of preparation, bargaining has been more efficient and productive this round, and we are about 3-months ahead of where we were last round. Our next bargaining days will likely be in January.

Only a few items remain on the bargaining table, but they are some of the most significant: salary, AI protections, TA-to-Student ratio, and a cap on split TA-ships.

We are far apart on these issues, particularly the need for strong protections from AI.

We have been proposing comprehensive protections to prevent us from being replaced by AI, surveilled by management with AI, have AI make management decisions, have AI take our intellectual property, or be compelled to use AI. The university has rejected all proposals.

To help address this gap between our bargaining team’s positions and Carleton’s, we filed for conciliation. CUPE 4600 has rarely been able to negotiate successfully without a conciliator present. We believe that conciliation will help us get a better agreement. To learn more about conciliation, check out the FAQ at the bottom of our Bargaining page.

Our successful strike vote, with the most votes cast in the history of our local, and filing for conciliation at this point in the academic year, means we can threaten more of the winter term than last round, which puts us in a much stronger position than the last round of bargaining.

We cannot legally enter a strike position yet. To do so, we need to meet with the conciliator, and then file a no-board, and then wait 17 days. We will update you should we find it necessary to take these steps in January.

We the bargaining team thank the membership for the support shown in the strike vote, and give thanks for the immense work done by our stewards council and our mobilization committee.

A union is its members–here’s how we can build power together:

• Have your say about AI. Fill out our brief 3 question AI survey.

• Sign up to do picket captain training. Our January 12 picket captain training is now on a waitlist, but we are working on getting more dates or more spaces.

• Rest and recover. We will need a tremendous effort in January and February to win protections from AI.

In solidarity,

Ariel Becherer
Vice-President Unit 1
CUPE 4600