Canadian sessionals settle their contract dispute

Teaching assistants and lecturers at the University of Guelph voted recently to ratify a new three-year contract.

A tentative agreement was reached between the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 3913 and the university, with the assistance of a mediator.

Toni Xerri, chief negotiator for the union, which represents more than 1,000 teaching assistants, non-tenure track lecturers and graduate service assistants who perform jobs such as lab work, said the agreement had been ratified by the members.

He would not elaborate on the percentage of the ratification vote.

“I was committed to recommending it,” Xerri said of the contract.

The new agreement, spanning three years, will see wage increases for both sections of the local.

Sessional lecturers, who teach individual courses, will receive a three per cent wage increase in the first year, and 2.5 per cent in each of the next two years. They will also see the inception of a professional development fund to assist them in attending conferences or workshops.

Teaching and service assistants will receive a 3.5 per cent wage increase in each of the first two years, and four per cent in the third.

Xerri said undergraduate teaching assistants will receive a bit more of an increase to address the fact they make less than the graduate teaching assistants.
The assistants will also see a benefit fund set up next year, to assist them in purchasing a benefits package in the future.

Both sections of the unit also received a paid pregnancy or parental leave provision, receiving 50 per cent of their wages for the time they take off.

The union’s previous three-year contract expired Aug. 31, 2002.

Vic Reimer, assistant vice-president of human resources at the university, said “we’re pleased with the outcome, we think it is favorable to both sides.”