Part-time instructors, teaching assistants prepared to strike on Oct. 21

Dalhousie University students are facing another potential labour disruption as part-time instructors and teaching assistants prepare to strike next week.

Dalhousie’s bargaining unit has a conciliation meeting scheduled with the university’s administration on Oct. 20. Job action could begin as early as Oct. 21 if an agreement isn’t reached.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees 3912 represents nearly 5,000 precarious academic workers at Dalhousie, Mount Saint Vincent University, the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and Saint Mary’s University. Each university has a separate bargaining unit negotiating with their respective administrations.

At Dalhousie, CUPE 3912 members consist of demonstrators, markers, teaching assistants and part-time instructors. The union’s previous collective agreement expired in August 2024. 

Holly Hanes, the vice-president of teaching assistants for CUPE 3912, says increased wages and more job security are the main focuses as they head back to the table for negotiations.

“We’ve secured, with our membership, that this is something they’re willing to take job action over,” says Hanes. “Nobody wants another disruption, but our members are prepared to do that.”

This would be the second labour disruption at Dalhousie this semester. The university’s board of governors locked out almost 1,000 Dalhousie Faculty Association members on Aug. 20, suspending most fall semester classes. The university board and its faculty ratified a collective agreement ending the lockout on Sept. 17. 

Classes taught by part-time instructors, which account for 10 per cent of Dalhousie’s faculty, continued during the DFA lockout. Those classes would be suspended for the duration of a CUPE 3912 job action.

Adrian Rumson, a fourth-year post-graduate chemistry student and member of the Dalhousie CUPE unit’s bargaining team, says classes not suspended by the strike will still be impacted by teaching assistants pausing their regular duties.

“Marking would stop, labs would stop, demonstrations and field work would stop because all of that is run by teaching assistants,” says Rumson. “It is a huge part of the learning experience to do a lab or to have your essay graded with feedback by a teaching assistant … that stops with a CUPE strike.”

In 2022, CUPE 3912 workers at Dalhousie went on strike from Oct. 19 to Nov. 12.

“I know the administration does not want a strike. They know that we’re willing to do that if we are that far apart on our numbers,” says Hanes. “We will probably be pretty far apart on wages unless Dal really comes with their pocketbook.”