Part 1: Negotiations for Collective Agreements, 2016-2019
Part 2: Increasing Mobilization
Part 3: Negotiations for the Language Centre, 2018-2021
Part 4: Campaign 2020
Part 5: CUPE 3912 response to the pandemic
Part 6: Negotiations for the Collective Agreements, 2020-2022 (before the strike)
Part 7: Preparing for a Strike
Part 8: The 2022 Strike at Dalhousie
Part 9: Victory – Gains Achieved in Collective Agreements
Part 10: The Addition of the SMU TAs and NSCAD
Part 11: Closure of the Language Centre
Part 12: CUPE 3912 Members on Regional, National and International Stages
Part 13: Governance – finally a win at SMU Senate
Part 14: Negotiations for the Collective Agreements, 2024
Part 15: STRIKES! at Mount Saint Vincent and Saint Mary’s Universities
Part 16: Victory — Gains Achieved in Collective Agreements in 2025
Part 1: Negotiations for Collective Agreements, 2016-2019
By Karen Harper
Preparations for bargaining looked a bit different in 2016 than in previous rounds by hosting CAUT workshops on collective bargaining and communications available to all members, adding non-executive members to some bargaining teams and conducting a pre-bargaining survey of our members. Our bylaws were amended to add at least two members at large to each negotiation team. Greater communications about negotiations to members included frequent bargaining updates and newsletter articles related to bargaining. The survey revealed that our members are in diverse work situations with varying levels of experience. Salary was the top bargaining priority with benefits and continuing employment as additional requests.
The bargaining teams adopted an umbrella approach to conducting negotiations at all three universities in which all teams met together regularly to develop common proposals and discuss progress. We promoted our initial idea that quality of education for students is optimized when instructors have good working conditions, equal pay for equal work, benefits, stipends for supervision, a path to a continuing position, representation on university governing bodies and academic freedom. Although collective agreements expired in summer 2016, negotiations were conducted in 2017 for the Mount, in 2017/18 for Dalhousie and in 2018 for SMU. CUPE 3912 used an online voting system for the first time for the ratification vote for the SMU tentative agreement. Some of the key gains for us included longer timelines for grievances, taking into account the number of responses for student evaluations, accommodations for parental leave for precedence, an increase in the professional development fund and an increase in stipend of 1.5% per year.
Part 2: Increasing mobilization
By Karen Harper
In 2017 David Banoub was hired in the position of Part-time Liaison to join Renee Dankner (Administrator) and Amy Donovan (Webmaster) on the CUPE 3912 staff. There was also a TA Organizer briefly in 2019 before both positions were merged so that Dave became the newly titled Outreach Coordinator. His position was expanded further when the Webmaster duties were added to the role in 2020. The goals of his position included education, engagement and mobilization of our members. Duties started with developing and putting up posters and knocking on doors, and expanded to also include managing the website and sending emails while continuing to put up posters and knock on doors.
Member engagement is always a challenge for CUPE 3912 due to its extensive and diverse membership who often live outside of Halifax or teach infrequently. In the few years before the pandemic, several activities were organized to increase social engagement opportunities for members including an annual picnic (2017-2019), a blues night and pub nights. Members’ scholarly contributions were displayed at the university libraries and then on our website in 2018. The goal of the scholarly contributions display was to highlight academic achievements of our members including their publications, books and artwork, and therefore raise awareness. CAUT (Canadian Association of University Teachers) Fair Employment Week in October provided us with an opportunity for outreach events such as panel discussions and workshops since 2015.
Part 3: Negotiations for the Language Centre, 2018-2021
By Karen Harper
The collective agreement for instructors at the Language Centre expired in August 2018. Bargaining began in 2019 but was interrupted by the pandemic. The new collective agreement was ratified in December 2020 and was signed on a windy day in the parking lot outside in spring 2021 because of the pandemic. One of the disagreements with the employer during the negotiations was whether Language Centre instructors are actually employees. This became a legitimate concern during the pandemic when many instructors did not get teaching contracts due to lack of courses and found out that their benefits ceased after not teaching for two years. Language Centre instructors suffered greatly during the pandemic as SMU failed to maintain enrolment levels in courses and instead drastically cut the number of courses, ultimately leading to the demise of the Language Centre.
Part 4: Campaign 2020
By Karen Harper
Leading up to the next round of bargaining it was unclear whether CUPE 3912 members realized that our per course salaries were among the lowest in the country even compared to other universities in Nova Scotia. A campaign was launched in January 2020 with the goal of educating members about their working conditions (low salary, virtually no benefits) within the context of the rest of the country. Our message was to Make It Fair in Halifax and Truro! Members were then asked to complete a bargaining survey in preparation for upcoming negotiations, which was conducted at the end of February just before the pandemic. The campaign brochure and posters included graphs showing how our salaries and (lack of) benefits compared very unfavourably with other per course instructors within Atlantic Canada and across the country. Posters were put up and brochures were distributed at tables across the three campuses.
Part 5: CUPE 3912 response to the pandemic
By Karen Harper
As with everyone, I found the onset of the pandemic very surreal. I watched as email after email from the CAUT listserv told us that universities across the country were switching to online teaching. The following week was very quiet as everyone seemed to be still in shock – the calm before the storm. The storm for me was keeping members informed, communicating with university administrations about switching to online teaching, figuring out how to move everything for CUPE 3912 online by learning Zoom and Teams etc., working with VPs to issue joint statements with university administrations to reduce the impact of the pandemic on our working conditions, and determining the impact of the pandemic on our ongoing bargaining preparations. I even rescued our chequebook and some other important papers from the CUPE 3912 office on the last day it was open before the complete shutdown of campuses.
The weekly updates I had already started earlier in 2020 proved invaluable during the early days of the pandemic. I was able to keep members updated on what was going on at each of the universities since I had direct communication with some key people within the administration who kept me informed. These emails provided links to information on online teaching, updates on the cancellation of students evaluations, communications from the universities about our working conditions particularly for TAs, information on funding assistance and mental health services, and messages from CUPE National and CAUT. For example, CAUT held a series of online town halls including one on ‘Addressing the unique impact (of the pandemic) on Contract Academic Staff’. Frequent updates continued as universities re-opened and with the return to in-person teaching interrupted by periods of going back to online teaching with peaks in covid numbers. Our 2020 newsletters focused on the impact of the pandemic and included an extensive list of online resources for members.
Two of the main issues for our members from the impact of the pandemic were extra compensation due to increased workload and course cancellations from the perception of lower student enrollment. We helped the SMU administration to develop a strategy for summer courses that included extra compensation for converting in-person courses to online courses. This stopped after the summer at SMU; I don’t think this ever happened at the Mount and it was faculty dependent at Dal. Course cancellations were a particular concern at the Mount where they specifically asked chairs and deans to cut our contracts by 30%. We fought against this policy by sending a letter to the president of the Mount and working with the Mount Faculty Association and the NS SSFA (see below) to distribute a petition and to get the attention of the media, which we did. We got a partial victory when we were told that deans and chairs were asked to re-evaluate course offerings for the fall and that were would be no pre-emptive course cancellations in winter 2021. There were no pre-emptive cuts to courses at SMU and we were told it was department specific at Dal. When we assessed actual changes to the number of contracts in fall 2020 compared to previous years, we found that there were 35% fewer contracts at the Mount, a reduction in the number of contracts in some faculties at Dal (overall 16%) and an increase for PT instructors at SMU and TAs at Dal.
One of the silver linings of the pandemic was the increased collaboration with other unions at the universities. Early in the pandemic the Dalhousie Faculty Association invited representatives from all unions at Dalhousie to an online meeting to discuss the administration’s response to the pandemic. This initial group expanded to include all unions at all universities in Nova Scotia, including student unions. We called ourselves the Nova Scotia Students, Staff and Faculty Alliance (NS SSFA). We started with frequent meetings during the early years of the pandemic but continued even after the return to in-person classes. In addition to sharing stories and maintaining open communication we put out press releases such as an all-union statement calling on universities to ensure open communication, accountability and transparency.
Part 6: Negotiations for the Collective Agreements, 2020-2022 (before the strike)
By Karen Harper
Preparations for bargaining in 2020 were interrupted by the pandemic. Information sessions and the ratification vote on bargaining proposals (possibly the first for our union) were delayed but eventually took place online. Bargaining was also delayed but we decided not to postpone as other faculty unions did in the early days of the pandemic. Our bargaining priorities, based on the results of the survey, included salary, continuing appointments, benefits (medical, dental, pension) and academic freedom for part-time instructors and a pay increase; and ensuring working hours do not increase and earlier postings for teaching assistants. The bargaining proposals were ratified at all three universities with a high turnout and a strong bargaining mandate.
Negotiations commenced in November 2020 at Dal, December 2020 at the Mount and January 2021 at SMU. Members were updated with bargaining dates and progress on our new bargaining tab on our website. Progress was very slow with dates cancelled and postponed by both sides due to weather, illness and other reasons. CUPE 3912 had five CUPE National representatives from November 2020 to June 2022, resulting in further delay as each became the new chief negotiator and had to learn about the bargaining priorities and progress. There were also a few changes in chief negotiator on the employer’s side. Bargaining at three universities at the same time gave us a comparative vision of the perspective of the employers, which differed for issues such as equity and adopting an internal application process for part-time instructors. Sometimes the employer agreed with us and even went further by incorporating more language outlining universities policies on harassment and discrimination. At other times the employer resisted our proposals that were embraced at other universities. Updates on bargaining and information on the process were provided to members throughout negotiations to a much greater extent than in previous rounds of bargaining. CAUT staff provided assistance and their resources such as the compilation of per-course stipends across the country were very useful. Bargaining teams benefitted from the series of bargaining workshops as part of CUPE training. Special membership meetings sometimes held monthly kept members informed about the progress during negotiations.
Part 7: Preparing for a Strike
By Karen Harper
Preparing for a possible strike for this round of bargaining started as early as fall 2020 with an article in the newsletter titled ‘The ‘S’ word’ about how the idea of a strike can be intimidating but that preparation and education are essential for mobilization. Further information about the meaning of terms such as strike vote and strike mandate, and the rules and process about strikes in Nova Scotia was provided in email updates as bargaining progressed. CUPE training for bargaining proceeded with a strike preparation workshop for the executive, bargaining teams and the mobilization committee. Even the CUPE Regional Director helped us with our bargaining strategy during the late stage of negotiations.
Despite extensive preparation, obtaining a strike mandate and even holding a strike vote was a challenge. The executive decided against holding a strike vote at all universities at the same time and some executive members voted against having the strike vote at Dalhousie. Nonetheless, a strike vote was called for Dalhousie in March 2022. The challenge then became to get enough of our members out to vote since in Nova Scotia an absent vote is the same as a ‘no’ vote. Every form of communication was used to reach members (some of whom did not know they were part of a union) including email, text, phone and even regular mail. Probably the most successful strategy was asking the Dalhousie Faculty Union and CUPE 3912 part-time instructors to talk to their TAs. There were also posters, brochures, online and in-person information sessions and even a rare video of the CUPE 3912 president with a message about the strike vote. A newsletter article in spring 2022 highlights how the strike vote greatly enhanced mobilization, which is crucial for the success of a strike. The strike vote was a success and we got a strike mandate.
The strike mandate helped us when we were in conciliation on March 31, April 1 and April 26. On the last day we reached a tentative agreement to bring to our members for ratification to ask if they are satisfied. After some information sessions the ratification vote informed us that Dalhousie members were not satified and overwhelmingly rejected the tentative agreement, as the bargaining team expected. The process took a couple of months, allowing us more time to prepare for a strike at Dalhousie.
Part 8: The 2022 Strike at Dalhousie
By Aiden Farrant
CUPE 3912 members employed at Dalhousie University (part-time instructors and teaching assistants) went on strike for 21 days from October 19th to November 9th, 2022. During the strike, CUPE National had to adapt its policies by offering partial strike pay and relaxing the number of days required for our atypical local predominantly composed of TAs who are only scheduled to work 4-8 hours a week. We also developed ‘virtual picketing’ roles to accommodate out of province members, those out of the country and those who feared persecution in their home countries due to union participation abroad. The Finance Sub-Committee developed a payroll system from scratch in three days to accommodate 500 picketers while also incorporating the mandatory paper forms to access National Strike Fund resources. The Communications Sub-Committee and Social Media Team developed a virtual campaign. CUPE 3912 received financial and solidarity support from other CUPE locals and faculty unions within CAUT.
Part 9: Victory – Gains Achieved in Collective Agreements
By Karen Harper
After 21 days on strike a tentative agreement was reached and ratified by the membership. At SMU there was a successful strike vote in December 2022 and strike preparations were ongoing but a tentative agreement was reached and ratified in January 2023. There was a similar situation at the Mount where an agreement was reached ratified in April 2023.
There were major gains for all bargaining units. The most notable win for us was substantial increases in stipends. (However, increases at other universities meant that the situation of our stipends being among the lowest in the country did not change, but it was still badly needed.) Another major win for Dal and SMU part-timers was a new internal hiring system for members with precedence that reduced the need for unnecessary applications. This also provided a mechanism for continuing appointments by making it easier to change the language of the collective agreement to extend timelines and hire part-time instructors for longer periods than a semester at a time. Unfortunately the employer at the Mount rejected our proposal outright despite cooperation with the employer at the other universities. Other wins at one or more universities included: an earlier timeline for the union to receive contact information about members, longer grievance timelines, more information regarding policies on discrimination, harassment and employment equity, clearer information about obtainig a record of employment, a stipend for our representative on the health and safety committee and sometimes other committees, consideration of other factors when assessing student evaluations, an increase in professional development funding, and stronger language for academic freedom.
Part 10: The Addition of the SMU TAs and NSCAD
By Samantha Williams and Lachlan Sheldrick
Following the successful strike at Dalhousie in 2022 that led to huge increases for TA pay, SMU TAs were inspired to unionize. They officially joined CUPE 3912 as a new bargaining unit in August 2023 with 100% of voters in favour of unionizing and their first collective agreement was implemented in December 2025.
Similarly, inspired by the 2022 Dalhousie strike, NSCAD TAs organized themselves along with RAs and contract instructors and voted overwhelmingly for unionization. They joined CUPE3912 in June 2023 and are still negotiating their first collective agreement. NSCAD teaching assistants are fighting for their first wage increase since the 1980s, while contract instructors are fighting to secure long-overdue fair hiring practices and job security.
Part 11: Closure of the Language Centre
The Language Centre (TLC) at SMU supported the cultural and academic transition of learners and newcomers for 25 years. Thousands of students passed through the doors and many went on to earn degrees from SMU and become permanent members of our community. Once a thriving, profitable school in the heart of Halifax, TLC was left unrecognisable as a result of poor management and neglect. On January 23, 2024, CUPE 3912 was informed that all operations at TLC would cease by the end of April 2024. SMU chose to abandon all English language programs, the IELTS Testing Centre and the teacher training course that share the building.
CUPE 3912 was disappointed with the callous way that TLC instructors were treated. The university administration did not consult with instructors and no business plan or vision for the future was ever communicated. The University stood by as the previous director of TLC hired three full-time instructors from outside the union to teach English language courses. This ignored precedence and robbed CUPE 3912 members of their right to bargained work. For the several years before the closure the employees have stood witness as more administrative staff were hired, even though the University stopped recruiting and student numbers dwindled. The first time instructors, many of whom have been at TLC for decades, heard from the senior administrator overseeing the unit was in an after-hours email from a complete stranger who laid off the entire workforce over their lunch break, before they had to face awaiting students. They were deeply saddened by the loss of their jobs and the impact that this will have on international students and the community.
We were in the midst of bargaining our next Collective Agreement when the Employer indicated that they would not return to the bargaining table, as TLC would close. Our CUPE National representative advised us to request a return to the bargaining table from the Employer, citing the statutory freeze in place due to the status of active bargaining and the possibility of filing an unfair labour practise complaint. Fortunately, the employer agreed to return to the bargaining table to discuss the terms of the closure of TLC. After a difficult day of negotiations, we reached an agreement for TLC instructors. This included non-monetary items, such as access to the Extended Family Assistance Plan, SMU email accounts, Brightspace course shells, the Patrick Power library, employee records, and the health clinic for those who receive primary care at SMU. The Employer agreed to 3% retro pay and a lump sum payment to the local, so that members at TLC can determine the most equitable way to allocate funds.
Part 12:CUPE 3912 Members on Regional, National and International Stages
By Karen Harper
CUPE 3912 members have been very active beyond our local union in recent years at regional, national and international levels. The CUPE 3912 president is invited to the annual meeting of the Atlantic Canada Coalition of Faculty Associations (ACCFA). During the pandemic, the Nova Scotia group Students, Staff and Faculty Alliance (SSFA) formed to unite representatives from all unions at universities in Nova Scotia. The SSFA wrote letters criticizing the cuts to our contracts at the Mount and asking for additional funding for post-secondary education. CUPE 3912 executive members and others have also been in the news for other stories including protesting cuts to contracts at SMU. At the regional level, I founded an informal group of part-time instructors from institutions within Atlantic Canada called Contract Academic Faculty of Atlantic Canada to share stories and help improve our working conditions.
The executive of our local usually has a presence at conventions for both CUPE NS and CUPE National. We had a particularly dominant role at the CUPE NS convention in 2025 with a full 12-member delegation at which a few members were elected to positions within CUPE NS. Six strong CUPE 3912 women attended the CUPE Women’s Conference in 2023. CUPE 3912 has also sent delegates to CUPE workshops and regional schools, the CUPE Building Strong Locals Conference and Canadian Labour Congress week-long courses such as one on domestic violence. A couple of our executive have been on the CUPE National Post-Secondary Task Force including Lauren McKenzie and Carmel Forde, who was co-chair and also previously on the Environment Committee. At the national level, our communications officer sometimes attends the meetings or events for CALM, the Canadian Association of Labour Media.
Ever since we joined CAUT we have been active participants as Council delegates (most Council meetings); members of the Contract Academic Staff Committee (until 2018, 2022-2025); delegates to Forums for New Presidents, Chief Negotiators, Grievance Officers; delegates to Contract Academic Staff Conferences; and participants and attendees of various CAUT webinars and workshops. In particular, Phil Bennett was active in the first few years after he led the initiative to join CAUT, Karen Harper was very active for the next decade and wrote a couple of articles for the CAUT Bulletin, and Erica Fischer has been the key contact for CAUT more recently. CUPE 3912 has held annual events for Fair Employment Week including workshops and panel discussion. Some of us have also been involved in lobbying efforts led by CAUT by meeting with local MPs including Geoff Regan in 2020 and Lena Diab in 2025. We joined the CAUT Defense Fund in 2024 and our treasurer has participated as a director of the fund at their meetings.
CUPE 3912 members have also been active on the international level by participating in COCAL, Coalition of Contigent Academic Labour. COCAL is a very informal organization of part-time instructors or contract faculty in Mexico, the United States and Canada, whose main task is to help organize a conference every few years in alternating countries. CUPE 3912 members have attended a few of these conferences including in San Jose, Edmonton and Gatineau. Karen Harper gave a presentation at the 2024 COCAL conference in Gatineau on part-tiemrs doing research and is now part of the COCAL international advisory committee.
Part 13: Governance – finally a win at SMU Senate
By Karen Harper
Our active involvement with CAUT helped Phil Bennett, Erica Fischer and I work towards achieving shared governance at SMU. Phil began the endeavor in 2016 by obtaining a CAUT legal opinion that stated that the SMU Senate bylaws were in violation of the University Act because they forbid CUPE 3912 members from voting or running for Senate membership. Motivated by CAUT’s campaign on Shared Governance, I picked up the challenge by emailing and meeting the Senate chair and the bylaws committee over the course of several years. CAUT helped Erica and I launch a campaign to educate and enlist the support of our members with newsletter articles and a petition. Finally after years of preparation, on February 14 the bylaw amendments were presented to the entire Senate … and defeated. Fortunately they were revised and accepted a few months later so that we are now able to vote and run for Senate. CUPE 3912 has also been pursuing a similar course of action at the Mount and Dal. Stay tuned.
Part 14: Negotiations for the Collective Agreements, 2024-?
As I write this we are still in the midst of bargaining, as usual. This round of negotiations is different from others in that we have more bargaining units and more internal and external support in place including CUPE 3912 mobilization committees and assistance from CAUT and CUPE National. It took years, but early member engagement efforts that started off very gradually have finally paid off such that we are now more thoroughly prepared for bargaining and possible strike action. This was demonstrated in our recent quick reaction to cuts in the number of contracts at SMU, which we detected and protested. Budget woes at SMU are part of the context of this round of negotiations – as they always seem to be! But we will continue to fight to improve our working conditions including raising the bar of our per course stipend that will allow us to continue to provide excellent learning conditions for our students.
Part 15: STRIKES! at Mount Saint Vincent and Saint Mary’s Universities
by Karen Harper
The stage was set for the possibility of a strike at three universities in the week of Oct. 20-24, 2025. At Dalhousie after successful conciliation on Monday, a possible strike on Tuesday was averted. Next was the Mount; conciliation on Tuesday was unsuccessful so CUPE 3912 was on strike starting Wednesday Oct. 22. SMU followed with a strike the next day on Thursday Oct. 23 after conciliation failed on Wednesday. We were on strike for several weeks at both universities. It was the first ever strike for any union at Saint Mary’s University.
We had a good turnout for in-person and virtual picketing. Some highlights included rallies on Fridays when the CAUT flying pickets joined us, a yoga class and a visit from the CUPE National Treasurer and a rally for us from the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour. Students and full-time faculty strongly supported us and even brought us food and coffee – Thanks! Full-time faculty unions joined us every day. Picketers received free hats, toques, scarves, mitts and bells, and a lot of strike pay from CUPE and the CAUT Defense Fund. Although picketers enjoyed the opportunity to get to know each other, we all missed our students and were very glad when the employer finally gave us a fair deal that we deserved. The strikes ended after the fall break on Nov. 17, 2025, after almost a month of strike action.
Part 16: Victory – Gains Achieved in Collective Agreements in 2025
by Karen Harper
Gains achieved in the collective agreements at SMU and the Mount were similar to the one at Dal, where an agreement was reached without a strike. Again, the most notable win for us was substantial increases in stipends. And again the increases were absolutely necessary but do not actually change our relative position to other universities in Canada as much as we would like. Other wins at one or more universities included: reducing the number of steps in the pay scale, increasing vacation pay, increasing the duration of appointments and a promise to discuss timelines for issuing contracts. Another major win after attempts in the last few rounds of bargaining was to get rid of the markers/demonstrators category such that now everyone doing marking and/or demonstrating is considered a TA and paid accordingly.