Aiden Farrant

May 25th to 28th, 2025

1) Convention Objectives and Outcomes

1.1) Stated Objectives

• 1.1.1) Passing Resolutions

The Local had intended for the convention floor to move two of its proposed resolutions which would serve to improve and reinforce support for the post-secondary academic sector, and to increase participation in the labour justice and pro-labour political activism landscape. The (paraphrased) resolutions were:

1. For CUPE NS to provide material support (financial and personnel) to the post-secondary aca- demic sector, and
2. For CUPE NS to join, platform, and mobilize for the Justice for Workers movement and cam- paigns.

We were successful in getting these resolutions adopted, with several delegates speaking to either in a compelling, convincing, and heartfelt way. The Local’s delegates, including myself, also spoke in support of other resolutions proposed namely by CUPE 5047 (education workers in Halifax public schools) and CUPE NS committees to share our unique perspective as precarious academics in need of improved advocacy and unified action.

Several delegates, including myself, also spoke out against a constitutional amendment that would have seen the age range for ”young workers” designations increase from 30 to 35. While initially in support, tableside chatter with the other young worker delegates from our Local, and recalling the difficult schism in perspective between the 2022 Dalhousie Strike Committee and those young worker members who picketed, I and others ultimately expressed discontent for this change. The amendment did not succeed, and it did not appear necessary as the attendance at the young workers caucus had grown exponentially, from 2 attendees in 2023, to 4 in 2024, and 25 in at this convention (with a strong showing from Local 3912).

In all, I believe the delegates were successful in achieving this part of the mandate it was delivered by the members.

• 1.1.2) Installing CUPE NS President

The other and perhaps more important objective of the strong showing at the 2025 Convention was to (hopefully) install our own member Christine Saulnier as President of CUPE NS. Every delegate slid headfirst into their roles as Christine’s ”ground team” and continually agitated and mobilized on her behalf. The skills learned through this experience are priceless, and will be expanded on in Section 2.1. We really gave it our all, and it was incredibly satisfying to see a majority of the delegates sporting beautiful ”Christine for CUPE NS” buttons on their lanyards.

Despite this, the floor was not in majority support for a change in direction. The perceived institutional candidate and former CUPE NS VP won the post, and based on his executive report, will advocate for a ”staying of the course” direction for CUPE NS. The many conversations I had with the voting bloc opposed to Christine highlighted the desire for this direction, where the beliefs that CUPE NS as an organization primarily representing the health care sector should be represented by someone from that sector, and that coalition outside of CUPE and across sectors is less important, were rampant and vociferous. More about this and how I find CUPE NS to operate will come in Section 2.2. I am sympathetic, but I admit understanding and true compassion for those adopting this position escapes me.

I can wholeheartedly say that the the delegates made their best efforts to make this objective a reality, and that their mandate from the membership is fulfilled. No amount of campaigning and electioneering can truly overcome the will of the people in a real democracy, and I believe that our attempt was righteous and valiant. In Christine’s own words, ”While we didn’t win the vote, what we built together was absolutely a win. We brought energy, ideas, and hope into this race. We showed what leadership rooted in listening, organizing, and action can look like. We sparked important conversations across CUPE Nova Scotia about where we’re headed and how we can grow stronger together.” I certainly will sleep soundly knowing all the delegates, myself included, did our best to honour the membership’s trust.

1.2) Alternate Objectives

• 1.2.1) Being Present

The number of staffpeople who approached me to say ”CUPE 3912 doesn’t normally come to these, I’m so glad you’re here” is both heartwarming and alarming. It was clear from the outset that the Local and the sector more broadly need improved representation at the NS Convention and under CUPE NS’s gaze. I think this slate of delegates made significant strides in improving this presence, not just through campaigning for Christine (and therefore having a candidate run for CUPE NS president), but also in speaking to resolutions and mobilizing to build coalition across sectors and different locals. We as a Local stand to gain a lot of sympathy from sharing our stories and conveying understanding about the precariousness of our positions. Many of the speakers, CUPE NS, and National executives stressed how important it was that certain sectors had gained access to employer-funded pension and health benefits plans in recent collective action wins. These same speakers and the Locals and sectors they come from were shocked when they learned how low our wages are, especially in comparison to similar work done elsewhere and by members of other unions, how we lack benefits and pensions, and how incredibly low our job security is. It is clear that the idea of a CUPE 3912 member in the eyes of other CUPE NS members differs extremely from the precarious reality of our situation. This convention facilitated conversations which served to slowly erode this fac¸ade of success and privilege, and build coalition between workers who all feel downtrodden and taken advantage of.

CUPE 3912 was also able to have its delegates elected to posts within committees and as alternate officers. I will refrain from repeating the exhaustive list to be included in the membership update. This will afford us the opportunity to influence the decision-making structures at CUPE NS and ensure that the local number, 3912, is continually repeated. We are also fortunate to have connected with the Central Area VP who also comes from our sister-sector, education, as well as having installed our President, Lauren McKenzie, as alternate regional VP. I think this is a fortuitous

position, as Lauren is unlikely to be called up for the NS VP role, and if she is it will (hopefully) be during intensive mobilization and strike avert, so the Local’s affairs will be continuing with momentum and access to CUPE NS supports will be improved.

• 1.2.2.) Coalition Building

The conference did an impeccable job platforming and facilitating discussions between members. There were so many opportunities to share our working conditions and workplace duties with other members, and I feel we did excellent in getting the other delegates outside of Local 3912 to understand what being a ”precarious academic” means. Although CUPE NS seems mainly to represent members in health care sectors, I was able to find common ground on many issues facing our different work environments. Government overreach and intervention, accompanied by deregulation, affects all of us. The Tim Houston government’s omnibus bills have deep ramifications and it seems he has united each public sector worker as their common enemy. I spoke at length with delegates whose workplaces are local to me (i.e. in the HRM) and the idea of cost-sharing local campaigns was brought up independently on several occasions, particularly with education workers. This is something for the Local to consider.

I was also excited to see the regional political action coordinator, Govind Rao, present a clear plan for what CUPE members and locals could do to build coalition and be a political force. I support his ideas of provincial riding-based CUPE political action committees, as organizing 10-20 members from a handful of locals, especially in the HRM where locals are populous, is enough to make a large impact. In discussions with Govind before and after convention, it seems there is space for me to expand my contributions in a paid staff or consulting position. I will inform the Local if and when more details come to light.

Finally, at the young workers caucus, several of our delegates were able to enhance our networks and discuss issues that affect our unique positions within our locals and workplaces. The re-elected VP for young workers has mobilized to start a mailing list and web forum for the 25 or so of us who were at this convention, and to bring in more young workers engaged in their union locals. This seems like a promising start to what could be a great resource for leveraging support across regions and sectors, particularly in the digital space where a critical mass of engagement does a lot to promote a particular post or message on algorithm-driven platforms. I hope we will see this initiative and similar grow between now and next convention.

2) Remarks & Takeaways

2.1) Practical Experience

CUPE 3912 built up several necessary skills and capacities by sending a full slate of delegates to convention, especially considering they had the specific objective of campaigning (see Section 1.1.2). With the experience and compassion of Christine and Alec, the remaining 10 delegates quickly slotted in nicely to the ”ground team” and stepped up to do the work. By the end, we were skilled at com- municating the takeaways of Christine’s platform, convincing and empathetic to individual delegates issues/background/motivations, and seasoned at playing the political game. This experience will be advantageous for the next strike vote(s) and for mobilizing members (especially those with anti-union predispositions).

The delegates also built up both their own personal networks and those of the Local. Now that there is CUPE 3912 representation on formal committees, the scope of who in the union power structure is aware of us and our issues has grown. Beyond that, the conversations our delegates had with others have led to better understanding of our situation and increased opportunities for multi- directional support. Even within our own delegate slate, we were able to share moments together to reinforce solidarity and to put human faces to the names we often only see on screen. As a member of the Local executive, I particularly appreciate getting to know my other committee members, and I hope our shared experiences will translate to increased cooperation and the ability to more effectively and efficiently communicate within the Local’s governance bodies.

Adding more to the previous paragraph and what was said in Section 1.2.2, the delegates exceeded all (my) expectations at building coalition. We were able to identify unifying issues across regions and sectors, like our 2022 Strike mantras of ”equal pay for equal work” and ”worked hours are paid hours”, which affect not just education, but healthcare and municipal services sectors as well. We also learned just how much workplace harassment CUPE NS members suffer from, and how this is a mirror image of what TAs working for their academic supervisors face, especially when it comes to toxic positivity. We also had the opportunity to directly influence coalition building, by contributing to the fund that CUPE NS uses to support small locals in attending Convention and participating or leading larger campaigns that are challenging due to their small resources (i.e. small membership base to draw dues from). We met so many wonderful delegates from small locals who wouldn’t have otherwise been able to contribute their voices and ideas.

Finally, the delegates witnessed presentations from Motion Meetings and Action Network. These are products offered by a company affiliated with CUPE National that serve to replace digital meeting tools and email list managers. I’m sure more will be said elsewhere, but I think we should explore these tools and see if they can work for us. They are both free for Locals to use and are always free (no paying beyond so many members like MailChimp or by number of ballots like SurveyMonkey/SimplyVoting) and have support staff from both the company and CUPE National. I think we could use these tools in place of our MailChimp lists (especially to manage unsubscribes, so that members can choose not to see routine updates but can still see a strike vote announcement, for example), voting and survey tools (seems like Motion Meetings is approved for secret ballot secure voting, strike vote?!), and if we’re bold, instead of Zoom. The executive should consider scheduling a meeting with the CUPE National staffperson promoting these platforms to see if they suit the Local’s needs.

2.2.) Institutional Understanding

CUPE NS needs members at the local level to bring it out of its dark age. Listening to the NS Executive reports, it was dismaying that all but the President and Young Worker VP gave a distillation of the constitutional requirements of that Officer’s position. For the leaders of CUPE’s political and activism level of organization, the end-of-year report cannot be ”I went to all the meetings and replied to all the emails”, the vision is simply too small. During the VP reports and the open forum for presidential candidates, it was clear that officers who remain in positions of power believe their hands are tied until a local approaches CUPE NS with a specific and pre-planned initiative. In one case, an officer even blamed locals for their lack of report items, citing the absence of proactiveness and grassroots mobilization as the reason they were unable to showcase more successes.

I think CUPE 3912 should pounce at this opportunity. We already have a reputation among the NS and Atlantic Region staff as a trouble-making local with big ambitions. We need to capitalize on our forward momentum and will to get initiatives accomplished. We should demand cost-sharing initiatives (and seek additional fund-matching from National) for sector-specific and broad campaigns. For example, we could team up with education locals in the city for an outreach campaign to publicize management-perpetrated abuse, violence, and toxic-positivity masked mandate creep, something every student TA and every public school educator has experienced. We can also leverage communications and political activism professionals to assist in messaging and distilling negotiating objectives down into ”verb the noun” style slogans `a la CPC campaign. Finally, we can harness the CUPE machine and its research staff to assist with developing statistics and metrics both for communicating bargaining objectives (showing just how underpaid and unprotected our members are compared to the same work elsewhere and by others) and to help ensure our initiatives are reaching target groups (cohorts of members, students, other university staff, etc.). There is a sandbox we can play in, and a system we should abide by to access assistance and support. We need to start playing their game.

Beyond CUPE NS, the CUPE ”machine” as described by outgoing CUPE NS President Nan McFadgen needs to reconsider its role. The National President Mark Hancock, although a charismatic and enthusiastic speaker, pushes a political agenda that I feel is not aligned with the true sentiments of the membership. CUPE members and other unionized workes voted en masse for the CPC in the last federal election, and gave the NS PC’s a blank cheque mandate. Clearly there is political will to support right-wing and anti-worker (sometimes even anti-social) legislation. The solution cannot be simply to tell a room full of people, many of whom must wear red or blue political colours, to vote and support NDP. Mark Hancock and CUPE needs to be telling the NDP what its members are demanding if they (read we, because they want the locals to be the agitators) can convince their membership to vote as a pro-labour bloc. In the same vein of not listening to members, National Secretary Treasurer Candace Rennick needs to listen to the needs of local leadership and members. To my dismay, the stance she took at the National Strike Fund Regulations Town Hall (which I attended virtually, see my other report) that traditional picketing, regular scheduling, and hard-copy accounting persists as the way our union must conduct business. Thankfully CUPE NS and CUPE National are now allowed to pay out funds using electronic fund transfers, but they still encourage mailing them paper cheques. The National Strike Fund will still require end-of-day forms signed in person by picket captains with wet-ink signatures, needlessly complicating and burdening any local of more than one picket line with draconian paperwork procedures. I’m glad I had the courage to speak with her, but the fact that she seemed surprised that so many local leaders had been asking for similar digitization and streamlining gives me pause. I hope the next Local 3912 Strike Finance Sub-Committee (or whatever organization structure coalesces from those with initiative) can bear the burden of endless paper forms. They should claim hazard pay for the potential repetitive strain injuries of thousands of signatures.

3) Summary & Acknowledgments

In the style of a Google Maps or Yelp review, I submit the following recap:

The CUPE NS convention is an excellent opportunity for coalition building, activism, net- working, and developing social talents. Although the presentations can feel mundane, and the provided food is borderline unpalatable, having so many unionists and cause-sharing individuals under the same roof breeds novel connections, innovative ideas, and breeds new local and grassroots leaders. It is a must-do for any union local looking to distinguish itself and garner support, and for any union member wanting to develop soft skills and augment their degree of mobilization. I didn’t need to hear the underlying messaging in the presen- tations, but if you need your belief in the tenets of solidarity, coalition-building, activism, and advocacy for better working conditions need reinforcing, then this is the event for you!

4/5 stars. Worth the price, bring your own lunches, think critically about the propaganda, learn how to be a more mobilized member, build solidarity!

In all seriousness, the delegates achieved most of their stated and known objectives, and surely accom- plished many that hadn’t even been thought of. CUPE 3912 needs to continue to be present at these events (which should be easy since it’s happening in HRM next year) and to ”play the game” as I previously mentioned. It’s an opportunity for both members fortunate enough to be sent as delegates, and for the local to bring home skills to leverage in the fight for better working environments.

In that vein, I’d like to thank the membership for their faith that I would be a good delegate and for supporting me in my endeavor to attend. I’d like to thank Christine Sauliner for the honour of campaigning on her behalf and the opportunity to learn so much about the political landscape inside the union and in the labour movement more broadly. Please check out her initiatives and consider promoting within the Local and contributing if you’re able. Thanks to Alec Stratford for essentially delivering a ”campaigning 101” course and for herding the more inexperienced delegates (including myself). Thanks to Erica Fischer and Karen McDonald for the fun conversations and silly big fiddle photos. Thanks to Wenz Amezuca and Lachlan Sheldrick for surviving my highway driving and making me have to stifle laughter in convention hall. Thanks to all the delegates for our camaraderie and coordination. Thanks to my partner Sophie Boardman for making the trip with me, letting us use her car, and teaching me how to take high-quality group photos. Finally, thanks to Lauren McKenzie for the initiative and for insisting I attend. This was a truly valuable experience I hope to share with the Local.

By Greg Nepean, VP Part-Time Instructors at MSVU

Thank you to the Executive for trusting me to attend the forum, there were great conversations,  and attendance did help me get grounded for bargaining.  

Re-Cap-Day 1 (March.21, 2025)

• Strategic Lessons on Organizing for Bargaining (1st panelist)
  • University of Ottawa’s Faculty Association, in their latest round of bargaining,  sought parity in workload, minimum staffing levels and conversions from part  time to full time for “replacement” (contract) profs with 7 years of services.
  • How they got this, member-based organizing, they had the name of every member  on a board on the wall of their office with a dot added for every activity the  member participated in. Lowest engagement was from Engineering. They also got  training on how to approach people for participation. 72% participation on an  integrity petition, 81% strike vote. 
  • Greg’s participation: Went to the mic to encourage associations to carefully  consider the needs of their part time faculty; not everyone wants conversions,  many of our member want higher pay and better working conditions. Going full  time helps those members that can but still leaves the rest of the members with  precarious working conditions and low pay.

• Strategic Lessons on Organizing for Bargaining (2nd panelist) 
  • McGill University facing a hostile Employer who attempted decertification.  Required different set of organizing techniques.

• Breakout Groups: Building a Bargaining Mandate.  
  • In this session we discussed ways to bring members concerns together in creating  a bargaining package. 
  • We also completed the “Message Box Exercise” in which we developed responses  for “Us on Us”, “Them on Us”, “Us on Them”, “Them on Them”. This helps us  shape our communication strategy, both positive (what we can gain by collective  action) and negative (to combat any derisive messages the Employer may put  out).

• Cross Country Check-Up

Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025

• • I missed this part of the day and the debrief to breakout groups, plus lunch so I  could attend online the MSVU Negotiating Committee meeting.
• They Hired a Lawyer”
  • This was the best part of the day and really the most relevant for me due to how I  observed the impact of the MSVU BoG bringing in a lawyer during the MSVU  Faculty Association strike in 2024.
  • Presenter, David Wallridge, Pink/Larkin.  Debriefed his experience on the role of lawyers in negotiating.
  • Lawyers are bound by a code of conduct to advocate for their client strongly, when used as chief negotiator, this means an intent by the Employer to “play hardball” with the Union.
  • Urged us to remember that the lawyer is acting on client’s instructions and  instead of focusing on lawyer, focus on the person/group who gave the lawyer their instructions. Example (discussed at the mic): At MSVU, the  Chair of BoG insisted on hiring the lawyer and the Labour Relations Subcommittee gave the marching orders.
  • Examples of some instructions given to lawyers as chief negotiator Delay  control and timing, they want to control timing and do not care about renewing a CA as the old one already stays in place.
  • Indicated the importance of FOIPOP.
  • Reminded us that FA’s have better knowledge of the occupational field, of  the organization and how our collective agreements work. Knowledge imbalance in our favour.
  • Advice: have clear strike issues, differentiate what to have, wish to have.  Massive language proposals make it easy to delay (irony as we at the Mount have a lot of language changes-to protect our members).

Re-Cap-Day 2 (March.22, 2025) 

• Panel Presentation on “Financial Retrenchment”. 1st panelist discussed the impact of the  international student enrolment cap on Cape Breton University. 

Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025

• • CBU has had an enrolment up and down situation with international students. The  Saudi Arabia cohort raised enrolments from 3000 in 2010 to approximately 5000  by 2015. The end of this cohort (due to changes in visas by Saudi Arabia  government) caused declines in enrolment. Focusing on international students  since 2020 led to an increase to almost 9000 students, most from India (the CBU  administration learned nothing from the previous lesson on over-relying on one  country to source international students).
  • The government restrictions on international students have resulted in CBU  enrolment declining, a $20 million loss of revenue and 30% across the board  cutbacks. Results: reductions in academic staffing, closure of downtown campus,  potential sabbatical deferment. Continuing to build large expensive buildings, no  cuts to program as academic staff as expected to do “more with less”.
  • Corporate governance model has led to lack of accountability and transparency  (same criticism I have had of the MSVU Board of Governors for the last 12  months).
• Panel Presentation on “Financial Retrenchment”. 2nd panelist discussed the impact of  international student enrolment cap on Lakehead University.
  • Lakehead is geographically isolated with Winnipeg as its closest city. Life for  international students is very different in this context, so is the impact of losing  international students (i.e. hard to draw people from Southern Ontario).
  • Despite solid enrolment, the decline in international students caused a $500000  deficit.
  • Previous Board of Governors practices (combined with previous provincial  government interference) resulted in a large, deferred maintenance bill, structural  deficits and a “mortgage” (institutional debt to repay to provincial government). g. Focus on “efficiencies” rather than cutbacks.
  • Forcing faculty to “self-assess” (i.e. justify their existence).
  • Criteria based review (enrolment, alignment with “labour market needs”).  Problematic as who knows needs for future, I suspect this is more training  employer’s workers for them to save money plus pump out qualified, but cheap  labour for business.

Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025 

• Impact on faculty has been program cuts, increased workload, infringement on  academic freedom and lack of transparency. 
• Lakehead Faculty Association advocating for no program cuts or loss of faculty  jobs, drive to improve faculty control through Senate, priority for academic  quality and to monitor “mission creep”. 

Greg’s participation: I did go “to the mic” to make a comment, which was, to the effect, we  needed to decouple the work of the University from enrolment. We are all chasing the same  dwindling pool of students, the same shrinking research grant dollars, the overly in demand  corporate sponsorship/donations. Instead of growing and retrenching when that fails, what if we purposedly “sized low”?  

Example mentioned: If the Mount went from 4700 to 4000 students, and restructured the  priorities of the institution to provide quality education to fewer students, what would this look  like? How would the institution be different?

• Breakout Groups: Building Your Strategy at the Table
  • Great Northern University is on strike for three weeks. Strong strike, first burst of  participation strong but fading. Salary and most major issues are settled, but  remote work for librarians plus workload issues for library, faculty are  outstanding but not seen as important as what has been settled.]
  • There are four issues outstanding and the breakout groups had to decide what was  acceptable to settle and what we would remain on strike for.
  • Copies are available, feel free to ask me.
• Breakout Groups: Building a Bargaining Mandate 
  • Completed a 5-step exercise on how to build support for bargaining proposals  (establish a plan/timeline, consult with members, identity our issues, research,  develop/approve the bargaining mandate. 
  • We applied these steps to a fictional (but based on real life) scenario involved the  “Great Northern University” who is micro-managing librarians, resisting  conversion of part to full time, crying poor despite a surplus, forcing members to  go on-campus to do more of their work.  
  • Copies are available, feel free to ask me.

Report on “Collective Bargaining and Organizing Forum”-CAUT.March.21-22, 2025 

• Panel: Using Collective Agreements to Fight Against Attacks on EDI 
  • 1st panelist discussed how Dalhousie University is old school, with a belief that  normative practices solve EDI, i.e. Article 20.9. Workload for “designated  faculty” when service work for designated group exceeds a threshold, an overload  payment is made to compensate for extra service work (instead of course relief).  Despite this clause, there is still a lack of recognition of service work obligations  for designated groups and a lot “falls on the shoulders” of these members of the  association. Just say no isn’t an option. 
  • 2nd panelist discussed the relationship between transpersons and unions i. Positives: gender inclusive language, leaves for gender affirming care as  well as coverage for costs. 
    • Need to continue to advocate for availability of trans friendly health (faculty and students)
    • iii. 70% to 90% of transpersons experience discrimination and harassment in  their classrooms and institutions, as well as abuse from transphobes on social media in a highly political climate.
  • Unions are better, but the bar is low and more work is needed.

By Aiden Farrant

Although the institutional knowledge of how to effectively strike to support substantial bargaining demands remains strong in our Local, the memory of the exact feeling of the 2022 Dalhousie strike is fading almost as fast as the print on the t-shirts that picketers wore. CUPE 3912’s executive has transformed since then, and the Dalhousie unit in particular has seen waves of Officers and Negotiators come and go, each adding unique experience and perspectives to the proposed collective agreement currently up for negotiation.

However, those of us who were key in organizing the strike and negotiating back in the time of masking, rapidly adapting course content to online formats, and the cycle of lockdowns and re-openings, have had to rapidly reconcile our sentiments towards the mechanism striking  under the CUPE National banner. We’ve had to contrast our feelings of inadequate support and abandonment with the vitality and optimism of the new blood and activism-focused direction of Local President Lauren McKenzie. The air is electric with hope and willingness, rather than bitter resolve, and I thought the moment well suited to a) remind the Officer corps and Membership of the conflicts of 2022 so the same mistakes aren’t repeated, and b) to offer a wholehearted endorsement for a leadership change (and choice candidate) for CUPE Nova Scotia President that will (hopefully) improve the quality of support we receive.

CUPE 3912 is not a ‘typical’ labour union and never has been. We’ve always been one of the most outspoken and cutting-edge Locals, requiring National to adapt its policies to our needs lest they be circumvented (occasionally with prejudice). For example, the National Strike Fund regulations require that a picketer or strike volunteer picket for 5 days of 4 hours/day to be eligible for strike pay. As a Local predominantly composed of TAs who work 4-8 hours a week, we demanded accommodation to offer partial strike pay and to relax the number of days requirement so that Members could picket as much as they could (up to the maximum of 20 paid strike hours). We also had to adapt to our Employer’s policy of hiring Members working remotely, developing ‘virtual picketing’ roles to accommodate those of us out of province or out of country. In all its wisdom and for all the Locals it represents, CUPE National simply hadn’t needed to develop accommodating regulations (and therefore support materials and knowledge) for these circumstances. 

The Local and its Strike Committee also faced unique challenges with little to no support from any echelon of the CUPE power structure. Myself and the Finance Sub-Committee had to develop 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 had to develop a web and virtual campaign with no support whatsoever, requiring endless meetings to approve a single instagram post. When support from National did materialize, in the form of a communications specialist parachuted in from our brethren at CUPE Ontario, we simply received a “keep doing what you’re doing” response and praise such as “you could write the textbook for other Locals”. During a rapidly evolving strike campaign, where the Employer’s PR machine seemed overwhelming and Employer-side bargaining updates were being sent to students and alumni before our own Chief Negotiator, tangible support and experience would have been more beneficial than kind words.

Not all the blame is to be applied to CUPE NS and CUPE National, the Local at the time was mired with internal struggle and ineffectiveness. Breakdowns in communication over lack of mutual respect (to put it mildly) hindered any material or experience support. The general lack of education on the part of the Executive and Strike Committee over how to access funding support (including if it was even available) and how to document expenditures meant every expense had to be meticulously approved by multiple organizational layers, extensively justified/rationalized, and demanded by the membership on the picket lines. Something as simple as converting a solidarity donation to hot drinks on a cold rainy day took nearly as many man-hours as the sum total of those picketed before everyone went home to warm up. In the end, the Local somehow made money on the strike, through properly leveraging National Strike Avert and Strike Support funds coupled with resounding solidarity support from other Locals/Units/Unions. It certainly didn’t feel like it when myself and my colleagues bookkeeping the affair had to make a powerpoint presentation on why high-visibility vests were a reasonable expense for picketers intending to block traffic, or why buying a 20$ software license to help us print cheques was more economical than the estimated 6 hours a week writing names and amounts out longhand.

The grinding machine that is CUPE is slowly acknowledging the realities of a changing workforce and adapting to the needs of its members in the post-secondary academia sector. The wave of CUPE Locals and other unions striking at Canadian universities rolled westward from our small but important action at Dalhousie, and continues to precipitate major labour gains, new strike policies, and forms of support. However, knowledge of how to overcome these barriers and the willingness to adopt a “beg forgiveness, not permission” mentality needs to persist if successful job action is to occur at Local 3912 again. Expectations of support and experience need to be clearly articulated, and those expectations should be met (or modified based on new knowledge gained from collaboration with CUPE NS and CUPE National). 

One avenue to ensure that communication remains open and CUPE 3912’s voice is heard is through advocacy for a candidate of choice for CUPE NS President. The Executive and the Membership have both moved to endorse CUPE 3912 member Christine Saulnier for the position. With Christine as President, we in the post-secondary academic sector stand to benefit from a National Executive Board member who understands the unique needs and unconventional strike action a Local such as ours must take to ensure fair wages and improved working conditions. The membership of Local 3912 need to support her as best we can, including by sending our full permitted slate of delegates at the upcoming CUPE NS Convention (where CUPE NS elections occur) and by reaching out to our CUPE brethren of other locals to showcase Christine’s unique skill set and excellent experience for the Presidential role.

We must not repeat the mistakes of 2022, instead we must strive to be better! We have shown that even at our most disorganized, this Local can strike effectively and stand firm until substantial gains are made. Imagine what gains we can make if we are fully prepared and have the backing of our endorsed Executives!

Aiden Farrant is CUPE 3912’s Recording Secretary and is a PhD Candidate in Chemistry in the Zwanziger Lab at Dalhousie University. He TA’d in the first year chemistry labs and was part of the 2022 Strike Committee. Aiden has served in various committee and executive roles within our local. 

By Hailie Tattrie,
PhD Candidate,
Part-time Instructor
Senior Writing Centre Assistant,
Justice for Workers Member
(she/her)

Originally published in Spring Magazine.

I have been teaching at Saint Mary’s University as a part-time instructor for nearly a year and a half now. Despite this part-time status, my students never seem to notice that I am a contract worker. Why would they? I fulfill the same teaching duties as tenured professors who have been teaching for years. Although we part-timers put just as much work in as our tenured colleagues, we certainly are not treated as such. We are contract workers—it is not uncommon for us to find out we have secured a teaching contract a few days before the course actually starts. This work is incredibly precarious, the pay isn’t great, there are no benefits, and I don’t even get an office.

So, why are we doing it then? Because we love teaching. We love our students. We appreciate what little money we do get paid, and we hope that one day we will join the upper echelons of tenure-track professors. Until then, we deal with our meagre pay and continue to do our best for our students.

Despite our commitment (and our cheap labour), Saint Mary’s University is planning to cut 56% of part-time job offerings for the 2025-26 academic year—fifty-six percent. Art courses taught by part-timers like me will drop from 140 to about 63, resulting in about 40 part-timers losing work. I personally have yet to hear back on if I will have any courses to teach this fall.

This does not just harm me and my colleagues, but it hurts our students too. This means fewer class options for them, with some students already starting to fret over how they will graduate in time since there will be such a drastic cut in course offerings.

In addition to these cuts to part-time teaching positions and courses, we are seeing enrollment and revenue cuts, too. SMU talks about revenue and wanting programs to thrive, but continues to cut courses. Furthermore, Saint Mary’s loves to boast about its Arts and Humanities educational offerings. The University states that it “strives to cultivate an enduring spirit of inquiry, innovation, and creativity, fostering impactful research, inspired teaching, and life-long learning,” but these cuts beg to differ.

There was no warning for us part-timers or our students either; the only reason we became aware of these cuts is thanks to our union VP and a few departmental chairs.

Why the cuts?

So what is causing these cuts? Well, there are several causes. The first being the limitations to enrolling international students. There has been a 10% reduction in study permits from last year, and universities are feeling the crunch. According to the Toronto Star, the drop in permits from 2023 to now has been a whopping 45 percent. According to the Federal Government, these caps are meant to “ease the strain on housing, healthcare and other services”. However, this is just another scapegoating tactic that alleviates the government from taking responsibility and taking meaningful actions to help the housing and healthcare crises. Utilizing international students as scapegoats is not a new tactic; immigrants have been scapegoats for government failings for decades, as Miller (2023) mentions:

“Immigrants have always been blamed for the housing crisis. Look back 100 years and people were against building boarding houses because they were scared of foreigners moving in and endangering their families. Nowadays, politicians are blaming foreign investors for housing shortages, too. I’m very impatient about people pointing fingers at immigrants for the housing crisis, because it has very little to do with immigration and a lot to do with government policy.”

Bill 12

The Minister of Advanced Education, Brendan Maguire, has introduced Bill No. 12 known as “An Act Respecting Advanced Education and Research”. As the Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) notes, this bill would violate university autonomy by allowing Minister Maguire to withhold grants from universities if “a university does not satisfactorily show how it is meeting the government’s social and economic priorities”. This is a threat to academic freedom and puts a muzzle on Nova Scotian universities and their faculty.

Although we have yet to see the effects of Bill 12, it does create a context for preemptive action. It could lead to further cuts down the road and increased restrictions on academic freedoms.

This reminds me of the recent instance in the United States where Trump has put a pause on educational funding for the state of Maine due to the fact that the governor of Maine continues to support the state’s anti-discrimination law that “allows transgender athletes to participate in girls’ and women’s sports”. Despite threats from Trump that he would withdraw funding, the Governor of Maine, Janet Mills, did not back down. Since Mills stood up for trans rights, her state lost educational funding. Here in Nova Scotia, universities could lose funding if they and their faculty do not meet the Houston government’s ‘social and economic priorities.’ Strikingly similar if you ask me.

Thankfully, faculty unions are pushing back against this bill, but despite this pushback, it has since passed as of March 26th, 2025.

And so the result is what we are now seeing: a cut in programs, specifically the Arts and Humanities, which are particularly under attack given the current geo-political climate. Removing these teaching opportunities is harmful to precarious part-timers like myself and our students who continue to pay the highest tuition fees in the country, yet their education is being stripped back. This attack on part-timers is an attack on the entire institution of education; it is an attack on workers’ rights and an attack on students.

Trump has stated that “Professors are the enemy” and this fascist rhetoric could be slowly creeping into Canadian discourse and government action. It may start with cuts to the Arts, but where does it end? What institutions are next? Where do we draw the line?

There are alternative cost-saving measures too—as Dr. Syed Adnan Hussain, the chair of the Religious Studies department at SMU, states in a recent CBC interview that “if there’s a revitalization conversation going on in the government, revitalization should really be about cutting administrative bloat,  which almost every study about the academic sector will say is the real problem in our universities.”

It’s time that we make our voices heard and tell Saint Mary’s that we will not stand for these cuts. It’s time to cut administrative bloat, not part-timers. It’s time to stop treating universities like a business and instead like a space for learning.

Hailie Tattrie (she/her) is a sociologist, a first-gen university student, a part-time instructor, and a PhD candidate in the educational studies department at MSVU. Hailie is actively involved in Justice for Workers Nova Scotia. She lives in Kjipuktuk with her partner and two cats.