Updates

MEMORANDUM

To:                      The Dalhousie University community

From:               Deep Saini, President and Vice-Chancellor

Date:                Saturday, November 12, 2022

Re:                     CUPE strike ends

I am writing to share with our Dalhousie community the welcome news that the CUPE strike is over.

Members of CUPE Local 3912 have voted in favour of the tentative agreement agreed to by the respective bargaining teams earlier this week. Pending approval by Dalhousie’s Board of Governors, a new collective agreement will be in place. CUPE members are now able to return to their important and valued work in support of our students and academic community more broadly. Classes/labs/tutorials will resume on their normal schedules Monday.

I know how difficult this disruption has been for so many of you. To be in limbo and feel uncertain about how courses will be completed has meant stress and concern. With the strike now over, time has indeed been lost, but we do have sufficient time to work together to bring this term to a successful conclusion. The approach to accomplishing this will be a little bit different in each Faculty, department and course, just as the impacts of this strike have varied across the university.

You can find an initial high-level summary of what to expect on the CUPE Strike Information Page. And you can expect to receive more specific instructions in the coming days from your Faculties, departments and programs.

As I said at the beginning of the strike, there has been alignment on the need to make significant improvements in how we support and compensate CUPE members’ vital contributions to our academic mission. What proved challenging was finding agreement on how best to advance those priorities within this next collective agreement.

On behalf of our entire Dalhousie community, I want to thank the members of both negotiating teams for their efforts to find common ground at the bargaining table. As is always the case, reaching an agreement has meant compromises on both sides. But I truly believe that, together, we have laid out a shared path towards a more supportive future for part-time and contract academic work at Dalhousie.

The past few weeks have shown just how much our Dal community relies on the work of our CUPE members to deliver the exceptional academic experiences that our students expect of us. My hope is that all of us — Board, Union, administration and employees alike — will keep that in mind as we take this moment to reflect, seek to better understand one another, and continue to work together towards our shared goal of a stronger Dalhousie for all who work and study here.

A genuine thank you to everyone for the work you do, each and every day, to make our university community a productive and positive environment for everyone.

Sincerely,

Deep Saini
President and Vice-Chancellor

Dalhousie University is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. We are all Treaty people.

We recognize that African Nova Scotians are a distinct people whose histories, legacies and contributions have enriched that part of Mi'kma'ki known as Nova Scotia for over 400 years.