Union members of Concordia’s service sector demand equality with the university’s academic sector regarding hybrid work.
The Concordia Professional Employees Union (CUPEU) has been on strike and picketing since Sept. 4. The union, which comprises over 600 members of varying faculties, is the most diverse of Concordia which includes nurses, advisors, guidance counsillors and IT specialists among many others.
Concordia’s Faculty of Deans requested faculty in the service sector to return to a four-day in-office work week in September 2023. Since then, CUPEU members have voiced their disagreement.
At the time, CUPEU members had expressed their desire to have the option of working a minimum of two days per week in person. Concordia representatives offered alternatives and compromises, without directly addressing their demands.
“We feel that the university is not doing what they claim. In their sustainability policies, they claim they promote workers working from home,” said the VP of negotiations at CUPEU, Sigmund Lam, an information systems developer in the Faculty of Engineering.
“All the research that we’ve dug up basically supports our side and the university is basically ignoring all the research. Concordia has probably one of the worst hybrid policies of the universities [in Quebec],” he said.
This policy’s intention was to create a more vibrant campus, a more present one for students. Employees from the service sector argue that most of their work done in-office can be done online.
“Most of us sit in our offices at our computer to advise students or talk to students, because this is the way the future is going,” said JMSB admissions advisor Jacklin Lu. “It doesn’t create a vibrant student campus at all.”
CUPEU voted for a two-week strike mandate in May 2024 which was passed and disclosed to the university. Approximately 75 per cent of 450 members voted in favour of the protest. Concordia officially addressed the issue when the strike was announced in an Aug. 27 press release.
Representatives of CUPEU, the university, and the Confédérations des Syndicats Nationaux (CSN) convened on Aug. 30 to find an agreement. The university offered to create a working group to find a compromise. CUPEU suspended their planned Sept. 3 strike to take the day to consider before agreeing that their requirements were not met and that the strike would persist. CUPEU members are expected to reassess their strike progress every five days if Concordia does not propose a new offer.
“Hopefully, the university will change its position and come back to us with a mandate that is more in line with what we want,” said CUPEU president and VP of grievances Shoshanna Kalfon. “We could always go back to our membership and ask for more time to strike.”
Union members plan to protest at the Centre Mont-Royal from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 10. Wednesday Sept 11th Regular schedule 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in front of the SGW Hall Building. A Barbecue will be held by the CREW CSN union, as the Teaching Assistants and Resident Assistants are negotiating with the university for a new collective agreement. Protests on Thursday Sept. 12 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. will be mainly held on the Loyola campus, as the CREW CSN Barbecue will be held near the Loyola campus picketing lines.
“Negotiations with CUPEU are ongoing,” said Concordia spokesperson Vannina Maestracci. “We remain hopeful that there will be an agreement that addresses the needs of both the union members and the university.”
