Executive, Staff and Stewards
Executive Board
President: Noreen Cauley
President@cupe4600.ca
Treasurer: Dani Reimer
Treasurer@cupe4600.ca
Dani Reimer (they/any) is a history PhD student at Carleton, working on newspaper coverage of Cold War spy scandals. In their off-time, they enjoy cross-stitch, taking care of plants, and spending time with cats.
VP Internal: Hayley Malouin
Vp.internal@cupe4600.ca
Hayley Malouin (she/her) is a Unit 1 member and PhD student in Political Science, where her research focuses on radical democracy and the political potentiality of poverty and the poor. She loves crosswords, bowling, and meeting new 4600 members.
Chief Steward Unit 2: Patti Kmiec & Esther Post
ci.chief.steward@cupe4600.ca
Patti has been a Contract Instructor at Carleton since 2017 and has held various roles in our local. She teaches across FASS, including in Human Rights, Childhood/Youth Studies, Sociology, and History. Her teaching, research, and personal interests are largely focused on advocating for the rights of children and youth in Canada.
Esther Post has been a Contract Instructor at Carleton since 2003, teaching primarily for the English Department and for the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation. Her doctoral dissertation focused on radical anarcha-feminist Emma Goldman, and she has long been interested in labour issues, especially for those who are precariously employed.
Chief Steward Unit 1: Molly Alderman
Ta.chief.steward@cupe4600.ca
VP External: Maria Vorobeva & Emily Quaile
Vp.external@cupe4600.ca
Maria Vorobeva is a PhD Candidate in Cognitive Science at Carleton University and a new addition to the CUPE4600 team. Within the union, their priority is to strengthen connections with other locals and the broader community, however they try to stay engaged in all parts of union work. Please don't be afraid to say hi if you see them around 🙂
Emily Quaile is a Master's student at the Institute of Political Economy. She is a queer mom and community organizer currently fighting the anti-trans and fascist movement in Ottawa. She is eager to strengthen CUPE4600's presence within the university, and within our local communities so we can empower each other to make this world a better place.
Recording Secretary: Theya Seywerd
recording.secretary@cupe4600.ca
VP, Unit 1: Ariel Becherer
vp.unit1@cupe4600.ca
Ariel Becherer (she/her) is a graduate student in political economy. She studies climate organizing and the politics of energy infrastructure, because the odds of a future defined by ecological collapse and fascism are dangerously high. She’d rather be playing soccer and reading fantasy novels.
VP, Unit 2: Cheryl Cundell & Morgan Rooney
vp.unit2@cupe4600.ca
Morgan Rooney (he/him) has been part of the Carleton community for over 25 years and wears many hats at the institution. In addition to being the co-VP for Unit 2, he is also currently a 4600 Health Trustee, a CI Senator, a contract instructor and Adjunct Research Professor with the department of English, and an Educational Development Coordinator at Teaching and Learning Services. His research areas include prose fiction in the 'long' eighteenth century and the scholarship of teaching and learning. For fun, he enjoys reading, conversation, music, and outdoor activities of all kinds.
Cheryl Cundell (she/her) teaches communication skills to engineering students through the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton. She spends her free time reading, practicing yoga, and wandering outdoors.
Staff Business Agent & Organizer: Codie Fortin Lalonde Bao@cupe4600.ca Codie (she/her) has held many roles with CUPE 4600 including Unit 2 bargaining team member, executive board member, and now staff for the Local. She has a PhD in Applied Linguistics and Discourse Studies from Carleton and studied how students and citizens(hip) are framed in public education policy across Canada. She is interested in public and higher education, the labour movement, and social justice, and sometimes writes for Our Schools/Our Selves. She likes hiking, science fiction, music, and making things with her hands. Mobilization Coordinator and Grievance officer: Pierre-Julien Blais Mobcor@cupe4600.ca Pierre (he/him) has been staff for CUPE 4600 since 2016. He fills his free time with running, playing hockey, doing crossword puzzles, and cleaning up after his kids.
Who we are
What is CUPE 4600?
Local 4600 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE 4600), represents all Teaching Assistants, internally-funded Research Assistants, and Contract Instructors at Carleton University. It is the largest union on campus, with nearly 3000 members.
Our History
In 1979 Teaching Assistants founded CUPE 2323, in response to widespread workplace inequality across campus. Teaching Assistants received different rates of pay for the same work, had no guarantee of reappointment in successive terms, had no job security, could be fired with little to no warning, and no access to benefits of any kind. Since that time, your union has negotiated over 15 Collective Agreements with Carleton University, and steadily improved the wages, job security, and benefits for all TAs and Contract Instructors.
The contract instructors, then called Sessional Lecturers, formed their own local, CUPE 3805 in 1996, after a five-month organizing drive supported by the TA local, CUPE 2323. They negotiated a first collective agreement that lasted from 1995-1998. They organized around issues of job security and pay, as well as for a grievance process that would help them address workplace complaints.
In 1997 both units voted to merge into what is now CUPE 4600. Both units thought that by bargaining and mobilizing together, they could get better pay and working conditions for each other.
The new local was founded in 1998 and negotiated their first set of collective agreements together that year.
Today, CUPE 4600 represents over 2,100 Teaching Assistants, as well as 1000 Contract Instructors. The Executive Board, Union Stewards, and Caucus Chairs are elected each year from among the membership.
CUPE 4600 is a member-driven union! We are only as strong as our active members.
Equality statement and Land Acknowledgement
Equality Statement
Union solidarity is based on the principle that union members are equal and deserve mutual respect at all levels. Any behaviour that creates conflict prevents us from working together to strengthen our union.
As unionists, mutual respect, cooperation and understanding are our goals. We should neither condone nor tolerate behaviour that undermines the dignity or self-esteem of any individual or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive environment.
Discriminatory speech or conduct which is racist, sexist, transphobic or homophobic hurts and thereby divides us. So too, does discrimination on the basis of ability, age, class, religion, language and ethnic origin.
Sometimes discrimination takes the form of harassment. Harassment means using real or perceived power to abuse, devalue or humiliate. Harassment should not be treated as a joke. The uneasiness and resentment that it creates are not feelings that help us grow as a union.
Discrimination and harassment focus on characteristics that make us different; and they reduce our capacity to work together on shared concerns such as decent wages, safe working conditions, and justice in the workplace, society and in our union.
CUPE’s policies and practices must reflect our commitment to equality. Members, staff and elected officers must be mindful that all persons deserve dignity, equality and respect.
Land Acknowledgement
CUPE 4600 acknowledges that we are on unceded Algonquin territory. The intent of our acknowledgment is to recognize the myriad ways that our larger colonial communities are implicated in the ongoing impacts on First Nations people. Through this acknowledgment we hereby commit to continually recognize and challenge the influences of settler society on our working and living conditions, and the impacts of genocide, oppression and exclusion on the wider communities around us.