The union representing U of T teaching assistants posted some of the tentative contract details on their website, sparking a debate among members about how such information should be distributed in the run-up to ratification votes.

Posting the proposed amendments to the contract as negotiated by CUPE Local 3902 bargaining committee breaks from traditional routine. Prior to this, it had kept the details away from the public until union members met to vote on the contract, at which point they would see it for the first time.

“The general practice is not to disclose,” said Anil Varughese, the bargaining committee spokesperson, “but we got a number of emails from the membership saying they wanted to see the contract before the vote.”

According to Varughese, the union decided to ensure that the membership had a chance to look at the contract before the public and the university faculty. This was so members could not be swayed or given partial or bad information about the agreement before seeing it for themselves.

Union members like Periklis A. Papakonstantinou, a computer sciences grad student, had protested keeping the agreement details secret prior to the ratification vote.

“The democratic procedure of CUPE treats their members poorly,” said Papakonstantinou in an email to union reps. “Let the info flow before the vote.”

The full contract cannot, however, be made public for some time, as Varughese pointed out.

“It’s like writing a new piece of legislation,” he said. “It takes a year for the union and university to make changes to the collective agreement.”

Parts of the web summary were less than satisfactory for some members. Papakonstantinou took issue with certain “self-contradictory statements,” such as stating that “recognition of the pedagogical importance of small tutorial sizes” was a “major gain,” yet “tutorial size limits” were among “things we couldn’t get.”

Until the membership has had a chance to look at the contract, Varughese would not talk about the merits of the agreement. He also wasn’t sure whether the preemptive release of the agreement would sway the membership.

“Ideally one would have the decision outside of influence,” Varughese said.

Union members will hold a ratification vote on February 7 that could approve the tentative agreement or push the union nearer to a strike.