Three weeks into the strike, CUPE 2424 and Carleton University are currently no closer to coming to an agreement on collective bargaining rights around pensions.

Fourteen hours of mediated negotiations last weekend failed to bring the two sides any closer to a negotiated settlement.

Carleton released a statement on Wednesday, clarifying some of its positions on the issue. While it said in the release that the university is not looking to reduce or eliminate CUPE 2424 member pensions, it says it views the contribution language of the current pension agreement as giving CUPE 2424 a veto over the overall Pension Committee.

Meanwhile, CUPE 2424 President Jerrett Clark says, the university isn't budging on the main contentious issue: the elimination of collective agreement language around pensions in the contract.

"We've sought to have frank discussions about what the university may want to do with the pension plan, any possible ammendments, things the university may want or need with regard to the health of the plan, but they haven't been forthcoming about that. So we have no choice to assume or expect the worst in the absence of any other answers. We're fighting to protect the bargaining rights and protections around key provisions in the plan, so we don't expose our members to adverse changes," says Clark.

"We've tried a number of variations, different proposals, creative solutions that we think would address the university's needs while still retaining some protections around our pension benefits, but the university has refused to accept that we should have anything in our agreement that protects our pension benefits."

He adds, while CUPE 2424 has made concessions with regard to the flexibility of percentages of pension contributions, and a number of other issues, the university has not yet conceded whatsoever on its goal to eliminate the collective agreement language.

He says the university has been hostile in terms of its treatment of the negotiations, and has even made some false claims about historically-considered ammendments to similar agreements.

Clark says the union understands to an extent that the university may need some uniformity in the language of its pension contracts among the unions, but that it doesn't neccessarily mean that any or all of the unions shouldn't have some languague in their collective agreements protecting their pensions.

"The university doesn't think that any organizations or any employee groups or unions on campus should have bargaining rights around pensions in their collective agreements," says Clark.

He says CUPE 2424 wants to thank students and others coming on to Carleton campus for their support and patience with the strike.