The largest union for SFU staff has voted to take job action as teachers and researchers, among other staff, are demanding “full cost of living adjustments.”
The Teaching Support Staff Union reported on the vote, which was an overwhelming majority of 94 per cent in favour, early Wednesday.
“We are serious about negotiating a fair collective agreement and TSSU members have made it clear that they are prepared to take action to get one,” said Kayla Hilstob, chair of the Teaching Support Staff Union.
The union represents more than 3,500 workers, who teach and conduct research at Simon Fraser University but aren’t faculty, including research assistants, teaching assistants, graduate facilitators, education mentors and some instructors.
The collective agreement between the union and the school expired in April 2022, and since then the union said, “SFU Admin has spent months wasting time at the bargaining table rather than negotiating a fair deal.”
The union continued, “Not a single SFU executive has been willing to show up to the bargaining table or listen, and instead the process has been outsourced to a consultant who demonstrates little knowledge of SFU.”
The union said that it has put forward proposals to improve working conditions on campus for its members but that SFU has not discussed “key problems such as increasing class sizes, overwork, the rising cost of living and housing, pensions and benefits for long-service employees.”
“Not only will SFU not address our proposals, they are demanding massive cuts to the Collective Agreement, including cutting priority rights for grad student TAs as well as seniority and promotion rights for sessional instructors,” said Amal Vincent, TSSU’s chief steward.
Many of the union members are SFU graduates as well, and they are also striking to include the “gradCOLA demand” for a minimum funding packing of $32,000 per year plus tuition, plus other demands.
“Research assistants are the backbone of SFU’s research enterprise, which brought in $171.6 million in grants in 2021 alone,” the union said in a press release.
“Teaching assistants form the first point of contact for many students, and sessional instructors teach nearly half of summer semester courses.”
The current pay structure has TSSU members in bad situations, the union said.
“We can’t afford to even eat and keep a roof over our heads. I talk to members who are working full-time, yet need to go to the food bank, scrounge for free food, and take on multiple other jobs just to survive,” said Catherine Dubé, TSSU organizer and RA.
No timetable has been set for job action yet, but the union said it will be coordinating with members to make that decision in the “coming days.”
SFU gave a response to the strike vote on Wednesday and said it was disappointed when the union decided to stop negotiations.
“We are surprised and disappointed TSSU stopped the negotiation process because there are over 200 outstanding items still to be discussed,” an SFU spokesperson wrote in a statement.
“Bargaining under the current mandate began on November 2, 2022, when the university tabled 87 proposals and the TSSU tabled 555 proposals.”
The university said it and the union has made “significant progress” in discussing 405 of the 642 total proposals, but 237 proposals are still outstanding, which have not been discussed.
“SFU has invited the TSSU back to the bargaining table in April to continue working together and negotiating these outstanding proposals,” the spokesperson said.
A resulting strike could result in four forms of job action: withholding student grades, refusing overtime, talking to students during tutorials regarding the job action, and putting stickers on student papers, according to the union.
Comments