Job action escalates as both CUPE and the TSSU attempt to come to a collective agreement with the university
By Graham Cook
By Alison Roach
Photos by Graham Cook
Tensions between Simon Fraser University and both the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3338 and the Teaching Support Staff Union continued to rise over the past week, as neither union has been able to reach a collective agreement with the university.
Both the CUPE Local and the TSSU have strike mandates from their membership and have begun engaging in job action to try to put pressure on the university administration during the collective bargaining process. Though they are separate bargaining units, both organizations have implemented overtime bans, meaning no member of the union is able to put in more than their required time at work. In addition, on Oct. 12, CUPE members held a silent protest outside of the library and Maggie Benston Centre, and on Oct. 19, they walked off the job and picketed the SFU Vancouver locations, including the Harbour Centre and Woodward’s campuses. No plans have been released by the organization to picket the Burnaby or Surrey campuses.
Neither Simon Fraser University administration nor CUPE Local 3338 provided a comment at the time of print, with the exception of the former directing The Peak to a recording from the Safety and Risk Services website and the latter confirming that the Burnaby campus would not be picketed on Oct. 19. However, Derek Sahota, a spokesperson for the TSSU, spoke to The Peak, explaining that, while they would respect any CUPE picket lines that were set, the Teaching Support Staff Union itself needs to hold a follow-up vote of its membership in order to walk off the job. In addition, he stated that they are working to make sure that their job action will have minimal effect on undergraduate students.
The TSSU hosted a job action town hall meeting last Thursday in order to publically explain what has led up to the decision to escalate job action by withholding grades, and address any concerns that citizens of the university have. The meeting started out with presentations from the TSSU contract committee and strike committee, which were then followed by a round of Q+A. The contract committee gave a brief rundown of the current teaching conditions and an outline of the TSSU bargaining proposals. All their source data and proposals can be found on the TSSU bargaining website.
It was reinforced repeatedly by presenters that the TSSU feels they have found little to no cooperation with the employer at the bargaining table, even saying that the SFU bargaining team was acting in bad faith. After TSSU members voted with a 91 per cent majority on a strike mandate this summer, mediation started and continued throughout August and September with “basically no progress,” according to Derek Sahota, a physics TA and representative of the contract committee. Shortly after job action started in October, SFU invited the TSSU back to the bargaining table. Jeff Zurek, an earth sciences TA also on the contract committee explained, “Unfortunately, that didn’t really get us anywhere. They tabled something way out of left-field, had a bunch of new concessions, and it just wasn’t indicative of someone actually trying to get to an agreement.”
While still rejecting the TSSU’s proposals, SFU did propose a change in the hiring priority system. That system would promote hiring graduate students first for sessional positions, hiring graduate students from outside of the department as opposed to graduate students more advanced in their studies, and a monetary increase of about one third of the amount that the average graduate student would pay in increased tuition over the course of the contract. It was explained by the strike committee representatives that after these new demands they felt that a reasonable conversation was not happening, and that further job escalation was necessary. This led to the decision to withhold marked grades from the administration.
Starting Friday, Oct. 18, TSSU members are still able to give students feedback on exams and assignments but without a numerical or letter grade that could be entered into the system. This job action will continue on indefinitely and there are no set plans for further escalation. Said Ben Levy, an active TSSU volunteer, “We’re going to need to put pressure on the employer as a community.” Zurek said he believes that the SFU administration is “looking for any opportunity to split the community and turn us against each other. . . . Instead of being an engaged community we’ll be a community at war.”
The meeting then opened to address questions and concerns from those in attendance, from specific grading questions to rumored incidents of SFU campus security tearing down TSSU strike posters. Levy stated that some TSSU members had seen the latter happening, though there is no written record. The impact of withholding grades on students was also addressed. Presenters stressed that the increased job action was designed to keep negative impacts on students to a minimum.
TSSU presenters stated that the withholding of grades is being implemented to put pressure on the university, while still hopefully coming to a resolution before final marks are needed in December. If it comes to that, students who have a specific reason for needing their grades — to graduate, for example — will be able to go directly to the TSSU and request that their grades be released. The TSSU will hold all grades on hard copies in their effort to keep them away from the administration. If these measures do not yield results, it was said that the next logical step would be some form of picket line, though no strict plans have been put in place.
Though concerns have been raised over whether the withholding of grades would delay the graduation of some upper year students, the TSSU has stated on their website that this will not be the case and that they hope to have the bargaining process completed within this semester. If the process does extend past the fall semester, the TSSU will allow TAs to submit grades for graduating students. Future job action plans were not disclosed to The Peak by either the TSSU or CUPE.
