By: Anthony Houston, SFU student
As is the case with any Canadian union, SFU’s Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) has the right to strike in accordance with the British Columbia Labour Relations Board (LRB). Strikes are a type of job action that pressure an employer whenever an impasse has been reached during bargaining — actions within a strike include “the cessation of work” or “a refusal to work,” among other things. It’s true that strikes can be disruptive actions affecting third parties beyond an employer and its employees, but strikes are sometimes the only way to change the power balance of a relationship, ensuring workers get fair compensation, rights, and benefits. The Peak has investigated these factors below, reviewing over two years of events that led to the TSSU strike.
March 23, 2021–August 11, 2021
TSSU and SFU begin bargaining negotiations to reach a formal “Collective Agreement for Research Assistants and Grant Employees (RAs)” on March 23. TSSU’s eleven page proposal requested: a broad definition of research work, transparency, protection against inequities, fair wages, and rights and benefits for RAs. This first bargaining session came after a 10 month delay, in which SFU presented “a two page document which lacked detail,” and mostly focused on narrowing down the definition of research workers in the university.
During the second session of negotiations on April 8, SFU responded to TSSU’s proposal, leaving them with the impression that “SFU Administration is trying to rewrite the Voluntary Recognition Agreement” (VRA). One of the clauses of this agreement, signed November 15, 2019, was to recognize TSSU as the bargaining agent for the “included persons,” defined in this same agreement as:
- Individuals who receive compensation from grants as scholarships and/or stipends
- Holders of NSERC USRA and equivalents funded by SFU
- Work-study student employees
The agreement explicitly excludes post-doctoral fellows, and university research associates. According to TSSU, SFU faculties and departments circulated a document that contradicts the definition of RA set in the VRA. On the third session of negotiations, on April 15, SFU accepted the common clause list proposed by TSSU on March 23, meaning some of the articles included in the TSSU/SFU Collective Agreement would be applicable to RAs once a complete agreement has been reached and voted for by union members. Subsequent meetings in May were met with “some progress, although key differences remain.” According to TSSU, SFU focused on having a flexible definition of RAs, and suggesting that “faculty would be receiving little or no support as PIs from SFU Administration.” Bargaining sessions from May 14 to August 11, according to TSSU, were cancelled by SFU in order to delay bargaining — it’s unknown how many sessions were cancelled.
August 12, 2021–September 23, 2021
SFU appointed a new negotiator who, according to TSSU, back-tracked on the previous proposal from August 18. SFU requested the removal of “number of hours of work, schedule of work, and work location” from the letter of employment on the basis of it being “administratively burdensome.” In response, TSSU left the negotiations and only came back after SFU reverted to their previous proposal. Additionally, TSSU presented a monetary overview for RAs and Grant Employees at SFU, which included: “paid sick leave, vacation pay, fair compensation and wage increases, employer-paid MSP/International Student Health Fee, extended health and dental, EFAP access, and maternity and paternity leave, and more.”
During the September bargaining sessions, TSSU claimed SFU was unprepared and “unwilling to make any concrete statements” on monetary items. According to TSSU, SFU claimed “paying RAs a living wage would hurt the institution,” and “there are RAs who would end up being paid $25 per hour ‘to clean beakers.’” After the last bargaining session of the month, RAs rallied outside Strand Hall in a demonstration of their frustrations, demanding all RAs be included as members of TSSU, and provided with basic employment protections and benefits.
November 10, 2021–January 17, 2022
On November 10, SFU presented their monetary proposal, setting a “competitive minimum hourly rate” for RAs. SFU stated their proposal took into consideration the compensation model of various universities, the diverse types of work conducted by RAs, and the constraints of grant funding received by principal investigators (PI) as to “not negatively impact the ability to carry out research.” Additionally, SFU mentions their proposal included “extended health plan and dental plan benefits for individuals not covered by an SFSS or GSS health and dental plan.”
In their official statement, TSSU mentions SFU’s proposal included: minimum wage of $17/hr (minimum wage in BC as of November 2021 was $15.20; $16.75 as of June 1, 2023), no benefits for student RAs, and a “bare-bones benefits package of extended health, dental, paltry sick leave, and vacation” for select non-student RAs. Negotiations in the month of December, according to TSSU, worsened. Not only did the minimum wage remain the same, but TSSU observed that the language included could allow the unwarranted termination of RAs by maintaining them as “at-will employees,” and the sick leave policy would be below an upcoming provincial sick leave legislation.
January 18, 2022–October 25, 2022
From January 18 to August 19, 2022, TSSU and SFU entered into arbitration for the dispute over the inclusion of RAs and Grant Employees as stated by the VRA. During this period of time, on July 19, SFU announced it would begin to take steps to becoming a Living Wage Employer, meaning they would need to ensure wages meet true costs of living for employees and major contractors. The living wage in Metro Vancouver as of the writing of this article is $24.08.
On September 13, the Arbitration Decision was reached. SFU breached clauses one, two, four, and eight, and the appendix of the VRA, some of which entail:
- Recognizing TSSU as the bargaining agent, determination of included positions, as well as establishing terms and conditions of employment for them.
- Individuals receiving compensation from grants as scholarships and/or stipends who are employees of a PI are to become employees of SFU and included in the bargaining unit as included persons.
On their official statement, SFU admitted to failing to meet all the terms of the VRA for lacking a proper process to “determine who is an employee of the university in regards to individuals on scholarships/stipends.” SFU began the process of defining “scholarship” to differentiate graduate students that should be considered employees and those who are receiving scholarships.
October 26, 2022–January 18, 2023
Following the arbitration decision, SFU presented an updated proposal on October 26. According to TSSU, wage revision only mentioned it would be consistent with SFU’s Living Wage Employer pursuit, which included a clause where “they reserve the right to go backwards on their proposals.” Additionally, the proposal included an updated interpretation for graduate student RAs, which, according to TSSU, contradicted the determinations of arbitration. — “there are characteristics of both employment and educational relationship in a research university, the dependency and protective need of the weaker student party favours a determination that the relationship is employment.” SFU’s official statement, released November 10, mentioned that graduate students could be barred from certain academic pursuits such as lab or field work without an employment contract. According to SFU, interpreting these activities as “learning opportunities” rather than employment is based on ensuring graduate students can partake in all available opportunities.
After a November meeting with the arbitrator, SFU released a statement on December 12, stating: “The arbitrator [. . .] confirmed SFU’s interpretation: some graduate students who receive compensation from grants as scholarship and/or stipend are in an employment relationship, and some are in an educational relationship.” In response, SFU surveyed PIs to determine whether their graduate students are in an employment or educational relationship.
January 19, 2023–March 09, 2023
After 1,155 days without a contract for RAs, SFU presented a new proposal with minor language changes and the removal of a numerical wage for RAs, as outlined by TSSU’s official statement: “Of course, this ridiculously low wage is a public embarrassment, particularly when SFU is touting itself as being the first living wage campus, but the reason to withdraw it should be because it was a travesty in the first place, not because Senior Administration wants to save face.” The next negotiation meeting on January 24 was cancelled by SFU due to weather delays, and TSSU outlined this is not a first — previous meetings had been cancelled by similar situations.
The meetings in early February showed little progress. TSSU’s official statement remarks on SFU’s refusal to address the gradCOLA (Cost of Living Adjustment) coalition, outright condemning it as union busting effort.
March 10, 2023–Jun 08, 2023
During the first week of March, TSSU’s membership unanimously voted to cancel the remaining March sessions and call for a strike vote — 94% of TSSU member’s (982) voted in favor of the strike. SFU expressed surprise and disappointment at TSSU’s decision to halt negotiations and stated that “there are over 200 outstanding items still to be discussed.” SFU applied for mediation at the LRB in order to mitigate TSSU’s job action and invited them back to negotiations in April. On their official statement from March 29, TSSU outlined that in addition to mediation at the LRB, SFU also “obstructed implementation of Essential Services,” and “sent a legal declaration claiming that our strike vote is void,” which are legal ways to stop TSSU’s job action. Mediation dates were set through April 27.
On March 30, TSSU, gradCOLA, Contract Worker Justice, and allies protested the Board of Governors meeting. SFU’s official minutes draft highlights the university’s challenges and priorities: increased inflation and volatile markets, student affordability, living wage, tuition increases of 2% for domestic students and 4% for international students, and the financial health of the institution. During their April 12 statement, SFU reiterated their disappointment over TSSU’s refusal to table any new proposals and counterproposals, or discuss previously presented proposals — this would constitute the third time TSSU suspended negotiations since bargaining began on November 2, 2022.
TSSU stated that the first two mediation meetings were met with close to no progress. According to them, the first meeting had SFU reiterating their “objectively absurd” points. In the second meeting some progress was made in the form of proposals being tabled and some of the cuts withdrawn. Despite that, TSSU considered it pointless to continue with the mediation meeting and requested the LRB to “report out.” During the third meeting, SFU questioned the legitimacy of TSSU’s strike vote on the basis that the inclusion of RAs’ issues “sway[ed] people’s votes.” As a concession, TSSU withdrew their strike vote and SFU withdrew their application challenging the legitimacy of the strike vote — both TSSU and SFU agreed to expedite bargaining until May 19, with SFU requiring to table monetary proposals for RAs by April 24, and all other bargaining issues by April 28.
According to TSSU, SFU met the wage proposal deadlines but once again “doubled down on their position that graduate students cannot also be workers, in clear and direct defiance of Jim Dorsey’s arbitration decision.” SFU’s statement on the RA monetary proposal of April 24 is that “any RA employed by the university will earn a living wage.” From their last statements, both institutions were unable to reach an agreement on the issues tabled, thus TSSU called for a second strike vote that took place on May 23 and 24, and had a 91% mandate in favour of the strike. Additionally, RAs have organized to sign union cards, with over 500 being signed as of May 29. TSSU hopes to reach 1,000 cards signed during the summer; if over 55% of RAs sign union cards, SFU will be forced by the LRB to bargain with TSSU.
Fighting for RA rights seems like it has been a never ending task for TSSU — it’s been almost four years since the VRA was signed and yet their fight seems far from over. When it comes to fighting for the rights of the people whose work has built SFU to what it is, workers that have helped place SFU as the top comprehensive university in Canada for 14 consecutive years — the fight is not only justifiable, but entirely necessary. This piece was built from official statements released by both TSSU and SFU, and while the intention is to present the timeline of events in an unbiased manner, by the end of this piece, it’s impossible to ignore the glaring issues in SFU’s behaviour. Denying RAs rights and fair wages is not only a blatant form of disrespect to them and their hard work, but also, to what SFU is supposed to stand for in first place.
