On June 29, the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) held a picket line outside SFU’s Harbour Centre. Paul Finch, the treasurer of the British Columbia General Employees’ Union (BCGEU), was present at the demonstration, where he announced the BCGEU was donating $200,000 toward the TSSU strike fund.
TSSU chair Kayla Hilstob stated the BCGEU’s donation is for the TSSU’s strike fund, with the most of it funding strike pay for union members. “When we go on picket lines and stop working to put pressure on the employer, they may stop paying us for that time. But the strike fund ensures that TSSU members get paid and can still pay our bills in that case.
Hilstob said the SFU administration offered a 0.01% increase to their wages. In response, she exclaimed, “I’m tired of this administration running this place of learning like a business!”
“This powerful act of solidarity means that we can sustain picket lines to keep the pressure up,” said Hilstob. “Paul Finch from BCGEU unequivocally delivered a message that BCGEU would not allow the university admin to starve out TSSU.” According to Hilstob, SFU is aware of BCGEU’s new funding and has not responded.
Finch said the SFU administration’s lack of support for workers is “a political decision by the university,” and that the BCGEU is “not going to let the university pursue a strategy” of refusing “very reasonable strike demands.”
According to Finch, it is within the power of the SFU board of directors to improve the working conditions for staff at SFU. “If they say they don’t have that power, they are lying to you,” he continued.
Derek Sahota, the TSSU’s member advocate, stated that in the last fiscal year, SFU made a $25 million dollar surplus, and “they take that money for whatever they want, and leave our members starving [ . . . ] we have a union-buster in charge of the second-largest public university in BC.”
Sahota elaborated in a correspondence with The Peak, providing figures from SFU’s financial publications: “TSSU’s position isn’t that wages should be doubled, but it’s very clear there’s room in the budget to make life a lot better for our members who do a large amount of the teaching work on campus.”
This is an ongoing story. For more information on the ongoing strike, visit the TSSU website: https://www.tssu.ca/
