By: Olivia Sherman, News Writer
Editor’s Note: The Peak would like to acknowledge and apologize for misgendering one of our interviewees. Their correct pronouns have been added to the web-version of the article.
On July 19, the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) took strike action at SFU’s Surrey campus. Their actions included picketing outside the campus and teaching assistants (TAs) stopping work. These measures are part of the ongoing strike among TSSU members across all three SFU campuses, which officially began on June 12.
“We are striking to address overwork and striking to address unpaid work, we’re striking to address wage theft, we’re striking to get wages and raises that actually keep up with inflation,” said Dalton Kamish in an interview with The Peak. As well as being a PhD candidate in the School of Communication at SFU, Kamish is a member of the TSSU, acting as a trustee and member of both the strike committee and bargaining committee. Kamish is also a research assistant (RA).
Kamish said the July 19 strike’s location was significant. They noted members of the Surrey campus “sometimes feel left out.” To help, “we made it a point the past few weeks to spend more time in Surrey doing more outreach, because they want to be more involved in the strike actions.”
Kamish discussed the importance of including RAs in the TSSU and the ongoing strike movement. “RAs have been wanting to join TSSU [ . . . ] for years now,” Kamish explained, for reasons including extended healthcare coverage, healthcare for international students, and job protection. “So right now, RAs can just be fired at will for no reason. Like, if the next day your supervisor decides they don’t like you anymore, they can just fire you for no reason.”
Kamish explained RAs have been engaging in a card signing campaign. Cards can be signed either on the Burnaby campus or online through the TSSU website. A signed card represents a declaration that the worker wants to be represented by the TSSU. Once 55% of these cards are signed by RAs willing to be members of the TSSU, RAs will “become part of the certified bargaining unit,” granting them “more rights under the purview of the labour board.”
As a member of the TSSU bargaining committee, Kamish said negotiations with SFU administrators are far from over. “We’re still very far apart on our major issues,” they said, citing the TA compensation model as one of the main points of contention between the union and administration. The TA compensation model, Kamish explained, does not include compensation for the various class sizes a TA must instruct.
Kamish mentioned how TAs are compensated the same amount for teaching courses with five or 500 students. “It doesn’t account for the extra time and the extra preparation, the extra emails that go along with more students,” they added.
While bargaining has been slow, there has been progress. “We have seen some minor, but not insignificant [ . . . ] movements since we began strike and job actions, like picketing,” Kamish explained. “But the reality is that strikes work, pickets work.”
Kamish noted the ongoing strikes should be a unifying act, rather than a divisive one. They stated SFU administration has been reportedly “trying to pit undergrads against their own TAs,” and there is a severe divide between “different groups of people who actually have a shared interest with each other, and it’s very frustrating to see.
“We hear from our undergraduates all the time: ‘Why are you guys on strike? You’re cancelling class.’” Kamish explained, “We love what we do. We don’t want to be on strike. We’re being forced to go on strike by the employer who won’t offer us a contract that will meet our actual needs [ . . . ] I would argue it’s part of one’s education here at SFU to participate and be involved in this workers’ movement right here on campus.
“Our power as workers is our labour. This university works because we do. And the most power we have is withdrawing our labour, making this university stop working. Because that is the only way to get the employer to take us seriously, to get them to offer us a contract that will meet our needs.”
This is a developing story The Peak will continue to cover. For more information, check out the official TSSU website at https://www.tssu.ca/.
