By: Corbett Gildersleve, News Writer
On March 28, SFU announced they reached a Memorandum of Settlement with the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) to add about 1,000 research assistants (RAs) to the current TSSU collective agreement. This is a historic agreement as it is the first one in Western Canada. The Peak spoke with Kayla Hilstob, chief steward, and Derek Sahota, member representative, from TSSU to learn more about the history and impact of this change.
TSSU members include sessional instructors, teaching assistants, faculty of education mentors, and graduate facilitators. The new members will now include up to 1,000 “RAs, and then research support, and other types of grant-funded researcher workers,” said Hilstob. This number may increase following an upcoming BC Labour Board decision. Those added to the collective agreement will now receive the same core benefits as other TSSU members. This includes extended health and dental, WorkSafeBC protections, job security, union representation during disciplinary meetings, an increase in wages, access to the TSSU member child care fund, and many other benefits.
Hilstob said it was a “key priority” for TSSU that all RAs receive the same benefits—something SFU had resisted. In the event that a research grant does not cover RA benefits, a special fund set up by SFU opened May 1 for people to apply to. TSSU was also able to negotiate an international student health fee cover for RAs that will be implemented on November 1, as Hilstob stated SFU refused to cover it now. The Peak reached out to SFU for a statement, but they stated they did not have a statement to provide aside from their press release.
Those who have been added to the collective agreement will now receive the same core benefits as other TSSU members.
The unionization of research assistants has been a long road, going as far back as 1978. The latest effort started in 2014 with TSSU’s “Research is Work” campaign, which involved internal discussions between RAs and TSSU. Summer 2019 saw the campaign go into full gear with mapping departments and card signing, and a public launch with postering, social media, information sessions, and rallies. After SFU voluntarily recognized RAs in November 2019, several unsuccessful bargaining sessions occurred centering a debate around who should be considered a research assistant and what work was being done.
TSSU escalated their strike action in 2023 to a full work stoppage, followed by bargaining being renewed for the fall 2024 term. The recent Memorandum of Settlement is the result of this latest round of bargaining. This is a “legal document that forms part of the collective agreement and highlights changes from the previous collective agreement.”
Sahota said there are still around 800 graduate students and workers funded through specific SFU grants yet to be counted as employees. This decision was to be made by the Labour Board mid-April, but has not been announced. Sahota noted that recognizing these students has been the “crux of the issue back all the way to 2019,” with RAs being “critical to the research enterprise of SFU, but they [SFU] continue to object.”
The current SFU-TSSU collective agreement expired on April 30, however, its provisions will carry forward until a new agreement has been bargained. TSSU has submitted notice to SFU to begin bargaining, hoping to begin this summer.
