SFU teaching support staff begin job action
Posted September 28, 2023 7:09 am.
Last Updated September 28, 2023 3:28 pm.
Simon Fraser University students may notice some changes at their campuses beginning Thursday.
Members of the Teaching Support Staff Union — which represents nearly 1,600 workers at the school — are withdrawing their services and walking off the job. The job action means approximately half of all teaching staff at the university won’t be working.
The union, which is largely made up of teaching assistants, is asking for a cost-of-living wage adjustment and a new contract, as its previous deal expired in April 2022.
TSSU Chief Steward-Organizer Liam Kennedy-Slaney says while there have been small gains, negotiations with the university have so far been slow.
“After we voted to strike back in May of this year, the employer began to move towards our position. They increased the benefits package that covers mental health from $1,000 to $2,000, which is pretty good. It’s really nice to see that,” he said.
Related Article: SFU support staff going on strike Thursday
Kennedy-Slaney says picket lines will begin Thursday morning.
“We’re going to start our job action with a full work stoppage across all three campuses. We’re also going to start with picket lines at the Surrey campus,” he told CityNews.
Picket lines will move to the university’s Vancouver campus tomorrow and the main Burnaby Mountain campus on Tuesday.
Students at the university are supportive of the union’s job action, Kennedy-Slaney believes.
“We’ve done a lot of outreach to undergraduate students. We see them in our tutorials, we’ve talked to them on campus and they instinctively understand that their learning conditions are our working conditions.”
SFU says it has met with union leadership three times this month, saying it tabled an updated proposal package, but it says the union did not agree to the offer and instead, provided a counter-proposal “that did not show movement” on their stance.
“SFU has offered the maximum allowable general wage increases provided under the Province’s Shared Recovery Mandate, which directs collective bargaining in B.C.’s public sector,” the school said in a statement.
“To date, about 96 per cent of unionized employees in the province have tentative or ratified agreements settled under the Mandate, including APSA, CUPE Local 3338, and Poly Party at SFU.”
