Picket lines down as SFU and support staff union reach ‘tentative’ deal

A tentative agreement has been reached between Simon Fraser University and the union that represents teaching support staff, ending weeks-long strike action that began at the end of September.

In an update posted to social media, the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) said picket lines were down as of Thursday morning.

On Tuesday, the union said it had made “real progress” on its five key demands, which included: “compensation to class sizes for remote work, stopping wage theft, winning a pension plan for instructors, eliminating the most offensive equivalencies, and creating a full teaching year for ELC/ITP/ITA instructors.”

Speaking with CityNews, TSSU member and PhD candidate Azraf Ahmad says he’s grateful that a tentative deal has been reached.

“Obviously, we did not get all the things that we had envisioned in an ideal contract. When we had originally started making our proposals, we wanted to address some of the long-standing issues with the instructional environment at SFU, as well as the fact that the cost of living in Vancouver is crazy,” he explained.

“We did not meet our goals on all of our proposals, … We’ve been able to reach a middle ground where none of SFU’s cuts made it through, and some of our big tasks have been granted.”

Ahmad hopes that TSSU members will accept the proposal and vote positively on it next week.

He explains as part of the deal, they were able to keep general wage increases, “so it’ll be a sizeable pay bump for folks.”

“But more importantly, the thing that we were able to do, and solving a very long-standing issue, is that at SFU, whenever we get a wage increase from our TA appointments, our scholarship is cut. This time, we got a key protection in there, which says that our increases in pay from TA and other appointments will not be offset against our RA (research assistant) wages or scholarships,” he said.

“For the first time, wage increases will actually translate to more take-home pay.”

Ahmad says the tentative deal also includes a “pathway” for pensions for sessional instructors and other teaching support staff.

“So, even though we didn’t get, for instance, tying our wages to class sizes, and everything that we asked for, we got really crucial wins in there while protecting the existing rights. So, I think I’m hopeful that our membership will be happy with the work that we’ve done negotiating it,” he said.

Considering the impact on classes and students since Sept. 28, Ahmad says the union is incredibly disappointed that it had to come to job action.

“First and foremost, we’re all teachers and researchers, and we love our jobs,” he said. “But we were trying to get this contract from SFU for almost a year now, negotiating with them for almost a year, and it got to the point where we saw no other option but to engage in a full work stoppage.”

“We hope now that we’ve resolved that we can get back to teaching and the improvements that we’ve made … allows [union members] to focus more on the teaching quality,” he added.

The TSSU says more details regarding the tentative agreement will be shared with its members.

Meanwhile, SFU says this process “has been a long journey and we are grateful for the efforts of everyone involved that helped us reach this outcome.”

“The tentative agreement supports TSSU members with a wage increase, and other compensation and benefit enhancements, while delivering on the Province’s 2022 Shared Recovery Mandate,” the university said in a statement.

“The agreement will be recommended for ratification to TSSU members, and approval by the SFU Board of Governors and the University Public Sector Employers’ Association.”

SFU is thanking the school community for its “patience and understanding” throughout the last few weeks.

“We look forward to resuming our regular activities, and for our community to come back together to ensure the academic success of our students, support our outstanding faculty and staff, and nurture a thriving, world-class research environment at SFU.”

–With files from Martin MacMahon