The results could not have been clearer. In March, 1049 TSSU members came out to vote, in person, and 93.613% of them voted in favour of a strike. 646 of these voters have a current appointment as a Teaching Assistant or one of the other categories recognized by SFU and the Labour Board as covered under the Board’s Collective Bargaining rules; of these, 93.653% voted to strike. The remainder, 403 Research Assistants (RAs) and other TSSU members who do not currently hold employment as a member of one of these groups, voted 93.548% for a strike. TSSU was careful to supply voters with a white or a pink ballot, depending on which category they fell into, in order to make sure that no matter how the vote was read, we had an accurate count. Any way it is sliced, it is clear that our members have collectively voiced their decision about how to deal with the endless delay in getting a fair and reasonable Collective Agreement for all of our members.
In order to delay or avoid this strike, the Employer forced TSSU to meet downtown, at the Labour Relations Board, for mediation. The first day, April 5th, saw TSSU prepared to deal with the myriad issues before us. SFU, however, continued to assert its tired talking points, many of which are objectively absurd: that students cannot be workers, for example. The day ended with 0 progress made.
The second day of mediation, April 11, began as more of the same. TSSU had insisted that the Employer show they were serious by withdrawing the cuts to our members’ job security rights, and by proposing some substantive improvements. Instead, the process of mediation proceeded like a slow-motion Bargaining session, where proposals finally appeared months after being promised. While this represents progress and while a few of the cuts were indeed withdrawn, most were not. Such a glacial pace of discussion may suit the Employer, but our members are in dire straits now, and deserve to be prioritized and taken seriously. At the end of the day, TSSU told the Labour Relations Board that further mediation was pointless, and to “report out” and end this mediation session, which was done.
Following this, the Board called a hearing for the morning of Monday, April 17, to hear SFU’s long list of complaints about TSSU’s Strike Vote. It turned out that SFU had managed to find a technical aspect of B.C. Labour Law, and (to make a long story short) argued that the TSSU member strike vote was invalid because RA issues should be kept separate from all other issues, and that RA issues might have swayed some people’s votes. TSSU, of course, argued passionately that this technicality did not apply, for a whole host of reasons, including our members’ Charter rights and the pure logic that RA. issues had been heavily discussed among our membership for the last four years, since the Voluntary Recognition Agreement was signed.
SFU has the time, money, and resources to litigate on a technicality, but we know where our strengths lie: collective power. Our membership is organized, angry, and ready to do what it takes to reach a fair deal. While SFU would likely much prefer litigating on a technicality and continuing to delay ensuring fair wages, benefits, and working conditions for TSSU members, we are ready to fight.
Just like in 2015, SFU’s refusal to set Essential Service levels has, in any case, proved to be an effective delaying tactic: we cannot take strike action until this has been done, and there is no chance that it will be done before May.
Our pressure, however, has done some good. As a concession to our withdrawal of the strike vote (without admitting fault), we have also agreed that:
- SFU has to present a monetary proposal for RAs by noon on Monday April 24, and proposals on all fundamental issues on all other bargaining by Friday April 28, and monetary proposals for all other bargaining by noon on Monday May 8. These deadlines can be legally enforced in hours or days by the LRB, rather than the months we would normally have to wait using other processes;
- TSSU and SFU will bargain on an expedited basis until May 19 and, if no deal is reached by 4pm on May 19, TSSU is free to take another strike vote and serve strike notice immediately (as SFU is free to lock TSSU out should they choose to).
To avoid a repeat of having SFU raise objections, we would likely take the next strike vote on an expedited basis by polling only those members with summer teaching appointments.
Repeating a strike vote may seem like a daunting and difficult task, but with as many members involved as possible, we will easily achieve what needs to be done. Get in touch with the organizers, Catherine and Felix, at organizers@tssu.ca to find out how you can get involved and do the work that is critical to potentially holding a second strike vote and ensuring we get a fair contract.