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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates

Current State of Bargaining

This week nearly 1000 TSSU members, faculty, staff, and community allies shut down the Vancouver and Surrey campuses. The Employer again reacted to our impressive show of solidarity by sending misleading messages to our members and the SFU community. We will respond in more detail to some of their statements in the coming week. What…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates Job Action Strike Updates

No deal–full work stoppage to begin with Surrey picket

Contract Committee arrived at our 41st bargaining session yesterday with pens in hand, ready to sign a deal; the Employer, however, did not. Even on the precipice of a full and complete work stoppage, the Employer failed to meaningfully bargain on any of our fundamental issues. As a result, TSSU will begin a full and…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates

The Employer’s last chance

On Monday September 25, TSSU will meet with the Employer in the Student Union Building (SUB) ballroom at 11AM for our 41st bargaining session. It has been over 500 days since our contract expired in April 2022—that’s over 500 days that the Employer has been withholding increased wages, improved benefits, and enhanced protections that they…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates

All of us, or none of us!

Thank you to every single member who came out for breakfast and bargaining on Monday. We packed the room, and the Employer refused to even enter, citing the fire code. Nobody knows the last time the fire code was taken into account by the Employer when packing our classrooms with students—who often do not even…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates Strike Updates

Summer bargaining update and welcome to Fall

Because many new members have joined TSSU this Fall, the Contract Committee and Strike Committee thought we should summarize bargaining, the ongoing strike, and look forward to what’s next. What’s at stake? TSSU is bargaining for three key improvements to our Collective Agreement: (1) a Cost of Living Adjustment, (2) to Stop Wage Theft, and…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates

Finally the truth about the Employer’s time wasting

Yesterday the Employer finally revealed they have no mandate to bargain on our fundamental issue of upgrading the TA and SI compensation model until after the new VP Academic starts in mid-late August. The Employer has shown that when they want a deal, they can bargain one, as they did with our CUPE 3338 colleagues…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates

TSSU packs room, SFU “bargains” by refusing to counter on key proposals

TSSU members packed the bargaining to hear the Employer present a new “proposal package” that was mostly rehashed with a few typo fixes, an updated ELC/ITP instructor proposal they’d been hiding for at least a week, and some movement on mental health coverage. It seems the Employer is starting to feel the heat of strike…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates

Employer asks TSSU to “Dial Down” as we approach strike

Since we took our strike vote and produced a powerful 91% mandate to strike, the Employer has insisted that we return to bargaining, suggesting they had substantially updated their position. In a gesture of good faith, TSSU scheduled a bargaining date today to receive their latest proposal before serving strike notice. The Employer’s proposal, however,…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates Job Action

Bargaining stalled; 91% vote to strike

After almost 65 hours of bargaining in May, the Employer remained unwilling to budge on the fundamental problems our members need solved. On May 19th, TSSU presented a comprehensive settlement proposal, but at the end of the day the Employer left it on the table, preferring TSSU accept SFU’s proposal that offered less than was…

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2022/2023 Bargaining Updates

Employer refuses to address fundamental issues faced by workers

TSSU has finished the first of two weeks of expedited bargaining with SFU, as required by the Labour Relations Board. Since our last update on Tuesday, we bargained for Teaching Assistants, Education Mentors, Graduate Facilitators in the Student Learning Commons and Media and Maker Commons, and ELC/ITP/ITA instructors. While there has been some minor movement…