| 1980-2010’s | Several groups of RAs again bring up the idea of unionization to the TSSU. |
| 2014 | TSSU hires a staff organizer to build a network of RA contacts and foundation for unionization. This work is picked up in 2018. |
| Aug 2018 | Card signing begins for a first RA union drive. |
| Oct 2018 | The campaign gets ~200 signed cards in 6 weeks, not fast enough. Campaign pauses. |
| early 2019 | TSSU builds a team of grassroots organizers and plans another RA union drive. |
| Sept 2019 | RAs begin signing union cards. |
| Nov 2019 | With over 900 cards signed, SFU voluntarily recognizes RAs as members of TSSU and agrees to start bargaining. TSSU accepts. |
| Jan – June 2020 | Over 1000 RAs fill out surveys indicating their wants and needs as workers. |
| June 2020 | SFU finally starts giving TSSU lists of RAs after being ordered to by a mediator. |
| Oct 2020 | TSSU gives SFU formal notice to start bargaining for RAs. |
| March 2021 | After another labour mediation process, SFU finally agrees to begin bargaining. |
| May – Oct 2021 | SFU delays RA bargaining and cancels bargaining dates. |
| Nov 2021 | SFU proposes a $17 minimum wage and no health benefits. |
| Dec 2021 | SFU tries to exclude RAs paid by scholarship/stipend – the majority of whom are grad students – from TSSU. |
| Jan 2022 | TSSU files for arbitration on SFU’s violations of the 2019 Voluntary Recognition Agreement, particularly excluding grad RAs. |
| March 2022 | SFU and TSSU discuss and agree to resume RA negotiations, but SFU stalls. |
| July – Aug 2022 | TSSU and SFU present their cases to the arbitrator backed by testimony and thousands of pages of evidence. |
| Sept 12, 2022 | TSSU wins arbitration! The arbitrator also rules that SFU owes TSSU damages. |
| Sept 2022 | RA bargaining recommences. TSSU presents updated proposals, SFU delays. |
| Oct 2022 | TSSU finally receives a counter proposal from SFU. SFU confirms that they still believe RAs paid scholarship/stipend are not employees, in direct defiance to the arbitration decision. |
| Nov 2022 – March 2023 | TSSU organizers and RAs strategize to fight for a first contract that includes all RAs. |
| April 2023 | SFU proposes $22.22 minimum wage for RAs, and $17 minimum wage for Work Study and Undergrad Student RAs. They exclude over 80% of RAs from basic health benefits. SFU doubles down on their position that RAs paid scholarship/stipends are not employees and says to make the LRB decide. |
| May 2023 | A team of organizers begins signing RA union cards again to send to the LRB who can make a final determination on whether RAs paid scholarship/stipend are employees and force SFU to bargain fairly. |
| Aug 2023 | TSSU submits ~ 1200 union cards signed by RAs to LRB. SFU objects on multiple fronts. |
| Jan 2024 | SFU agrees that the ~1000 RAs paid wages can be union members, certification issued! |
| Mar – May 2024 | The LRB holds a 22 day hearing so it can have the evidence it needs to decide whether RAs paid scholarship / stipend are employees |
| May 2024 | Membership decides to return to bargaining for all RAs, requests new bargaining survey. |
| June 2024 | TSSU & SFU reach agreement that SFU will pay TSSU $243k in damages for VRA violation |
Research Assistants Unionization Background
After a long and arduous path, research workers, including research assistants, research support, and research related workers (collectively RAs) at SFU are members of the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU).
RAs unionized in 2019 after a second organizing drive that resulted in SFU and TSSU signing a “voluntary recognition” agreement (VRA) recognizing TSSU as the bargaining agent for RAs. Within a month SFU violated this agreement and then continued to delay and put barriers in the way of bargaining.
In March 2021, SFU and TSSU finally started bargaining for all RAs and progress was quickly made. However, progress stalled when it came to key issues, like wages and benefits. SFU also went back on its promise to include all RAs, insisting that RAs paid as scholarship/stipend must be excluded. Eventually, TSSU decided to use our right to seek arbitration under the VRA and a 10 day hearing was held in July and August 2022.
The arbitrator ruled in favour of TSSU and the unionization rights of RAs at SFU. The arbitrator stated in a legally binding decision that:
- The vast majority of RAs paid compensation from grants as scholarship/stipend/top-up are included in TSSU, with the narrow exception of “true scholarship” compensated “purely for their own individual academic pursuits with no expectation of duties to be performed.”
- SFU breached all consequential clauses of the agreement; and
- SFU owes TSSU damages.
SFU has continued to act in direct defiance to the arbitrator’s decision. SFU still refuses to this day to recognize almost all graduate student RAs paid by scholarship/stipend/top-up.
Bringing in the LRB
In April 2023, a group of RAs and TSSU organizers decided enough was enough, and discussed another way forward: sign RA union cards again. With new cards signed, the BC Labour Relations Board (LRB) would have to make a determination on whether graduate student RAs are employees, and by August over 1200 cards were submitted! Nearly 60% of RAs signed cards!
When the cards were submitted, SFU chose to object to all of them. SFU said RAs paid by scholarship/stipend were “just students” and not employees. SFU also objected to RAs who are paid wages, saying they weren’t sure if some were managers because their employment data was so unreliable. In other words, they were punishing RAs for the failures of HR and managers!
In January, SFU withdrew its objection to those paid wages and over 1000 RAs finally became certified members of TSSU.
SFU maintained its objection to Graduate Student RAs paid scholarship/stipend resulting in a 22 day LRB hearing that ended May 24, 2024. SFU called 17 witnesses, and was forced to disclose tens of thousands of documents. The documents outlined clear expectations of full time hours and demonstrated SFU’s reliance on these grad student RAs to be key drivers of the research enterprise. TSSU called 10 witnesses who spoke in depth to the workload expectations and reality of being an RA, and how there would be no research enterprise without graduate student workers, and how unionization of grad student workers is common in other places in the world.
The LRB may take many months or even a year or more to make a decision. In the meantime, there’s nearly 1000 RAs SFU agrees can bargain, and we need to get back to negotiating to bargain rights that will apply to all RAs!
What we’re fighting for
Research workers (RAs) identified these priorities:
- Fair wages: too many RAs live on too little, and $17 / hour is not sufficient. RAs need a wage adjustment right now and regular wage increases into the future.
- Benefits: Employer-paid Healthcare, including International Student Health Fee (ISHF), extended healthcare and dental: Many RAs work without access to a benefits plan to help pay for medical expenses. International student RAs pay up to $900 per person for public healthcare that is paid by SFU for other TSSU members.
- Job Protection: A binding Collective Agreement and advocacy rights: RAs need a contract that outlines the duties, rights, and expectations of RAs, supervisors, and the Employer, SFU. An integral part is the right to advocacy from the Union when the Employer violates RAs’ rights.
- Respect: RAs should be paid on time with paystubs that make sense, be properly credited for the intellectual property from research work they do, and have access to a harassment free workplace. While RAs ultimately shouldn’t have to pay tuition at all, as a foundation they need access to the existing system for tuition deferment, i.e., paying your tuition bit by bit over a semester without penalty!
Winning a fair collective agreement is the only way workers can protect what we already have and work to lift the wages and benefits floor for everyone. Collective power is the way forward!