Just a few weeks into the fall semester, students may be caught in the crossfire of a teaching staff strike if its union and Simon Fraser University don’t come to an agreement soon.
Nearly 1,600 teaching staff at SFU are set to begin a work stoppage tomorrow.
Picket lines are planned to be formed on Thursday at the Surrey campus, Friday in Vancouver and Tuesday at the Burnaby campus.
Liam Kennedy-Slaney with the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) explained the union is made up of teaching assistants, sessional instructors, and instructors in the English language and culture laboratory “who do upwards of 50% of the teaching work that happens on campuses.”
However, after 41 bargaining sessions with the university, it has not met the union’s demands, causing the TSSU to escalate its strike action.
“We’re gonna start withdrawing our labour,” Kennedy-Slaney said.
This means TSSU members will no longer facilitate tutorials or labs for students. Kennedy-Slaney explained undergraduate student papers will not be graded, and teaching staff will not answer undergrad emails or hold office hours for any SFU courses.
#BREAKING: 1,600 @TSSU members at SFU are stopping all work starting Thursday. We won't go back to work until we have a deal.
Escalating pickets begin the same day, in Surrey.
“SFU’s administration is eroding the foundation of the university from underneath their own feet" pic.twitter.com/FE5T37WbDi
— kelvin ON STRIKE gawley (@byGawley) September 26, 2023
TSSU is demanding a wage increase that keeps with the pace of inflation “so that our members do not effectively take a cut every time the price of living goes up.”
The union also claims members are experiencing “wage theft” as class sizes have increased, but “the compensation model does not fairly reflect the amount of additional work.”
Lastly, it is calling for a better path to full-time employment for staff.
“Many of the folks who work these positions have been doing the same position for years. They are effectively a full-time employee. They maintain an enormous amount of knowledge in order to perform their job well. We think that they should be recognized as full-time employees. We think that they should be entitled to pension and all the security that full-time work offers.”
Kennedy-Slaney admits that while a strike from TSSU members will cause disruptions, the wages staff are receiving currently are causing many members to work paycheque to paycheque.
“They’re always a little bit nervous about their rent or where their food is coming.”