Sign our open letter calling on BC to ensure a safe return to campus

Sign the letter here

Post-secondary unions, faculty associations, and community members are calling on the BC government to implement stronger campus public health measures in advance of September.

“The BC COVID-19 Return-to-Campus guidelines are not consistent with the best-available evidence, do not follow the precautionary principle, and disregard the layers of protection that could prevent COVID-19 transmission in post-secondary environments. We are requesting that the Ministry publish new guidelines that correct these deficiencies,” said TSSU Chief Steward Katie Gravestock.

“Even in highly vaccinated countries, the extremely infectious Delta variant has proven to be a game-changer. We need both vaccination and public health measures in order to protect students, staff, and faculty as well as the wider community from infection. The Central Okanagan outbreak, leading to hundreds of cases, should be a wake-up call that the current post-secondary guidelines are entirely inadequate,” said Andrew Longhurst, a PhD student researching health policy and politics.

The letter calls on the Ministry to issue revised guidelines based on the following measures:

Improve ventilation and establish provincial ventilation and HVAC standards;
Mandate masks for classrooms and indoor settings;
Set occupancy limits for shared spaces and classrooms;
Maintain classroom configurations that enable minimum of two-metre physical distancing, which will likely require reducing class sizes in many cases; and,
Provide access to routine community and on-campus symptomatic and asymptomatic testing.

Please sign the open letter to call on the BC Government to protect post-secondary workers, students, and community members by implementing stronger health measures as they return to campus this September.

Simon Fraser University and TSSU collaborate to recognize the important contributions of research assistants at SFU

On November 15, 2019, Simon Fraser University and the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU) agreed to make research assistants (RAs) employees of the University and voluntarily recognize them as members of TSSU. This agreement was made to recognize the valuable contributions and important role RAs play in advancing SFU’s Research mission. It was signed by Sandi de Domenico, SFU’s Associate Vice-President, Human Resources, and Derek Sahota, TSSU’s Member Advocate on behalf of the Research is Work organizing team, and was endorsed by Jeff Derksen, Dean and Associate Provost, Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, SFU, Joy Johnson, Vice-President, Research and International; Dugan O'Neil, Associate Vice-President, Research, SFU, and Jonathan Driver, Vice President Academic and Provost pro tem, SFU.

SFU and TSSU have mutually agreed to make all eligible RAs employees of the University by May 2020. This agreement means that the University and TSSU will work together on a timeline and a solution that considers the needs of RAs and faculties, recognizing RAs’ right to unionize. Once RAs become employees, SFU and TSSU will begin negotiating the terms and conditions of employment. As employees of the University, RAs will be formally recognized as members of the SFU Community and faculty principal investigators will have support to administer the employment of RAs.

This collaboration between SFU and TSSU is a significant step forward in supporting the University’s ability to continue to be competitive and expand innovative research and recognizing the significant contributions RAs make to the University. In 2018, SFU launched the Research Personnel Initiative to update the R50 Policies governing RAs, research associates and postdoctoral fellows to make them employees. Over recent months, RAs have been organizing to join TSSU to gain better representation for their work. The first phase of the Research Personnel Initiative to onboard eligible postdoctoral fellows (PDFs) as employees has allowed the University to pilot processes and learn more about what will be needed to support the transition the RAs.

Faculties and their administration will be supported throughout this transition, as there is a high level of diversity and complexity in the different roles of RAs. The first step for the project leaders will be to work with faculties to understand and define the work performed by approximately 1500 RAs across SFU.

At this time, detailed information will be limited until the first phase of identifying RAs and their current terms and conditions is completed. TSSU will meet with the project leaders every 30 days during the transition and updates will be posted to the HR website in the coming weeks.

Sincerely,

Dugan O’Neil Associate Vice President, Research Simon Fraser University	Lillian Deeb and Scott Yano Chief Stewards Teaching Support Staff Union
Sandi de Domenico Associate Vice President, Human Resources Simon Fraser University	Derek Sahota Advocate Teaching Support Staff Union

The TSSU 2019 Bargaining Survey is now available

UPDATE: It appears that a number of people have found errors and/or had problems with the functionality of the TSSU Bargaining Survey. We're working as quickly as possible to fix the Survey and make it more user-friendly and accessible. As members you have the right to express your thoughts and opinions as clearly as possible about the Collective Agreement, TSSU, and your work at SFU. Thank you to everyone who has contacted us with their concerns regarding this matter.

The TSSU 2019 Bargaining Survey is now available. This is a valuable opportunity for you as individual members to share your thoughts about the Collective Agreement and your work experience as a Teaching Assistant, Tutor Marker, Sessional Instructor, or English Language & Culture/Interpretation & Translation Program Instructor. As TSSU prepares to go into bargaining with the SFU administration early next year, we need your input about what you would like to see in the next Collective Agreement.

During our last round of bargaining, TSSU won some of the strongest Sessional Seniority rights in North America, ensuring that Sessional Instructor appointments are given on the basis of seniority as course instructors, not departmental politics. We've also won a TA appointment priority system that ensures grad student work goes to grad students, paid compensation for overwork, 100% MSP coverage for international students, and more!

All current TSSU members should have received an email inviting them to participate in the Survey. If you did not receive this email or are unsure whether you should have, please contact us at tssu@tssu.ca or visit our Burnaby office in AQ 5129.