The TSSU has been in bargaining with SFU for fourteen months. Below is the sequence of events that lead to job action:
30 Apr ‘14:
- The 2010-2014 Collective Agreement expires.
7 May ‘14:
4 Jun ‘14:
- TSSU tables a full package of proposals, written in contract language.
May ‘14 to Mar ‘15:
- TSSU and the employer meet 14 times, just over once a month.
- The employer consistently leaves at 4pm, regardless of what’s on the table.
- We continuously ask for more dates, back-to-back dates, and longer days.
- Not a single proposal is signed.
26 Mar ‘15:
- TSSU holds a strike vote, and receives a 92% “yes.”
- TSSU returns to bargaining to see if the vote changes the employer’s behaviour.
- No such change occurs.
16 Apr ‘15:
- TSSU serves strike notice to the employer.
- It starts with very limited job action: an overtime ban by ELC/ITP instructors.
16 April to 3 June ‘15:
- The Employer’s spokesperson consistently indicates he has to check with non-academic department heads to get approval and direction on several proposals. This continues for three months.
- We begin to have serious doubts about the mandate of the employer’s committee.
- On Occupational Health and Safety and Payment of Wages, their proposals offer less than BC law.
- The employer repeatedly says they do not intend to address our core issues, which are:
- sessional seniority
- equal rights and benefits for our ELC/ITP instructors
- access to and proper pay for TA/TM work for graduate students
- compliance with BC law
14 May ‘15:
- The employer’s Childcare Bursary proposal is internally contradictory, so the TSSU cannot discern the intentions behind it.
- When asked, their spokesperson cannot clarify the intention either.
15 June ‘15:
- TSSU informs senior administration that we will have to escalate our strike activity on 19 June 2015.
- TSSU offers to suspend that activity if we could improve the bargaining situation by:
- removing all the employer’s demands on the table with regard to ELC/ITP Instructors
- adding a member of the Senior Administration with authority to conclude an agreement at the table
- adding another employer representative to their committee who has taught in the last three years
- committing to more time at the bargaining table: concurrent sessions, no pre-set adjournment times
- TSSU sends notice that it will not attend bargaining at the next scheduled session
17 Jun ‘15:
- Several members of the employer’s bargaining team arrive at bargaining, despite being told the TSSU would not be present.
19 Jun ‘15:
- The TSSU commences grade withholding on Friday at 11:59pm.
The 2010 round of bargaining took 29 months to get a collective agreement, nearly two and a half years, largely because of the very same delays at the bargaining table as in 2014/15. We have no intention of going through that again. The major factors in getting a contract in 2012 were that we brought public pressure through serious job action and the employer added a senior administrator to their bargaining committee. Once that happened, we had a new contract within 48 hours.
For more information, see our support site and our bargaining site.
