At a standing room only TSSU membership meeting last night, a motion was unanimously passed to take the necessary steps to serve strike notice on Simon Fraser University.

Read the PDF version of the release here.

The motion followed a full report from members of TSSU’s Contract Committee, who have been at the bargaining table for 26 months with almost nothing to show for their efforts.

TSSU has presented solutions to the problems its members’ experience.  SFU”s response has been to deny that there are problems and to refuse to engage in dialogue.  The Membership meeting concluded that the only option remaining is to exercise the 91% mandate TSSU received in its strike vote.

TSSU will be engaging various job actions, intended to communicate its membership’s commitment to seeing their issues addressed, but designed to limit harm to the student population at SFU.  Our goal is a collective agreement, not a picket line.  The more successful our initial job actions are, the less likely that picket lines will have to occur.

The results of the vote, and the tremendous turnout at the meeting, ought to deliver a strong message to the University that our members’ issues need to be addressed through serious bargaining.  We know that this is possible, even in the current political climate, as other Universities in BC have managed to reach agreement on non-monetary proposals.  We are left to wonder why the SFU Administration is standing alone in refusing to address the issues of its adjunct faculty, Teaching Assistants, Tutor Markers and continuing instructors at Harbour Centre.

Twenty-two percent of student FTEs at SFU are taught by adjunct faculty (Sessionals) with limited rights, our Tutor Markers operate under the same system that was in place when distance courses were delivered through binders and cassette tapes, and our Graduate population is expected to survive on an average of $1000.00 per month, for rent, food and all other living expenses.  We experience real problems and we are proposing real solutions. These solutions are necessary to protect SFU’s reputation as one of the top Canadian research universities.

 It is time for SFU to actually bargain at the bargaining table!