Unique voting tokens were emailed to all members on Wednesday March 7 and the election will remain open until 11:59 pm on Wednesday March 14.
An "Unfair Election" complaint can be lodged at trustees@tssu.ca until March 21.

If you did not get an emailed token, please email trustees@tssu.ca to get one.

The results will be ratified at the General Membership Meeting in Surrey on Thursday, March 22, SUR 5080
For a short description of position duties, click HERE.

(You are eligible to vote if you have held a TSSU position in any of Summer 2017, Fall 2017, or Spring 2018, or if you have paid to extend your membership.)

Candidates

Chief Steward II: Lillian Deeb

Ex-Officio: Tania Arvanitidis

Secretary: Jorji Temple

Solidarity & Social Justice Commissioner: Yi Chien Jade Ho

Treasurer: Sima Jamali

Trustee II: Sarah Power

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Lillian Deeb - Chief Steward II

Hello TSSU!

My name is Lillian Deeb, and I am running for Chief Steward II. I am an MA student and a TA in the School of Communication, where I have been a steward since January 2015. I am the outgoing Solidarity and Social Justice Commissioner, and active member of the Grievance Committee, Finance Committee, Internal Relations Committee, and Membership Mobilization Committee. As the Solidarity and Social Justice Commissioner, I have spent the last year facilitating a group made up of TSSU members involved in community organizing. This has taught me the importance of institutional memory in building relationships, and how to maintain transparency and democracy while facilitating a committee.

Further to this, I have gotten to know the grievance process and the larger legal framework TSSU operates within by attending many bargaining sessions and taking minutes at arbitration hearings. My experience with TSSU has been that every grievance is an organizing opportunity, and through this I have developed the tools to think through this relationship. I am very much looking forward to being the first Chief Steward II, and with my understanding of both the nature of the job and how a non-hierarchical, directly democratic, feminist union operates, I am prepared to continue serving the membership well.

In solidarity,

Lillian

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Tania Arvanitidis - Ex-Officio

Hi members! My name is Tania Arvanitidis and I'm running for the position of Ex-Officio in this round of TSSU elections.

I have attended graduate school at SFU since about 2010, initially as a Master's student, and currently as a PhD candidate in SFU's School of Criminology. My involvement with TSSU has stretched roughly this same amount of time. The work I've done with the union has included (but is not limited to): serving as Trustee II from 2012-2013; participating in both the 2012 and 2015 TSSU strikes; serving as a member of TSSU's Contract Committee in 2015, which helped bargain our current collective agreement; serving as the TSSU's Membership Mobilization Commissioner from 2015-2017; and finally, serving as a Steward for the School of Criminology.

The Ex-Officio is a non-voting member of the executive, whose job is to provide institutional memory for the current executive. I believe that my years of extensive work with the TSSU in a variety of roles have prepared me well for this role, and I hope you think so too!

In solidarity,

Tania

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Jorji Temple - Secretary

This is my formal application to the membership of TSSU, for the position of Secretary of our union.

I have previously served as a member of the bargaining, faculty outreach, and steward committees, and alongside Reagan Belan and Derek Sahota was a spokesperson for TSSU's  most recent strike. In addition to my work with the union, I am a PhD student in the department of English, have 3+years of TA/TM experience, have served as a member of the award committee for SFU's Sterling Prize for Controversy, taught secondary school for two years in Mississippi (where I grew up) and English as an Additional Language at the University of Kent. I've also worked with UniteHere Local 40, Jean Swanson for City Council, and the Simon Fraser Public Interest Research Group (currently facing exclusion from campus by the Simon Fraser Student Society).

Each of these committees, councils, and groups used different record-keeping methods, and I hope to synthesize these experiences in my work as Secretary for TSSU. The training program TSSU guarantees (from outgoing executive members) should equip me, as it would any member, to transfer my organizing and language-crafting skills, and ensure accurate and accessible information proceeds from TSSU meetings.

If I am elected, I will work with outgoing secretary Sarah Power (who is seeking election as trustee this election) in order to stabilize access to the union's minutes, and to assist the Internal Relations committee with updating our bylaws to ensure that executive members are accountable to the membership for their actions.

Our presence on these Unceded Coast Salish territories demands Solidarity beyond our borders, and for that to be possible our own records must be clear.

In Solidarity, Jorji

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Yi Chien Jade Ho - Solidarity & Social Justice Commissioner

Hi, everyone!

My name is Yi Chien Jade Ho. I am currently an Education PhD Candidate working in the field of environmental and social justice education. I am an international student coming from the beautiful Caribbean country of Belize and was born in Taiwan. I have been an active TSSU member since the 2015 strike as the education steward. I have also been an active member of the Solidarity and Social Justice Committee.  Besides on-campus activism, I am also a volunteer with the Chinatown Concern Group and Chinatown Action Group. These two groups are grassroot activist organizations that fight against gentrification and racism in Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside.

Historically and presently, besides ensuring its members’ safety and benefit, TSSU has been vocal in social and environmental justice issues and often offers resources to different grassroots movements and organizations, such as pushing against Kinder Morgan pipeline as its construction is not only an assault to the land and Indigenous rights, it also threatens our workers’ health and safety given the location. TSSU has also stood in solidarity with many labour organizations and movements, and also sends support to various housing struggles, like the Burnaby renoviction, Metrotown demoviction, gentrification and displacement in Chinatown to name a few. I would love to play a bigger role by being the SSJC commissioner and continue working in solidarity with our members and other activist groups.

Thank you! J

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Sima Jamali - Treasurer

My name is Sima Jamali and I am seeking re-election to my current position of treasurer. I'm a third year Ph.D. student at Computing Science department and I've been involved with TSSU since I started my program.
I have served as a steward since 2016 and I have also been an active volunteer on several committees over the past two years.
During past year, I have served as treasurer and gained related skills that makes me confident that I can continue serving TSSU in this position. If elected, I plan to work closely With finance committee and TSSU coordinator to solve any budgetary issues and provide a well-suited transparent budget.

Please feel free to contact me at sja88(at)sfu(dot)ca if you have any questions regarding my candidacy.
Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thanks,
Sima

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Sarah Power - Trustee II

Hello! I'm Sarah Power and I put my name forward to serve as Trustee II. Over the past year as Secretary, I have learned a lot about the ins and outs of the TSSU bylaws as well as the rules of order by which we conduct our meetings. In addition to serving on the executive, I also serve as a steward to Psychology and as a member on the Membership Mobilization Committee. I look forward to the opportunity to further serve the membership in this new role.

In Solidarity,

Sarah