The TSSU is on strike and our members are taking strike action on all three Simon Fraser University campuses. The employer has consistently refused to meet our demands, despite us having gone through several rounds of bargaining. We have been left with no choice but to take strike action.
SFU has sent out many contradictory, inconsistent, dishonest communications, so we wanted to offer faculty an avenue to ask questions and voice concerns. We recognize that you are all busy and may not have the time to sort through all of this information, so we hope this website can serve as a one-stop shop for strike information and updates. We appreciate your support!
How can Faculty members support the strike?
- Respect and even join our picket lines (see below for details)!
- Talk to the students who you are supervising and understand their perspectives on these issues; conversations around bargaining cannot and should not be one sided!
- Show the world and your graduate students that you support us by putting up TSSU stickers and flyers outside your office doors! You can drop by the TSSU office in AQ 5129 to pick up stickers or flyers.
- Raise relevant TSSU issues at meetings with SFU administration, department meetings, and SFUFA meetings
- Encourage other faculty members to support TSSU
- Help us map faculty that might be supportive or who are curious about what TSSU is asking for
- Allow and encourage your students to get involved
- Invite TSSU representatives to speak during your classes
- Help us identify administrators or others who are misinforming the community (e.g., showing us the meeting minutes)
Why should Faculty support the strike?
TSSU’s proposals seek to improve work conditions, ensure workers can afford to live in this city, and guarantee job security for teaching staff:
- By reducing chronic overwork problems (particularly since the pandemic), TSSU’s proposals, if implemented, will improve the quality of teaching at SFU
- By simplifying the application process & setting teaching schedules in advance, we can commit to teaching at SFU & use extra time to better develop our craft
Despite over 35 bargaining sessions, the Employer refuses to meaningfully bargain over the issues identified in our proposals, rather…
- The Employer’s current monetary proposals remain below the rates of inflation, effectively producing a wage cut for members
- The Employer has also proposed to eliminate the scholarship portion of TA wages, which would further lower take-home pay and worsen the already significant financial crisis faced by graduate students
If we do not exercise our collective power, graduate student workers and our work will suffer, with our working conditions not only not improving, but actually worsening:
- Graduate student workers will be further overworked and underpaid
- Graduate student workers will be forced to continue working multiple jobs and cutting meals to make ends meet, causing significant stress and occupying time that could otherwise be dedicated to their studies or teaching
- With the cost of living crisis unlikely to abate any time soon, the quality of teaching and research will continue to suffer as graduate student workers face increasing pressures and struggles to continue in their programs
- Despite their best efforts, some graduate students may be forced to drop out of their programs because they simply cannot afford to continue, causing supervisors and departments to lose brilliants students, researchers, and teachers
- The decreasing quality of teaching and research in addition to the poor working conditions of graduate students will make SFU uncompetitive in terms of attracting the best and brightest minds
Respecting Picket Lines
- Join us on our picket lines in solidarity! We would appreciate friendly support and a large part of our efforts have been to ensure that we are heard by the larger community, and not just SFU
- Bring food and cold beverages for our members who will be picketing for long hours outside in the heat
- Above all, DO NOT CROSS our picket lines! They are our greatest tools and best strategy for keeping pressure on the employer. This includes not doing struck work (e.g., doing your TA’s grading)!
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