1 / 17

Teaching Support Staff Union: Why Strike?

Teaching Support Staff Union: Why Strike?. June 2012. August 2012. Teaching Assistant (TA) Proposals. Give students priority to TA work outside their dept. Use an already existing, campus –wide centralized posting system so TA’s can find jobs in other depts.

ashely-mullins
Download Presentation

Teaching Support Staff Union: Why Strike?

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Teaching Support Staff Union:Why Strike?

  2. June 2012 August2012

  3. Teaching Assistant (TA) Proposals Give students priority to TA work outside their dept. Use an already existing, campus –wide centralized posting system so TA’s can find jobs in other depts. Give equal pay for equal work: some TA’s currently make $1,000 less per TAship than TA’s in other depts for the same work. Protect tutorial preparation time Lower student to TA ratio in W (writing) courses Create a scholarship so that undergrad TA’s get equal pay for equal work

  4. Tutor Markers (TM) Modernize language in the contract Language has not been updated since the 1980’s when TM work was completed on cassette tape and over the phone Create some supervision and mentorship Give TM’s priority comparable to TAs

  5. Sessional Instructor Proposals Create a seniority system for Sessionals Reserve some Sessional jobs (15%) for graduate students Create TA triggers for number of students A Sessional can get stuck teaching a 500 student course with no TA’s Offer extra preparation time for W courses

  6. ELC / ITP Proposals • Get the same benefits as comparable to other permanent workers on campus • full health and dental benefits • tuition waiver • pension plan • Protect them from any attempt to eliminate the current employees

  7. Benefits Update the childcare bursary to a fund so it is distributed properly and is available to all members with children. Make our already-existing benefit of university-paid basic medical care (MSP) more accessible by automatically enrolling Sessionals, TA’s, TM’s, ELC/ITP SFU covers GSS dental plan and extended benefits plan

  8. Scholarship / Wages • Increase our scholarship as tuition increases • Keep wages proportional to the Consumer Price Index • Provide a 3% base increase to wages in 2013 and 2014

  9. Employer’s Response • NO to all non-monetary items, • NO to all benefits increases, • NO to centralized posting, • NO to improvements in graduate priority, but • YES to a monetary increase of: • Year 1: 0% • Year 2: 0% • Year 3: 1.25% • Year 4: 1.25% • A 1.25% increase over the course of 2 years equates to recovering 1/3 of your tuition back.

  10. Facts, Numbers and Statistics

  11. Why We Should Care ... [5] “Living Costs,” TSSU research, http://bargaining.tssu.ca/sources

  12. Sessional Reality • From 2005-2011 Sessionals taught 5902 sections at SFU. • These sections contained 264,675 students. • These students paid $180 million in tuition to SFU. • Sessionals received about $30 million in pay and benefits. • Sessionals now do about 22% of the teaching at SFU. [11] “Sessiontal Teaching Load”, http://bargaining.tssu.ca/sources

  13. Is there money to fund teaching? Yes Huge increases in international undergraduates (250% over 7 years) [7] Huge increases in tuition revenue (58% over 7 years) [8] [7] http://www.sfu.ca/content/dam/sfu/irp/students/documents/ST22.ST23.db.xls [8] Calculation and excel spreadsheet available at http://bargaining.tssu.ca

  14. Are students being respected? NO • TA budget has decreased as a portion of tuition revenue, (was 8% now 6.4% of budget) [9] • The percentage of TA’s going to students has decreased (was 95% now 90%) [10] [9] Calculation and excel spreadsheet available at http://bargaining.tssu.ca [10] Calculation and excel spreadsheet available at http://bargaining.tssu.ca

  15. In the summer 2012 Sessionals, TA’s, TM’s and ELC/ITP voted 91% in favour of job action (strike). • The union sought the assistance of a mediator for 7 days with no substantive dialogue. • In September Sessionals, TA’s, TM’s and ELC/ITP voted in favour of “booking out” of mediation and beginning job action. • Job action is happening now. Where are we today?

  16. Job Action • The first stage of a strike is to commence job action – a creative tactic used by unions to put pressure on the administration to bargain with the union. • Examples of job action include: • Wearing a TSSU t-shirt or button to tutorials • Talking to students about the strike • “Working to rule” or following the outdated work contract exactly as it is written

  17. What can undergrads do? • Stay informed about job action by “liking” the TSSU on Facebook. • Sign a letter to SFU President Andrew Petter expressing your desire for fair bargaining. • Wear an “I my TA” button.

More Related