CUPE Local 2278 (TAs, tutors and markers) has published on their website the results of their strike vote they conducted on February 27 and 28: “The vote was 80% in favour, with 750 votes cast”.
The University of British Columbia brought an application to the Labour Relations Board to challenge the TA strike vote as invalid, claiming it was not obtained in accordance with the Labour Relations Code.
The Ubyssey: TA strike vote passes—No job action without membership consultation, says TA union
Teaching assistants fired a warning shot at the University last week when they voted to authorise their union, Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) local 2278, to initiate a strike.
Although the vote means the union can now legally serve the University with a strike notice, according to Sarah Roberts, chair of the bargaining committee for CUPE local 2278, union protocols require them to go back to the membership before job action can actually occur.
“What this vote means…is that we want to send a message to the University that our members support us at the bargaining table,” she said.
The result of the strike vote was 80 per cent in favour of a strike, with a voter turnout of 45 per cent.
Teaching assistants at UBC have been without a contract since August 31 and are currently in negotiations with the University. The lack of progress made was the driving force behind the vote, explained Roberts.
“That’s our real hang-up, that our negotiations aren’t moving forward,” she said.
Roberts claimed that if the University doesn’t offer graduate students enough money to be teaching assistants, it might translate into top students not wanting to come to UBC. This will have negative consequences towards research and teaching at the University, she added.
“As students we are concerned about the education this University is offering…but at this point it’s becoming an unworkable environment here,” said Roberts. “All levels of the University are starting to suffer by our inability to recruit good graduate students.”
UBC Director of Public Affairs Scott Macrae said that contract negotiations with the union are ongoing and didn’t want to comment on specifics.
“Those discussions really remain at the table at this point,” he said.
According to Macrae, the union and UBC are set to meet today for contract deliberations.
“As long as people are talking there’s always the mutual hope that they’ll get to a satisfactory conclusion,” he commented, adding, “We’re still talking.”
Teaching assistants went on strike in early 2003 but were legislated back to work by the provincial government on March 12 of that year.
Roberts said she was optimistic that a contract can be agreed upon and a strike avoided.
“The last thing anyone wants to do is go on strike,” she said. “I really hope it doesn’t come to that.”
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