Mediation with UBC breaks down – escalating towards job action is necessary
On August 13, your negotiating committee attended a mediation session with UBC at the Labour Relations Board in an attempt to move closer to a negotiated agreement. UBC is unwilling to meet the needs of our membership, particularly on Extended Health and Dental benefits.
Your negotiating committee does not see any path forward without additional pressure on UBC, up to and including escalating towards a strike.
The negotiating and executive committees will be working together to coordinate our next steps.
Additional information on escalating towards job action will be sent out in the coming days.
Strike training for stewards and committee members will be held this weekend. Additional information on training and involvement will come next week.
Details on August 13th Mediation
In mediation, we reiterated our top issues, including employer-paid healthcare, fair wages for GAAs, class size to TA ratios, ending the minimum funding clawbacks, academic freedom protections, and paid breaks for workers at the CfA.
Employer-paid healthcare:
Our latest position included a 75% employer paid extended health and dental premiums. UBC has at no point objected to our costing in this package. Through our discussions in mediation, it became clear that UBC’s position on healthcare is to refuse to provide a benefit to CUPE 2278 members that they provide to almost every other group of workers on campus. We do not see a way forward at the mediation table on this top issue.
UBC acts as the insurer on extended health and dental plans for all other employee groups at the University. This allows UBC to have complete control over the plan, including allowing them to be flexible in the plans they provide. UBC is able to provide a plan to our members, but are unwilling.
Teaching Assistants at SFU have employer extended health and dental benefits. These are workers of a similar demographic, in a similar location, doing similar work. We know that it’s possible. UBC will not provide a health and dental plan to student workers that they provide to all other employees.
Fair wages for GAAs:
At mediation, UBC maintained that GAA wages should start at $27.50/hour, well below comparable TA wage rates.
GAAs unionized in July 2023 and deserve wage increases that reflect the time since unionization. Additionally, GAAs have qualifications and duties comparable to Teaching Assistants and should be paid in line with equivalent classifications on our payscale.
The setting of GAA wages so low would set a dangerous precedent for us -- not only due to the limited nature of wage increases, but also what it would mean for the eventual setting of GRA wages. The initial wages set for GAAs will be subject to the same wage increase limitations we see in the entire public sector. We also know that many GRAs are currently misclassified and should be classified as GAAs. Though there are fewer GAAs than TAs, this issue still affects us all. For anyone who will work as a GAA, or possibly even a GRA in the future, this issue affects you directly.
Class sizes:
UBC refused to explain what was preventing them from addressing our members’ concerns.
Ending the minimum funding clawbacks:
UBC refused to explain what was preventing them from addressing our members’ concerns.
Academic freedom protections:
UBC refused to explain what was preventing them from addressing our members’ concerns.
Paid breaks for workers at the CfA:
As with employer-paid healthcare, our latest position on paid breaks for workers at the CfA had a fully costed proposal which UBC has not objected to. However, this monetary item was not included in UBC’s latest proposal; they indicated that if we are interested in getting this, we need to decide what other monetary item we are willing to give up.
Since employer-paid healthcare is still outstanding, we do not see a way forward for negotiating over this relatively less expensive monetary issue at the mediation table.