Updates from the first day of bargaining, GAA shenanigans, and an unfair labour practice
Welcome back to the bargaining blog! TLDR of this post:
We started bargaining on September 22nd!
UBC is still preventing GAAs from reaching a fair contract–so we filed an Unfair Labour Practice Complaint
How did we get here? A brief look at where we’ve come from since we started this process last fall
Our first day of bargaining!
We had our first day of bargaining this past Monday, September 22. We plan to provide an update on the bargaining blog each time we go to the table with the employer, structured based on each of our six major categories:
Equity, inclusion, and union representation
A fair contract for GAAs
Improving undergraduate education
Procedural changes
Dignified working conditions at the CfA
Monetary proposals: dignity in wages, health, and wellbeing
When we begin bargaining, this mostly involves both sides coming prepared with their proposals and presenting them to each other (you can read our initial bargaining platform and detailed proposals here). On the first day, both parties ask each other questions, then adjourn to discuss with their respective committees and return with counter-proposals for the next day of bargaining.
We generally present and discuss the “non-monetary” proposals (or those that we don’t think will cost the employer anything) first, because these are easier to make significant progress on, and less likely to result in our negotiations breaking down. Once we’ve discussed the non-monetary proposals as much as we can, we will move onto monetary (or the ones that we think will cost the employer money).
Equity, inclusion, and union representation
This category is about making UBC a more equitable place to work for all our members and making it easier for us to be effective in standing up for the rights of members together as a union when it’s needed most. This includes expanding our anti-discrimination protections,protections for academic freedom, addressing excessive police presence, as well as obtaining more information from UBC about disciplinary meetings.
Updates from September 22:
We presented our equity, inclusion, and union representation proposals first. The employer had a few questions, and seemed generally interested in discussing quite a few of our proposals. They mentioned that they believed there was a monetary element in some proposals, which may delay discussion on some topics.
A fair contract for GAAs
We’ve been negotiating how GAAs fit into our collective agreement since last October. Since then, we’ve made major progress on many aspects of GAA work, including things like allocation of work, leaves, vacation time, hiring processes, and job posting timelines. However, UBC has refused to accept a definition of the category “GAA” that includes all members who signed cards and were certified into our union in 2023. Our proposals here mostly revolve around continuing GAA negotiations where we left off, and updating language around our “union recognition” clause to make sure that all workers certified into our union are recognized as members of our bargaining unit.
Updates from September 22:
We presented our GAA-related proposals to the employer. During bargaining, the employer indicated that they would be unwilling to discuss proposals related to the GAAs until they had submitted a filing to the labour relations board. Read down below for our Unfair Labour Practice complaint and a discussion of how UBC has prevented GAAs from reaching a fair contract for over two years.
Improving undergraduate education
CUPE 2278 members are at the forefront of delivering high quality education for UBC students. But shrinking TA contracts and inconsistent training make it hard for members to do their jobs. These proposals aim to bring more consistent TA training and limit class sizes. Our working conditions are UBC’s learning conditions!
Updates from September 22:
We presented our proposals to the employer. They seemed to ask very few questions on these proposals and seemed amenable to some of them,especially in the realm of improving TA training.
Procedural changes
These proposals relate to everyday processes that affect our jobs: posting, job selection, ensuring that hiring preference is maintained even during budget cuts, and some redefinitions to make our collective agreement easier to read and understand.
Updates from September 22:
We presented our procedural proposals to the employer. After some discussion and questions, the employer seemed eager to get to work on these proposals. We agreed to discuss many of them in more detail at our next session of bargaining! Keep posted for updates on October 8th.
Dignified working conditions at the Centre for Accessibility
Exam invigilators at the Centre for Accessibility face chronic understaffing and a lack of support from UBC. These proposals address major issues for members at the CfA, including more transparent hiring practices, paid breaks, and guaranteed leaves.
Update from September 22:
We presented the initial demands to the employer. We plan to set aside a separate session of bargaining to discuss CfA-related issues and give opportunity for CfA members to meet with the employer and make their voice heard. Keep posted!
Monetary proposals: dignity in wages, health, and wellbeing
Our monetary proposals are those that we think will cost the employer money. These include wages, pay equity, healthcare, tuition waivers, ending the minimum funding clawback, and others.
Update from September 22:
We presented our monetary proposals to the employer. However, we plan to first discuss non-monetary proposals (see above). Once we’ve made sufficient progress on the non-monetary, we will move into discussion on the monetary. We know these proposals are a top priority for our members, so expect lots more from us once we start discussing them.
What’s up with the GAAs? Unfair Labour Practice!
Graduate Academic Assistants (GAAs) joined our union more than two years ago. Since October 2024, our GAA team has been negotiating with UBC about the details for how GAAs fit into our contract.
UBC continues to insist on a definition of GAAs that would exclude hundreds of people who signed union cards. The university’s position is that there are certain GAAs who fall under the “jurisdiction” of other unions on campus. Specifically, they are arguing that any GAAs who work alongside workers in our two sister locals on campus, CUPE 116 and CUPE 2950, fall under the jurisdiction of these unions. Usually if this is the case, those people would already be members of the other unions whose jurisdictions they’re in. However, because of certain restrictions in those collective agreements, people who work less than a certain number of hours are excluded from being included in those unions. Effectively, what UBC is proposing would mean that people who signed union cards and were certified by the Labour Board in 2023 would end up with no union at all. This is not a proposition that we can accept.
In the meantime, UBC has denied GAAs the right to union orientations, refused to apply collective agreement rights to GAAs, and won’t bargain about most GAA issues without first having a definition of a GAA. While GAAs continue working without a contract, UBC has been suggesting for months now that they intend to make a filing to the Labour Relations Board, asking the board to decide upon the scope of the GAA category. While they are waiting to do this, they refuse to discuss GAA-related issues at the bargaining table. This is what is referred to as imposing a “precondition” on collective bargaining – and it’s a violation of the Labour Code.
This week, we filed an unfair labour practice complaint against UBC. This is a legal filing that asks the Labour Board to make an order for UBC to cease its bad faith bargaining and its failure to recognize GAAs as unionized workers. In our complaint, we ask the board for:
A declaration that the Employer has failed to bargain in good faith contrary to section 11 of the Code;
An order for the Employer to cease and desist from failing to bargain in good faith;
An order for the Employer to apply the Collective Agreement to the GAAs;
An order for the Employer to resume collective bargaining and/or as directed by the Board;
An order that the Union and its members be made whole, including an order for back pay and damages for the value of the Collective Agreement benefits not provided to the GAAs, and back dues not remitted to the Union since the date of the variance on August 3, 2023.
Your negotiating team is committed to continue bargaining on these topics. We will keep pushing for a fair agreement at the table while also pursuing the legal process. We maintain that GAA issues should be bargained fairly at the table.
How did we get here?
Our current collective agreement expired on August 31, 2025. We’ve been working hard since last fall to prepare for negotiations with the employer for a new collective agreement. Here’s a timeline of what we’ve been up to:
September 2024: We elected a four-person negotiation committee: Cam, Maggie, Tonia & drew. We also established the inaugural CUPE 2278 Component 1 Contract Committee (a larger volunteer committee of members like you who supported on developing proposals and outreach for our bargaining survey effort)
October-December 2024: The Contract Committee collectively identified areas of concern for our members and prepared a bargaining survey. We held a day-long bargaining training for Contract Committee members and drafted a bargaining strategic plan for how to win a fair contract. We started by collectively identifying our wildest dreams for how we can envision a campus that works for all of us: things like paid health coverage, universal paid TA training, and wage parity for all of our members (many of which form the backbone of our platform). With these ideas, we categorized our potential bargaining demands into four main categories and began to prepare the Bargaining Survey (the first major instrument of democracy where all members had the opportunity to give input on our platform).
January-February 2025: We launched our 2025 Bargaining Survey and publicly introduced our contract campaign, including our 2025 Bargaining Hub website (where this blog is located). Thanks to the hard work of members of the contract committee and hundreds of one-on-one conversations, our bargaining survey had record turnout (more than 1100 members filled out the survey)!
March-April 2025: Taking into consideration the results of the bargaining survey, and in consultation with other committees of our local union, the contract committee reorganized our proposals based on the priorities identified in the survey and drafted a set of interest proposals.
May 2025: We presented our proposed bargaining platform to the Component 1 membership at our bargaining endorsement meeting. This was an important step as it allowed members to provide input and feedback, ask questions, and ultimately vote on our platform. At this meeting, Component 1 members unanimously endorsed the bargaining platform! In anticipation of bargaining, we asked the employer to provide some summer dates that they would be available to start bargaining. UBC refused to provide dates, and indicated that they didn’t want to start discussing our main collective agreement until GAA negotiations had concluded.
August 2025: We decided to issue the employer a notice to bargain. This is a legally binding notice that requires the employer to come to the table and start bargaining within 10 days. While it took a bit longer than 10 days, we finally set a date to begin negotiations and made it to the table this past Monday, September 22.