A collective agreement is a contract between the employer (UBC) and you and your co-workers (i.e., the Union or CUPE 2278). Collective agreements are only in effect for a defined period of time and set the terms and conditions of employment.

A bargaining demand is any improvement or change you would like to see in your collective agreement. It can involve wages, benefits, working conditions, changes to language, and much more. These demands or proposals are drafted by the contract committee after your input in the bargaining survey, and are voted on by the membership before being brought into negotiations with the employer.

Bargaining is a cycle that officially begins when the union gives “Notice to Bargain,” signalling to UBC that we’re ready to come to the table. At the table, a committee of your peers (the Negotiating Committee) presents proposals that the membership has agreed upon beforehand, and UBC counters with their own proposals. The two parties negotiate until an agreement is reached; or, if no agreement is reached, the Negotiating Committee can declare impasse. The new agreement only becomes official only when you, the CUPE 2278 membership ratifies it through a vote.

Your contract expired on August 31, 2025. Your Negotiating Committee commenced bargaining with UBC on September 22, 2025.

Component 1 of CUPE 2278 currently is composed of Teaching Assistants (TAs, both graduate and undergraduate), Graduate Academic Assistants (GAAs), and Exam Invigilators at the Centre for Accessibility at UBC. We are awaiting a decision from the BC Labour Relations Board regarding whether Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) are eligible to join Component 1 of CUPE 2278, but these employees are not yet covered by a collective agreement.

The length of the bargaining process will depend on how the negotiations play out. There are no set timelines for bargaining, and it may last for months. After the current collective agreement expired on August 31, it remains in force until a new collective agreement has been reached. 

You as the Component 1 members elected a four person Negotiation Committee on September 25, 2024. This committee will be the primary group of people responsible for bargaining with UBC. However, we firmly believe that bargaining should be an open, democratic process. Keep posted for updates as our bargaining dates approach!

The union’s priorities in bargaining are the priorities of you and your co-workers! As a democratic, membership based organization, you decide on your priorities collectively.

1. Keep posted on bargaining sessions! Once bargaining starts, your Negotiating Committee will have many sessions at the table with the employer. Stay tuned for updates on when your negotiations will take place, and show up to the table to show the employer that we mean business.

If UBC does not come to the table with reasonable proposals that are satisfactory for you and your co-workers, there are a few things that can happen:

1. Mediation–if the Negotiating Committee can’t reach an agreement with UBC, we may agree to appoint a mediator to help the negotiations move along. A mediator is a neutral person who can facilitate the negotiations, but they don’t have any authority to make decisions on the outcome of the negotiation itself.

2. Arbitration–if mediation fails, the Negotiating Committee can ask for an arbitrator. An arbitrator would take both sides into account, and then make a final decision on an outcome, more similar to a judicial process. Unlike a mediator or conciliator, an arbitrator issues a report that is binding on the employer and constitutes the terms for the new collective agreement. In most cases, it is best to avoid binding arbitration, because it removes agency from you and your co-workers to have a say over your own contract.

3. Strike–the ultimate power that you and your co-workers hold as members of a labour union is the ability to withhold your labour. If UBC does not come to the table with a deal that works for you, you have the power to vote to strike.

In actual practice, a combination of these things could occur.

A strike is a stoppage or slowdown of work by a group of employees. Strikes are sometimes used by unions to pressure employers into agreeing to terms and conditions of employment and sign a collective bargaining agreement. A strike may involve activities such as picketing. 

Job action is broader set of actions used by workers to put pressure on their employer during negotiations, potentially including strikes, overtime bans, or sticking exactly to what is in your contracts and doing no extras.

Both job action and striking disrupt how your workplace functions. Without your labour, UBC can't continue running classes and tutorials, a core aspect of the University. If necessary, these tactics allow you and your co-workers to put pressure on your employer to agree to better wages and workplace conditions.

When to go on strike or engage in job action is decided by you. Before you and your co-workers can legally engage in work stoppage, a vote would take place where members can say if you are willing to stop work to pressure your employer to agree to our bargaining demands.

The right to collectively withhold our labour is one of the most powerful tools that workers have to improve your working conditions and the learning conditions of your students. 

The BC Labour Relations Code governs the bargaining process, and requires that parties bargain in good faith. This means that both the union and UBC are required to “make every reasonable effort to conclude a collective agreement”. If the Negotiating Committee has discussed all of your bargaining proposals with UBC in good faith without reaching an agreement, this is known as impasse.

If the Negotiation Committee isn’t able to make progress on our key bargaining priorities, we would hold a strike authorization vote to show UBC that their proposals are unacceptable. This type of vote is how you, the members can make your voices heard to UBC to tell them that you are not satisfied with their proposals. 

If a majority of the members vote in favour of the strike authorization, this gives the Negotiating Team a “strike mandate”, which they can use as leverage to implement our bargaining priorities. If there is still no progress after the strike authorization vote, the Negotiation Team would have the ability to issue a 72 hour strike notice to UBC. 

A new collective agreement only comes into effect when you and your co-workers have decided that it meets all your needs. Once the negotiating team has obtained a tentative agreement that they believe meets the needs of the members, we will bring the tentative agreement to the membership for ratification. This is a final chance for you to ask questions, raise concerns, and discuss whether the agreement is satisfactory for all of your colleagues.

Yes! Your union has gone on strike twice in the past. Check out the History page for more details.