On March 23, graduate Teaching Assistants and Teaching Fellows made an historic decision.
A significant majority of graduate students employed for teaching duties at Queen’s University voted yes to collective representation in the form of a union.
In doing this, we follow the lead of all but one universities in this province, and of the faculty and three other crucial groups of employees on this campus.
For the first time, Queen’s TAs and TFs will participate in a fully functioning workplace democracy.
Some TAs and TFs didn’t see a need to unionize, because they didn’t have significant issues with their supervisors or because they’re satisfied with their pay.
I too have been satisfied with my working conditions in the history department, being a TA for three different professors so far.
But unionization isn’t a move to antagonize your employer, nor is it about money.
Having a union is about securities and guarantees, about equality and independent and enforceable grievance procedures.
Most of all, the step TAs and TFs took last week assures they can participate in decision-making processes that affect us all, that decisions about our working conditions can’t be made above our heads.
I want to ask those who didn’t approve of unionization to give the union a chance, or even become an active member.
Unions have brought great improvements in working conditions at other universities, and I’m confident we can do the same thing here.
For this, we need everyone’s .
We invite everybody to give us input on what you deem important in a collective agreement and on the statutes of the local.
We invite you to us. Some of the best shop stewards are people who first had to be convinced of the need for a union.
We might have been in disagreement on the need for collective representation, but now the union is a reality. Let’s work with it and work together to get the best out of it.
Before unionization, we had no recourse when we worked more than we were paid for, there weren’t clear and equitable allocation procedures for TA and TFships, there wasn’t job security, there weren’t enforceable grievance procedure and there wasn’t a definition for what constitutes hours worked.
All these are improvements that TAs and TFs at unionized universities have gained, together with additional employer-funded health and dental benefits, maternity leave, subsidies for UHIP payments etc.
We’ll now be able to gain similar improvements in working conditions through collective bargaining, a process in which the workers have the final say.
Undergraduate students will gain from this, too.
After all, TAs and TFs provide much of the front-line teaching at this institution and overworked or dissatisfied labour is poor labour.
This isn’t a divisive action and it doesn’t bring in an external or third party into our labour relations.
All decisions will be taken by the of the bargaining unit—meaning by graduate TAs and TFs—and the day-to-day running of the union will be in hands of elected executive , responsible to their constituency.
A collective agreement won’t be a document that micro-manages the istering of courses and department, but will set standard without limiting flexibility, except the employer’s flexibility to change working conditions without any input.
Moreover, just like our
organizing campaign has always been run by TA and TF volunteers, our union local will be an independent organisation with the interests of this constituency at heart.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada, however, will us by providing experienced negotiators, legal advice, research capacity, training courses, etc.
The volunteers who have worked tirelessly since late 2007 to make this happen and our many ers may still feel the euphoria of this victory, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.
Over the coming months we will have to form our local, draw up and approve its statutes, elect officials, elect a bargaining team and committee, go on information rounds to find out what different groups of employees find important issues for the bargaining table and, of course, negotiate a first collective agreement.
This collective agreement will have to be ratified by a vote that articulates the voices of all graduate TAs and TFs.
To do all of this, we need your help, regardless of whether you were ive of unionization or not.
Please visit the TAFA website—qtafa.com—to stay updated and learn about opportunities for getting involved.
Everyone’s input and participation is called for.
Ralph Callebert, PhD candidate, is a Teaching Fellow in the History Department.
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