The co-chair of a drive to unionize the estimated 700 teaching assistants at the U of S says it is getting "an overwhelmingly positive response", and she's confident it will be successful by its Dec. 15 deadline.

Graduate student Kelly Bronson, co-chair of the effort to convince TAs to form a local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), says the drive is picking up momentum as she and her colleagues go department-by-department around campus to ask TAs to sign union cards.

With an estimated need to get just over 350 union cards signed to be successful (50 per cent of the total number of TAs, plus one), Bronson says they already have about one-third of that goal signed up.

She says the organizing push began in late August and was sparked by a Graduate Student Association (GSA) survey last spring that found TAs on average work three more hours per week than they are paid for, that some international and female students feel open to discrimination, and that there are inequities in how different departments treat TAs.

- Source: U of S TA organizing drive website

Bronson says comparisons also show U of S TAs' pay rates are just half of what the average unionized TA earns at other Canadian universities. The drive's website says unionized TAs in Canada earn an average $29.85 per hour, non-unionized TAs earn $23.85, and U of S TAs earn $14.63. It says TAs at York earn $39.32 per hour and at the U of T they earn $34.51 per hour.

Nevertheless, wages aren't the main reason for the union drive, Bronson says.

"What we're hearing from most students is not primarily concern with wages - it's a desire for a collective voice and a process to deal with issues like equity and working conditions. The main reason TAs want to join CUPE is to have a voice that carries weight with the University administration."

The organizing drive's website says "teaching assistants play an increasingly important role in the University of Saskatchewan's undergraduate education, and it is vital that they have a say in how to improve their own working conditions and teaching."

The website says there is a need to address equity issues like some TAs having to pay the costs of photocopying, course textbooks and other materials related to their jobs. Also, it states, "teaching assistants should not be responsible for 100 per cent of the grading in a course and should not be expected to grade without guidelines. Union contracts can set limits on responsibility and help ensure that undergraduates get some attention from their paid professors."

A CUPE news release notes that the U of S Faculty Association, its sessional lecturers' union and the GSA endorse the drive. CUPE already represents sessional lecturers and support staff at the U of S.

The drive's website says the majority of Canadian university TAs are CUPE members. The union says it represents nearly 20,000 TAs in the country. University of Regina TAs belong to CUPE.

Bronson notes not all TAs are graduate students - some are undergrads. The organizing drive includes them, and it also includes markers and teaching fellows. In addition, while research assistants aren't being included in the initial sign-up, the website says the union local will "seek them out in the future, after securing a position from which to do that".

Bronson says on the deadline date of Dec. 15 the organizers will send their signed union cards to the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board. "They will then require the University to supply a total list of TAs and the Labour Relations Board will cross-reference the cards to the list," Bronson adds.

As of Oct. 10, U of S officials said they don't know how many TAs the University employs.

If the Labour Relations Board finds there are enough signed cards to certify a CUPE union local for TAs, Bronson says the U of S group will spend the next while forming the local, with such activities as electing an executive. She says they would then turn their attention to initiating bargaining for a first collective agreement with the University.

"We do have goals for bargaining" regarding wages and working conditions, Bronson says, noting the group has a lot of comparative information from TA groups at other universities.

Bronson is completing a master's degree in sociology, looking into the social implications of biotechnology. She has been a TA, but isn't one currently. She emphasizes that she isn't pursuing unionization because of any bad experiences personally. "I've had nothing but positive experiences at the U of S," she says.

For more information, contact communications.office@usask.ca

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