The union local representing UBC teaching assistants, graduate academic assistants and exam invigilators has applied for non-binding mediation with the university through the Labour Relations Board.
Since last fall, UBC and Canadian Union of Public Employees local 2278 have been negotiating a new collective agreement. The move to mediation is an attempt to "avoid needing to escalate towards possible job action," the local said in its July 17 announcement.
"At the most recent bargaining session, UBC presented a comprehensive package that addressed some of the priorities identified by members but still did not make meaningful progress on several key issues for CUPE 2278 members, even after we showed UBC how our proposals address the financial constraints set by the provincial government," the local said.
Their demands include higher wages, employer-paid health care, balancing workload and class sizes, academic freedom protections, ending minimum funding clawbacks and paid breaks for workers at the Centre for Accessibility.
CUPE 2278 Vice President Drew Hall is one of the union’s representatives at the bargaining table. They said that after almost a year of bargaining, the union has “made it through several issues [and] had some important wins.” They said progress was made in their demands related to improving TA training, GAAs’ issues and protections regarding technological change — specifically artificial intelligence.
According to Hall, both parties have been discussing “monetary issues” since April. They said the university has come back a number of times with proposals that do not address the union’s demands on “health care, workload, clawbacks, academic freedom and wages for GAAs.”
Hall said CUPE 2278 was initially asking for 100 per cent employer-paid health care. According to Hall, the university said this would be too expensive and told the union its members could get health care coverage through the AMS/GSS Health & Dental Plan. In response, Hall said, CUPE 2278 came “forward to UBC with a fully costed plan” for 75 per cent employer-paid health care.
“Their response was they don't want to entertain it at all,” Hall said. Josh Bradbury — CUPE 2278’s Component 1 Chair — said the AMS/GSS plan “just doesn't cut it for student workers.” TAs at Simon Fraser University get 75 per cent of extended health and dental premiums covered by SFU, Bradbury said. “We want the same as what the people down the road receive, which I think is eminently reasonable.”
As Component 1 Chair, Bradbury administers CUPE 2278’s hardship fund. He said many CUPE 2278 members are either international students or over the age of 25 which means “they have no parents' [insurance] plan to fall back on if the AMS/GSS plan doesn't cover it, and so the vast majority of claims we see in our hardship fund are about health care.”
TAs are asking to set general standards for workload. They deem it an effort to prevent a decline in the quality of education as a result of TAs having to take on more responsibilities than they can manage.
Hall said cuts to TA hours mean smaller paycheques for CUPE 2278 members and worse education for students. They added that CUPE 2278 asked for “limits on [UBC’s] ability to decrease the ratio of TA hours to student enrolment,” but the university’s response “was almost entirely inadequate.”
They claim UBC is proposing an “individualistic approach” that would allow single workers to report workload issues but fails to address their collective, structural concerns.
Bradbury also said CUPE 2278 has asked that CfA exam invigilators get 15-minute breaks for four-hour shifts and 30 minutes for eight-hour shifts. According to Hall, the university has not been open to the idea of paid breaks for shifts under eight hours.
“The proposal that they've put on the table is effectively the same practice that's already happening in the Center for Accessibility. It's not a win for members,” said Hall. The 2022–25 Collective Agreement has no mention of paid breaks for exam invigilators.
A clawback on minimum research funding refers to when, after a graduate student has received external funding, scholarships, a raise or even picked up additional work, the university discounts the amount students are receiving from other sources from their funding. CUPE 2278 brought a proposal to end minimum funding clawbacks to this round of bargaining. According to Hall, UBC's position is that this does not belong at the negotiating table.
“Effectively, a raise for TAs goes directly back into a different part of the university and does not actually end up in the pockets of CUPE 2278 members. We're asking for limits on that [but] UBC has been unwilling to seriously entertain that idea,” Hall said.
In a statement to The Ubyssey, university spokesperson Thandi Fletcher said the UBC "is committed to reaching a negotiated collective agreement with CUPE 2278.” Fletcher said the over 20 meetings and 38 items of agreement between CUPE 2278 and UBC are evidence of meaningful dialogue at the negotiating table. She claimed the university's recent proposal is responsive to "important items."
Fletcher said the university will not comment on specific proposals while bargaining is ongoing, saying that the “best place” for negotiations is “at the table, between the parties.”
CUPE 2278’s decision to file for mediation will see both parties engage in negotiation assisted by a third party. On their bargaining blog, CUPE 2278 says the step is an attempt to “avoid needing to escalate” into job action.
“UBC will participate constructively and remains focused on reaching a fair and sustainable agreement,” Fletcher said, referring to the upcoming mediation.
But if talks break down and result in a strike, it wouldn’t be the first time.
In late February 2003, CUPE 2278 went on a strike that lasted almost three weeks. TAs were demanding wage increases to keep up with increases in tuition. Then-UBC President Martha Piper sent a letter to then-Minister of Advanced Education Shirley Bond in early March outlining her “grave concerns” about the strike’s “repercussions.” A week later, CUPE 2278 and 2950 — the union representing clerical, library and theatre workers at UBC, which was simultaneously on strike for different reasons — were both legislated back to work after Bill 21 was quickly passed at the B.C. legislature.
Finally, binding arbitration resulted in an 11.5 per cent wage increase over three years — no concessions were made for rising tuition.
Nearly a decade later, in late October 2012, CUPE 2278 went on a strike that continued through mediation. They wanted higher wages, priority hiring for fifth-year PhD students and third-year master's students, and tuition waivers. An agreement that included priority hiring for doctoral students, but not for masters students and without wage increases was reached less than two weeks later, ending over two years of bargaining. Tuition waivers were also left out.
The strikes of 2003 and 2012 are the latest instances of what Hall said remains an option if mediation does not go the way CUPE 2278 hopes. At a membership meeting on June 12, CUPE 2278 members voted overwhelmingly to “prepare for future job action if necessary.”
When asked if they are concerned about the university taking steps similar to Martha Piper’s letter to the government during the 2003 strike, Hall said, “I think we expect the university to engage in good faith in the bargaining process, just as we are.”
