3000 Employees at McGill University vote to join PSAC

Three thousand (3000) casual employees at McGill University carrying out administrative, technical and maintenance duties on campus were eligible to vote in a Union certification vote and voted 85% in favour of joining the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

PSAC continues its successful organizing drive in Canadian universities

PSAC now represents nearly 250 Teaching and Research Assistants at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa. The vote was won by a large majority and the Ontario Labour Relations Board has confirmed the vote by issuing a certification.

The PSAC organizing drive began at the UOIT in September 2008. It was concluded successfully a year later in spite of the employer's promise of a new wage policy and attempt to contest the list of employees submitted to the Board.

The new PSAC Local will include all graduate and undergraduate teaching and research assistants, as well as TAs and RAs who are not currently registerested as students at the UOIT.

PSAC representatives will soon approach this employer in order to set a date for the beginning of the collective bargaining process. These new PSAC members are mostly concerned about the fact that their wages are lower than those paid in other Ontario universities and the absence of benefits in their current pay package.

The PSAC is confident that the new members at UOIT will become another vibrant and progressive PSAC Local. The PSAC currently represents almost 20,000 university sector employees among its 170,000 members across the country.

University chair honours unionist

The Université du Québec à Montréal will soon be inaugurating the Nycole Turmel Chair in Public Spaces and Political Innovations to promote and stimulate research on the transformation of public spaces.

With funding from the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the chair was created in part to recognize Ms. Turmel's tireless work in the areas of labour relations and social justice. Ms. Turmel was the national president of the PSAC for about 10 years.

According to John Gordon, the current national president of PSAC, Ms. Turmel's union actions were always mindful of the broader picture of social realities in which union members live and work.

The first holder of the Nycole Turmel chair is Nancy Thède, an anthropologist by training and professor of international development and international relations at the Political Science Department of UQAM.

Graduate Students at Memorial University vote Union Yes!

Graduate Students employed as graduate teaching assistants, graduate assistants and graduate research assistants at the St. John's Campus of Memorial University of Newfoundland voted Union Yes! and can now start the process of negotiating a first collective agreement following the certification order of the Newfoundland Labour Relations Board.

Graduate RAs and TAs at PEI join PSAC

On March 23, 2009 the Prince Edward Island Labour Relations Board certified the Public Service Alliance of Canada ("PSAC") to represent all employees of the University of Prince Edward Island at Charlottetown, Queens County, Prince Edward Island who are students registered in good standing in a Graduate Studies Program at the University of Prince Edward Island employed as Graduate Research Assistants, Tutorial Assistants and Lab Instructors. PSAC is one of Canada's largest and most progressive Unions representing Graduate TAs and RAs at Universities across Canada.

First Contract for Sessional Lecturers at Memorial

The Public Service Alliance of Canada and its directly-chartered Local, which represents sessional lecturers teaching two or fewer courses per semester, signed their first Collective Agreement with Memorial University on March 9, 2009.

"We are delighted to have achieved a first contract with Memorial University that addresses many of the critical needs of our members," said Jeannie Baldwin, PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the Atlantic.

The new agreement contains significant gains for Per-course Instructors, who as non-union workers had experienced only one pay increase during the previous 18 years. Wages rise by 8 per cent retroactive to September 1, 2008 with increases of 4 per cent, 4 per cent and 4 per cent in each of the next three years.

Other important achievements include seniority provisions and a hiring process that will begin to deal with the chronic job insecurity faced by these flexible academic workers. That language represents an acknowledgement that a Per-course Instructor's relationship to the University is not strictly limited to the particular semester in which she or he is employed.

Other gains include leave provisions and excellent language dealing with academic freedom, intellectual property rights, outside activities, and no discrimination/no harassment provisions.