News Archive: October 2009

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.