sfu faculty letter on labour dispute

7/31/2019 SFU Faculty Letter on Labour Dispute

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November 5 2012

Open Letter on the SFU labour dispute:

We, the undersigned SFU faculty members, are in solidarity with the TSSU and CUPE in their

struggle for better working conditions. The workers represented by TSSU and CUPE deserve abetter dealthey deserve better working conditions, they deserve a better wage, and theydeserve more respect from their employer for the work they do. And they deserve a realcontract, having been without one for two years now.

The campus unions' struggle, however, goes beyond their immediate bargaining demands.

The primary mission of this public universityto teach its students wellis not accomplishedonly in the classroom. It is also accomplished by the example the university sets. The universityshould be an engaging and engaged intellectual environment, and a good and fair and decentplace to work.

But working conditions at SFU have been worsening for years. Wages have been frozen while

workloads have risen. The educational system is under increasing stress, from reduced facultynumbers to larger classes, from rapidly rising fees to streamlined academic programs. Studentsare paying more for reduced programs, and graduate student workers are being paid less fordoing more work.

Everyone is told to "do more with less." But that is another word for austerity at SFU and in theuniversity sector in BC at large. The university administration is passing on the burden ofausterity to its workers. While administrators raise their salaries at a rate faster than faculty andstaff salaries, while resources are diverted to areas of the university that are not of direct benefitto its education mission, SFU's most vulnerable employeesTAs, sessionals, contingent facultyand staffare being hit the hardest.

The TSSU and CUPE struggle is a struggle against this austerity. It is more than a demand forbetter wages for the unions members; its aim is more than better working conditions. Its aim isfor a better university, a university worthy of being called a place of higher education. It is ademand for a university that is truly engaged in the world and that is a truly engaging place towork and teach and learn.

In other words, TSSU and CUPE's struggle is a struggle that concerns every member of the SFUcommunity and we should all, wholeheartedly, support and engage in this struggle.

Signed,

Ian Angus, Professor, Department of HumanitiesYildiz Atasoy, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology

Sabine Bitter, Assistant Professor, School for the Contemporary ArtsJohn Bogardus, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and AnthropologyJohn Brohman, Associate Professor, Department of GeographyEnda Brophy, Assistant Professor, School of CommunicationAdrienne Burk, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Teaching

Fellow, Faculty of Arts and Social SciencesClint Burnham, Associate Professor, Department of English

John Calvert, Associate Professor, Department of Political ScienceWendy Chan, Professor, Department of Sociology and Anthropology


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Ann Travers, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology and AnthropologyMichele Valiquette, Senior Lecturer, Department of English

J. R. Welch, Associate Professor, Department of Archeology and School of ResourceAnd Environmental Management

Jin-me Yoon, Professor, School for the Contemporary ArtsJerry Zaslove, Professor Emeritus, Departments of English and Humanities

Kirsten Zickfeld, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography

sfu faculty letter on labour dispute

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