UBC teaching assistants want quick settlement
Equating tuition increase as pay cut, group won't hesitate to go on strike

Amy O'Brian
Vancouver Sun

After months of delay, teaching assistants at the University of B.C. and
their employer are scheduled to sit across from one another today and seek
to negotiate a new contract.

It has been 20 years since members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees
Local 2278 took a strike vote, but president Alex Grant said a strike is
inevitable if the university delays negotiations further.

"We want to meet and get the negotiations done as soon as possible," Grant
said.

"If the employer has a package for us, great, we'll look at it. If not,
we'll ask the mediator to book out and we'll be in a legal strike situation
very quickly."

The contract for the 1,600 teaching assistants at the university expired
nearly five months ago.

In a show of frustration and determination, about 300 people -- mostly
teaching assistants -- stood chanting outside the house of university
president Martha Piper for two hours early Thursday.

Grant said the sunrise demonstration was meant to be a "wake-up call" to the
university's administrators.

Teaching assistants are asking for a wage increase in light of the fact they
all pay tuition, which increased last year and is scheduled to increase for
the next two years, Grant said.

"Tuition fees [for most graduate research programs], over the course of this
agreement, are set to increase by 16 per cent of our wages. It's exactly the
same as a 16 per cent wage cut," he said.

(The majority of teaching assistants are enrolled in graduate research
programs. Tuition for most of these programs was $2,600 in September, 2002.)

Teaching assistants are paid about $9,000 a year, which translates into
about $24 an hour, based on a 12-hour work week.

UBC's teaching assistants help professors in their field of study mark
papers and exams, consult with students, lead discussion groups, give
tutorials, supervise labs and occasionally lecture.

Grant said assistants at other universities earn a significantly higher
wage, including those at the University of Toronto -- who are paid $7 more
per hour than those at UBC -- and those at Simon Fraser University who are
paid about $2.50 more per hour.

However, a UBC representative said the university does its best to pay
employees a competitive rate and wants an agreement as soon as possible.

"We're committed to working with employees through the collective bargaining
process to arrive at the appropriate market rates for the jobs that they're
doing," said Scott Macrae, director of public affairs.

"It's important that people understand the university is bargaining in good
faith and we do value those employees and we are looking for jointly agreed
solutions as soon as we can arrive at them."

However, Grant believes the university may be deliberately delaying the
negotiations and is frustrated by the employer's reasons for a wage freeze.

"[University administrators] say the government is tying their hands but
obviously it's tied for some of us and not others," Grant said.

Piper received a pay hike last December that amounts to 63 per cent more
than she was paid 19 months ago. Her current salary is $350,000 per year,
plus benefits.

The total payroll for faculty increased $10 million in 2001- 2002, and is
set to increase by the same amount until 2004.

Teaching assistants received a two-per-cent increase in 2001, but received
no increase in 1999, 2000 or 2002.

The total annual payroll for teaching assistants is about $10 million. The
total annual payroll for faculty is about $160 million.

© Copyright  2003 Vancouver Sun

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