About Organize UVic
Organize UVic is a student-led movement seeking to unionize Graduate Research Assistants at the University of Victoria under CUPE Local 4163. Currently, this campaign is seeking to unionize Graduate Research Assistants across all faculties and departments. For this to happen, we need eligible workers to sign union cards.
Signing a union card officially indicates your support for forming a union in your workplace. We need eligible workers (any and all Graduate Research Assistants) to sign cards to show the Labour Relations Board that workers like you want to be in our union.
According to current BC labour laws, if enough eligible workers sign union cards, GRAs will join CUPE 4163 and begin bargaining with UVic for improved workplace rights. If you’re an eligible student worker, signing a card is the primary way that you can join us in organizing for better pay and working conditions for GRAs at UVic. Every card counts and helps get you and your colleagues one step closer to the bargaining table.
Signing a union card is confidential, and your employer will NOT know that you have signed a card.
This organizing campaign is focused on Graduate Research Assistants at the University of Victoria. If you receive a stipend or wage from UVic for research (and are a grad student), you are eligible to sign a card.
Only eligible workers should sign cards. If you are unsure if you qualify as a Graduate Research Assistant, please reach out to us and we would be happy to discuss your situation to help you find out if you are eligible to sign a card.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is Canada’s largest labour union, representing 715,000 members across Canada. CUPE 4163 is a locally operating union branch at UVic (typically called a “local”), which functions as a locally democratic collective representing over 1500 members. It is currently one of three CUPE locals that operate on our campus– something which strengthens our position and gives us friends and allies on whom we can rely.
CUPE 4163’s current collective agreement pertains to the following worker roles at the University of Victoria:
- Component One: Teaching Assistants, Lab Instructors, Computer Help Desk workers, and Academic Assistants
- Component Two: Second Language Instructors in the English Language Centre and French Language Programme, Residence Life student workers, and Cultural Assistants
- Component Three: Continuing and Term Sessional Lecturers, and Music Performance Instructors
Card signing is digital! All you have to do is follow this link for detailed instructions on card signing and then fill in your information!
Yes – union cards expire every six months – it is likely that at some point during this campaign we will ask you to re-resign your card. Re-signing your card is easy, and if your card is close to expiring, we will send you an email with a link to re-sign.
A union advocates for you and your colleagues, negotiating with your boss for improved worker rights. Unions fight for better pay and better working conditions. If you have a grievance with your employer, you can contact your union for help resolving it.
Currently, Graduate Research Assistants (GRAs) across departments are all paid differently, even down to which professor or lab in which they work. If there is an issue, it’s something that each individual worker has to take upon themself to solve, at the risk of their position or academic reputation. A union minimizes or entirely removes these risks and barriers by having positions like that of a Member Advocate, whose job it is to be an intermediary between worker and employer.
And of course, it’s no secret that unionized employees are paid more. According to Statistics Canada, in 2022, temporary employees who were represented by unions were paid an average of $31.44 per hour, while temporary employees not represented by unions were paid an average of $22.82 per hour. Thanks to CUPE 4163’s current collective agreement, UVic’s graduate Teaching Assistants are now paid $30.87 an hour after negotiating a 10% pay increase over the last two years.
Beyond making sure that your pay goes up and that your employer doesn’t get you down, there are plenty of other practical ways that a union can benefit you. For example, things like vacation pay, sick days, access to funding for conferences, and more are all addressed in CUPE 4163’s current collective agreements for each component.
About unions
A union is an organized group of two or more workers who work collectively to advocate for decent wages, safe working conditions, and fair and equal treatment in the workplace.
Unions in Canada are bound by law to be democratic and financially transparent, to ensure that they are acting in good faith on behalf of the workers they represent. In BC, trade unions are certified under the Labour Relations Code.
A certified trade union can establish a legally-binding collective agreement between the group of workers it represents and the employer, to establish standards for the treatment of its members. This process is called collective bargaining, and in BC it’s governed by the BC Labour Relations Board.
Primarily, unions use collective bargaining to democratically establish and enforce standards regarding the workplace rights of members. On a practical level, this means defining and enforcing equitable wages, benefits, job security, and workplace standards in their collective agreements.
On a broader scale, unions like CUPE advocate politically to improve the lives of working people, through lobbying, working with political parties, and public demonstration. A part of this includes working in solidarity with other social movements seeking to address institutionalized inequality, such as racism, sexism, and ableism, all of which directly affect workers – especially working students who have to fight these obstacles while attending school and funding their education.
CUPE 4163 is the natural choice for unionizing GRAs because TAs are already unionized under CUPE 4163.
Only trade unions recognized by the Labour Relations Board can apply to be a bargaining agent for a group of workers. Since some student workers at UVic are already unionized through CUPE — as well as student workers at other universities such as UBC —CUPE is the appropriate choice, and 4163 makes sense because they already represent student educational workers on campus. Additionally, by working with a national trade union like CUPE, we are given access to a wide variety of resources to help us organize our local, including the experience of other students like us who have recently run similar unionization campaigns, as well as strategies, ideas, and funding.
If you are already a CUPE 4163 member you still need to sign a union card. More than 45 percent of all eligible GRAs need to sign a union card for you and your colleagues to form a union.
It doesn’t matter if you are already a member of CUPE 4163 as a Teaching Assistant – if you want GRAs to be part of the union too, you need to sign a union card for this union drive.
Already being a CUPE 4163 member does not automatically mean you are in support of GRAs joining CUPE 4163. The only way to officially show your support for GRAs joining CUPE 4163 is to sign a union card.
Eligibility
Yes. If you think that you will be eligible within the next 6 months, then you can sign a card now!
The main defining characteristic that we are using to categorize student workers as eligible union members is whether or not they are being paid by the university, and are a Graduate Research Assistant. If you were not clearly given a scholarship, even if you only have a verbal agreement and never signed a contract – your pay is proof of your labour.
GRAs currently receive paystubs from the university, even if they are varied in type or remittance amount, and this is a clear piece of evidence to show the Labour Relations Board that there is a functional employer/employee relationship.
UVic defines Research Assistants as follows:
Every year, UVic employs many graduate students to assist with teaching, research and lab instruction. Research assistants (RAs) are by faculty members to help with their research. These roles are sometimes called scientific assistants or laboratory instructors. RA salaries come from faculty members’ research grants. Because of this, your RA hours, salary, and other details are worked out between you and the faculty member.
Other clues might include:
- You have a funding letter that indicates you will work as a Research Assistant to receive “Graduate Support”. (Payments that come out mid-month.)
- You are receiving compensation (scholarship, stipend, pay) through UVic for doing research.
- You may be listed in your department handbook as an RA.
Any official documents that you signed when you accepted your position should have information regarding how your pay is being disbursed to you. We are aware that some GRAs do not have formal contracts, however, your pay is likely recorded in the “Paystub” section of your UVic Online Tools – and reading through these documents and discussing them with your co-workers is a great way to build solidarity and form a better understanding of how UVic manages its student labour force. If you are still unsure about your eligibility after this, please reach out to us!
Getting involved
You can sign up to join us or volunteer here. You can also send an inquiry to campaign@organizeuvic.ca if you’d like to get involved!
Everyone is welcome regardless of how much time or experience you have to contribute. We are looking to organize workers by department, so if you have connections within your department, we need your help!
If you’re looking for other ways to help, we can always use volunteers for help putting on events, putting up campaign posters, and canvassing. Even if you only have an hour or two to spare, it matters and makes a difference. The best way to get the most out of your union is to get involved!
The first thing we need you to do is sign a card if you’re eligible!
Once you’ve done that, talk to your friends and colleagues about joining the union. Even if you’re not eligible to sign a card, you might know someone who is! Consider sharing info about the campaign or bringing it up in discussions with other student workers or with potential volunteers.
The next thing you can do is connect with us! We want your voice to be involved in this movement, so we’d love to hear about your experiences as student workers at UVic. What kinds of things make your job more challenging than it should be? Maybe you have a specific concern that you’d like to be addressed during collective bargaining, or maybe you have other questions about our campaign. Send an email to campaign@organizeuvic.ca to get in touch!
We would love to discuss how you might fit in if you’d like to be more deeply involved in organizing with us! Here are some ways you might be able to be a part of our drive:
Organize your department: We are trying to connect student workers by organizing within departments and programs first, since card signing is our first priority. Networking the union in the student communities that you already occupy is one of the most important things we can do to unify student workers all around campus!
Join the core organizing team: There’s lots to do, and there’s room for more on our team! We meet on a weekly basis as a large group and also conduct meetings within smaller committees focused on individual academic departments.
Join a planning committee: We need help organizing events, developing and distributing communications materials, and doing direct outreach on campus. If you have an idea for an event, or an area that you think needs to be addressed more specifically, this is likely the place for you!
Everyone is welcome! If you’re passionate about contributing your skills to our union drive, we need you — it doesn’t matter how much experience you have with organizing. It’s up to all of us to provide the support you need to find your place in this movement!
Yes! We hold weekly organizing meetings, and always encourage people to join. You can also send us an email at campaign@organizeuvic.ca to arrange a time to meet with someone from the union.
Concerns about unionization
- 0.85% of base salary is the dues rate going to CUPE National. These dues are used to pay for staff and services of the union, including your National Servicing Representative as well as research, communications, legal, education, human rights, and health and safety support. These dues also support national campaigns, publications, meetings, and conventions.
- The local dues rates is set democratically by the membership of the local. CUPE locals have democratic autonomy over the spending of their dues, which gives CUPE locals more autonomy than most unions.
The unionization of student workers at UVic should not affect the scholarship(s) you receive, even if we manage to bargain for increased wages.
This was an issue recently encountered by student workers at the University of Waterloo in Ontario when a pay raise was introduced – however, with the protection of a union, making pay cuts in other areas to compensate for fairly paid workers is something that can be fought very successfully.
At universities where Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, and similar positions already have the protection of unions, the employer is not allowed to do this.
Yes! Being in a union will not affect your eligibility for student loans. However, if your income increases, this might affect the amount of financial aid that you are eligible for.
When your eligibility for student loans is assessed, your income, your parents’ income, and your spouse’s income are all taken into account. This ensures that more aid is given to students with greater financial need. If you are concerned about the amount your pay may increase, check how much room you have in your eligibility window for financial assistance before your new income would disqualify you, and keep it in mind so you can make an informed decision.
This is a commonly used talking point to discourage unionization in any field of labour, but history has shown it to be entirely baseless. The unionization of workers at other universities in Canada has not led to reduced hiring. In fact, in some cases, university unionization has resulted in increased hiring, because the union establishes boundaries preventing students from working extra unpaid hours and encourages students to return to work after having felt undervalued or overworked in their previous positions.
Universities like UVic have historically taken advantage of student workers by expecting them to do more work than they are being paid for. Unionization will help ensure that you are paid fairly for all of the work that you do.
Yes — this is one of the major reasons that we started the Organize 4163 drive. Last year, we joined other organizers in campaigning for a tuition freeze for all post-secondary students in BC. Tuition is a unique challenge faced by university student workers that directly affects how much of their employment income can actually be used to pay for their basic needs. The fact is, if you are paid more, you will likely have more disposable income available to you to put towards things other than just tuition – and that is one of our primary goals.
When we file for union certification, there is a statutory freeze on current employment terms and conditions until the first collective agreement is completed. This means that legally, your pay and work conditions cannot get worse during the bargaining process.
The purpose of a union is to negotiate for better working conditions for all of its members. While this might not necessarily mean that everyone gets a pay raise, it will not result in the enforcement of a new standardized wage.
At the very least, a collective agreement will establish enforceable boundaries preventing you from doing more work than you are being paid for.
This is something that will be dependent on the collective agreement negotiated between CUPE 4163 and UVic. If GRAs successfully form a union, they can prioritize negotiating transparency around how many hours you are expected to work so that you can be paid fairly.
Being in a union does not mean that mandatory standardized hours need to be negotiated. For example, you and your colleagues don’t need to work 9 to 5 if that doesn’t make sense for the type of work you do. We recognize that some workers prefer to work on weekends, or that schedules need to be made around school schedules or lab availability.
Nobody can force you to go on strike. Every aspect of the union’s collective bargaining process is conducted democratically, including striking. A strike will only happen if a strike vote is conducted and the majority of union members vote to strike.
A strike vote would only happen if CUPE 4163 and UVic are unable to reach a collective agreement during the negotiation process. It should be seen as a last resort if UVic refuses to meaningfully discuss workers’ key bargaining priorities and respond to the needs of GRAs.
A strike doesn’t necessarily mean that all work is halted entirely — if you have time sensitive duties pertaining to your research, accommodations can be made for you. For example, if your research involves living things that require ongoing care, you’ll still be able to perform those time sensitive duties and get paid for them without “crossing the picket line.”
Thinking about the possibility of a strike can be scary and unfamiliar, but we shouldn’t see striking as a bad thing if it means securing workers the rights they deserve – and hopefully soon, that means securing you the rights you deserve! But to be honest, most of the time collective bargaining is completed at the bargaining table, without taking a strike vote or any strike action.
However, should a strike become necessary, and our members vote for it, one way that unions like CUPE make strikes less scary is by providing something called strike pay. This is an hourly rate of pay which is disbursed from the national branch of the union in order to help recuperate the cost of missed work during labour action.
Striking could include picketing, but the primary driving force of a strike is the cessation or omission of work by refusing to provide our labour until we know conditions will be improved — proving to employers that they need us more than we need them! Since TAs, Sessional Lecturers, Res Life Workers, Cultural Assistants and many other workers at UVic are already unionized under CUPE 4163, they would be striking alongside and in solidarity with us, and we’d also have the support of other local unions, such as CUPE 951 and CUPE 917, the other CUPE locals on campus.
If GRAs join CUPE 4163, the work you do must be remunerated as wages, rather than in the form of a “stipend” or “financial award” like a scholarship or fellowship—even if the money is coming from a grant. This doesn’t mean you will get paid less, it’s simply a matter of legitimizing how you are paid, so you are not at risk of being overworked.
By paying for portions of your work as scholarships or fellowships, UVic establishes a power imbalance, and professors are unregulated in how they apply your labour. Rather than paying workers directly for their labour, UVic receives massive tax breaks by offering you compensation in the form of a stipend. Yes, your wages will be taxable if we unionize, but the impact on you should be negligible, considering the tax rebates available for full-time students, and the available benefits for graduate students from CUPE 4163 that you would be able to access, such as the hardship fund or even funding for conferences.
Questions from international students
A labour union can advocate for solutions that specifically address challenges affecting international students.
An example of this is section 16.06 of the Component One collective agreement. According to this provision, any international student working as a Teaching Assistant (TA) is entitled to a one-time payment equal to the lower of either one-third of the Mandatory Temporary Medical Insurance assessed fee or $100.
This was negotiated specifically for international students because this fee is seen as a financial obstacle for incoming international students and is not mandatory for domestic students. If GRAs form a union, workers could consider negotiating a similar provision in their collective agreement.
This is a concern that the union can raise during negotiations following unionization, especially since a significant number of student workers at UVic are international students. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that Canada’s immigration laws presently do not permit you to include the work you’ve undertaken as a student when applying for Express Entry.
However, being part of a union does offer protection against unjustified termination. So, if you depend on a graduate research position to maintain your student visa, being in a unionized graduate research environment would safeguard you from anyone in your lab or research center exploiting your immigration status against you.
In Canada, labor unions are independent from the government and operate democratically, following the needs and desires of their members, who all have the right to vote. Most unions in Canada, including CUPE, are part of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC).
The CLC serves as the national governing body for unions in Canada, but it is not affiliated with the Canadian government. The Canada Labour Code outlines the national laws that govern the rights of employees and employers, including how trade unions are legally allowed to operate in the country.
This is particularly important for CUPE and its members to grasp because many of the workers CUPE represents are public employees—individuals employed by the government. Often, when CUPE negotiates for improved rights for its workers, it faces the unique challenge of bargaining with an employer that is also the government itself.
If you are a student employee at UVic—a public university funded by the Canadian government—you are considered a public employee.
Each Canadian province has its own central labor federation, such as British Columbia’s BC Federation of Labour (BCFED), which brings together all the trade unions in BC under the CLC. BC’s trade unions adhere to the Labor Relations Code (often referred to as simply “the Code”), which outlines the legal framework for how unions can operate within BC. The enforcement of this Code is overseen by the Labor Relations Board.
BC’s Labor Relations Board is an impartial entity known as an “administrative tribunal.” This tribunal operates similarly to a legal court but is separate from the Canadian court system and the Canadian government. Its purpose is to mediate the relationship between BC’s trade unions and the Canadian government, as well as the relationship between employees and their unions.
While labor unions in Canada are part of larger provincial and national organizations, they primarily revolve around local unions, often referred to as “locals.” CUPE 4163 is a local union that concentrates on a specific group of workers in a particular location (UVic). Essentially, it serves as a branch of the larger national union, which can provide resources to support our local union in its organizing efforts.
No. Union cards are confidential, meaning that your employer (professor, lab, research centre, etc.) will not know that you have signed a union card. The personal information that you share with us is kept securely and used so that we can stay in touch with you about our organizing drive.