Re: Faculty Letter of Support for TSSU RA Union Drive

I actually agree with both Behraad and Jeremy on the elements of RA work that need to be carefully considered, and share the concerns about what it can do for students' own work and for morale. That said, I still think that a union is a good idea for the students. Yes, a union would need to take into account the role that we play as mentors and not turn all their RA work into "employment" that is completely separate from their dissertation work (or, more broadly, in their role as students that are here to learn), but I do not see why a union couldn't do that. Again, I think students need to be careful what demands they put forward, but certainly they should have some way of putting some conditions and limitations on what is expected of them at a $20K/year salary.

Perhaps there are "other ways to end abuses," but we haven't found it for them, and this is a mechanism at their disposal to make us confront the abuses some of them face.

I will leave it there for now, as I am not sure how appropriate it is for us to be discussing these issues ahead of their vote. If they make a decision to unionize, it is my hope that the organizers will engage faculty so that we can share these concerns with them and that we can collectively find a path forward that ends abuses while ensuring a healthy and productive research culture for students and faculty alike.

Juan Pablo Alperin
Assistant Professor, Publishing
Associate Director, Public Knowledge Project
Director, Scholarly Communications Lab
Simon Fraser University

On Fri, 1 Nov 2019 at 11:56, Jeremy Venditti <jeremy_venditti@sfu.ca> wrote:

Hi all,

I agree with Behraad for somewhat different reasons.

I also hire many RAs each term. In my research group, the work the RAs do is generally their own thesis work, guided by me to satisfy the grants they are funded under. If we move to a unionized model, where RAs work hours for me as the PI, their thesis work becomes something separate. I think that is bad for the students.

I worked in a lab as a graduate student where RA hours were worked and logged, then thesis work was done separately. It was hard to get thesis work done, completion times were horrible, and moral very low.

We should find other ways to end abuses.

Jeremy Venditti
Professor

School of Environmental Science &
Department of Geography
Faculty of Environment
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby BC, Canada
Cell: 604.767.2247
twitter: @VendittiLab
jeremy_venditti@sfu.ca
www.sfu.ca/~jvenditt/

From: Behraad Bahreyni <bba19@sfu.ca>
Sent: Friday, November 1, 2019 9:48 AM
To: Enda Brophy; academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Subject: RE: Faculty Letter of Support for TSSU RA Union Drive

Dear Enda,

I think this is a terrible development. I am certain all of our faculty members want the best situation for our RAs. However, when a faculty member has a large group of RAs (many have more than 10) that they are supporting through grants whose success rates are around 5-20% that you plan for years to get and had to talk to 10 companies so that maybe one goes along with you, you need to be able to stay on the agenda for your research. You cannot lose momentum in research in many fields as there is global competition. Many certainly do not want their research to be disrupted because of the problems at other units. In many other cases, spending 20 hours a week on research for an RA is not even close to enough to get them to a level that they can publish results. If it goes through, this unionization will severely harm the research competitiveness of SFU. We will soon after lose our faculty members, will be unable to bring in the ones with potential, and the quality of our applicants will go down hill after that.

Thank you.

From: Enda Brophy <ebrophy@sfu.ca>
Sent: Friday, November 1, 2019 9:18 AM
To: academic-discussion@sfu.ca
Subject: Faculty Letter of Support for TSSU RA Union Drive

Dear colleagues,

As you may have heard, RAs here at SFU are seeking to unionize with the TSSU. I support this decision and hope that they are successful in this drive. I’m also hoping that as SFUFA members we can support their effort.

A public letter of support from faculty for the union drive was published earlier this week. You can read it here.

Please do consider signing the letter (there’s a form at the bottom to fill out if you want to sign) and circulating it to other members of faculty and/or librarians across the university who you think are likely to sign.

All the best,

Enda

Enda Brophy

Associate Professor | School of Communication

Associate | Labour Studies
Simon Fraser University | K9662
8888 University Dr., Burnaby, B.C. V5A 1S6

E: ebrophy@sfu.ca | T: 778-782-8085 | www.cmns.sfu.ca

Simon Fraser University lies on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and Kwikwetlem (kʷikʷəƛ̓əm) Nations.