From left to right: Jason (BC member), Stephen F (BC member), Isabelle (Art History TA), Alexis (Art History TA), Tori (BC member), Emilie (Geography TA), Sneha (Film Studies TA), Basak (Zoom; Industrial Engineering TA), BeN (That's me!), Sohail (Humanities RA), Nathan (Anthropology RA), Lauren (History RA), Ria (Bargaining Officer), Navid (Political Science TA), Fabrizio (English TA), Marcus (Philosophy TA), Stephanie (Geography TA), Stephen G (Political Science TA), Rob (Communications RA), Sébastien (FNEEQ Advisor), Althea (History RA)
Bargaining Newsletter #9 :
Concordia works because WE do.
Over the Fall 2024 Semester, CREW’s Bargaining Committee achieved huge wins on several non-monetary negotiation topics, including:
Protections against physical and psychological hazards in the workplace
Safeguards against TA overwork
Expansion of paid training for TAs and RAs
And more
CREW Turns Up the Heat at the Table
TAs and RAs deserve to be paid fairly for the essential work we do. We deserve a pay rise that addresses rampant inflation, is competitive with other Canadian universities, and meets our needs so we can focus on our academic careers. We deserve jobs we can rely on semester-to-semester and year-to-year. And we deserve to be safeguarded against cuts to our hours that make overwork the norm. We deserve all of this, and soon – and we reject Concordia’s inflammatory delay tactics.
We know what we deserve, and we are ready to fight for it.
Join us in the room! Sign up for Open Bargaining today!
Collective Power in Action
We also have an exciting update about a member–led initiative to take a stand against a systemic issue at Concordia: TAs working past the end date of our contracts. Each year, usually during exam season, we are pressured to perform unpaid and unprotected work despite no longer being legally employed. Already struggling to make ends meet, we are forced to adapt to employer disorganization without remedy.
This past fall, CREW members across multiple departments worked together to refuse unpaid contract extensions. Thanks to their efforts, we have won a meaningful concession from Concordia: TAs who worked past their end date are entitled to extra pay equal to 5% of their contract’s total hours. Eligible TAs: claim your payment by filling out this form by January 17, 11:59pm.
This success doesn’t fix every problem at Concordia, and we still have work ahead of us at the bargaining table and beyond. But it does show that when we act in union, we can win our demands and improve our working conditions collectively.
WHEN WE UNITE & FIGHT, WE WIN!
On December 2, CREW issued our monetary demands that would see us making over $45/hr by June 1, 2025. Concordia’s initial response was to sow mistrust and tell us that hardworking and underpaid TAs and RAs should bear the costs of the administration’s financial mismanagement.
Throughout December, the Bargaining Committee – with the powerful support of members like you – made it clear that we expect a counter-offer that addresses the reality of the cost of living in Montreal. However, just before the holidays, Concordia responded that their reality is “a chasm apart” from ours. Concerned that their counter-offer will be “too inflammatory,” they have refused to even give us a number, to discuss job security, or to address mass cuts to TA hours without a third-party conciliator present.