Our Union was the first legally recognised union of TAs in North America. In 1973, the University Administration recommended a 6% salary increase for academic staff and we were not included. The Graduate Students’ Union tried to get the University Administration to bargain with them, but the Administration refused. And so, on June 6, 1973 a group of 7 TAs met to form what later became CUPE 3902. Together with a band of committed volunteers and with the generous financial support of the GSU, they organized to form a trade union, the first for student academic workers in Canada.

Before we organized ourselves into a Union at the UofT, there were some 444 pay categories for us. In some departments, we were paid by the hour, in others by papers marked. Some of us worked for as little as a dollar a year! We could be fired without cause, and we had no avenue for appeal. Hiring was, in many cases, an exercise in patronage.

The drive for a Union first met with success at Victoria College. The TAs at Victoria were granted a certificate as Local One, Graduate Assistants’ Association (GAA). Since the Arts Departments were transferred from the Colleges to the University in 1974, the Victoria unit ceased to have any employees. As a result, a Collective Agreement was never entered into and representation rights lapsed. At the same time, the centre of energy shifted to the main UofT campus. We were certified, as Local Two, GAA, in 1975 after a long legal battle and a certification vote.

In our first Collective Agreement, we reduced the 444 pay categories to three, and ensured that everyone working as a TA or instructor was fairly paid. Hiring procedures were established and a grievance procedure was formulated to solve problems and to settle disputes and differences of opinion between TAs and course instructors and the Administration.

At the same time, TAs and sessional lecturers were organizing at York (now Local 3903 of CUPE) and Ryerson (3904). The Union grew rapidly, if chaotically, in those early years, organizing TAs at Lakehead (3905), TAs and contract faculty at McMaster (3906), and graduate assistants at OISE (3907). In 1980, the union renamed itself the Canadian Union of Educational Workers (CUEW). CUEW eventually organized contract faculty at Trent (3908), TAs and student instructors at Manitoba (3909), contract faculty at Ottawa (which disaffiliated in 1992), and contract faculty at Athabasca (3911).

By the early 1990s, the National Union had grown to be the dominant union in its field—part-time academic employees in the post-secondary sector. New organizing drives were launched which yielded two more locals—Dalhousie (3912) and Guelph (3913). There were more demands from other TAs and sessional and part-time lecturers for organizing drives.

However, the National Union had entered a financial and leadership crisis which resulted in merger discussions with CUPE. By joining the largest public sector union in Canada, we are now part of a much more powerful and politically active organization which has resources far beyond those of CUEW. Although we have a similar degree of autonomy locally as we did under CUEW, we now have a higher national profile, and can join with other CUPE locals in the university sector to improve the situation for student academic workers across the nation.

Since joining CUPE, our Local has engaged in several activities, with substantial financial support from our National Union. We fought the ejection of international students from the OHIP system. Although we eventually lost this fight, our intervention helped to reduce the price and increase the coverage of the private for-profit UHIP system which international students are required to purchase. We continue to try to press the UofT to pay these premiums as part of the Collective Agreement. More recently, we fought against changes to the Employment Insurance system that made most of our members ineligible for EI even though all pay into the system.

We have signed thirteen Collective Agreements with the UofT for what is now Unit 1 since we organized. On three occasions, we had to strike to achieve a fair contract. In January 2000, our four-week strike got us an additional subsequent appointment for PhD candidates (all of our job security improvements have come through strike action), a doubling of the dental rebate, progressive discipline, improved training/professional development, improved overwork language, wage increases better than the other contracts negotiated that year at the UofT, and major improvements to guaranteed graduate funding.

The strike in January 2000 centred on the issue of tuition fees. While we were unable to achieve tuition fee waivers or reductions, our actions at the bargaining table and on the picket lines created the political momentum for major changes that began in 2001. The creation of real funding packages that all grad students can count on had been proposed by CUPE 3902 and the GSU for many years. But only through our strike was the UofT forced to take action. In 2001-2002, we were able to get these funding guarantees written into the Agreement. While the new funding arrangements are not ideal from our perspective (for instance, they exclude senior PhD students), they do represent a major improvement to the funding structure at the UofT. Our members who took to the picket lines can be very proud of this achievement.

In the last round of Unit 1 bargaining (2005-06), we used an 82% strike vote as leverage to get our first Unit 1 healthcare plan, an increase in Masters’ wages to PhD rates, near-parity of instructor rates with sessional rates, and new childcare and tuition fee funds.

Starting in 1997, the Union began to work with non-student instructional staff to join CUPE 3902. After two applications, and an extended process in front of the Ontario Labour Relations Board, sessionals finally certified in the summer of 2004 with nearly 90% in favour of joining. Just prior to the issuance of the sessionals’ certificate, the Union worked with contract instructional staff at Victoria University, successfully certifying in the summer of 2004 with only 2 votes cast against the Union. Both of these units negotiated a first contract in 2004-2005, and a second contract in 2006-2007.

All of the improvements in wages and working conditions at the UofT over the past 30 years have required hard work and sacrifice. We can learn the lessons from the past as we prepare to make further gains in the future. 2007-2008 is a preparation year for what could be a very eventful round of bargaining for Unit 1 when our contract expires in April of 2008. Your participation will be crucial!