Nomination form available for download here.

The Teaching Support Staff Union (“TSSU”) is presently accepting nominations for the position of:

Treasurer

Nominations shall close on Wednesday, April 22nd. The position is open to any member in good standing.

All candidates must submit the completed nomination form, along with a brief candidate statement, to the Trustees at trustees@tssu.ca.

The voting period opens on Thursday, April 23rd, and will close on Wednesday, April 29th.

This will commence the unfair ballot contestation period, which will be open until May 3rd.

You will receive a token to vote by email -- if you do not receive a token, or you believe you were sent one in error, please contact trustees@tssu.ca. Click here for a more detailed description of the Treasurer role.

• Burnaby: April 15, 12:00 - 4:00 pm in AQ 5135
• Surrey: April 16, 12:00 to 4:00 pm in SRYC 5060
• Vancouver: April 22, 12:00 to 4:00 pm in HC 2250

Melissa Radford has been re-elected to the position of Chief-Steward Organizer with 196 votes in favour and 27 opposed

Ciaran Irwin has been re-elected to the position of Trustee 2 with 184 favour and 36 opposed.

For more information on the election process please contact Xuesong Bai at trustee@tssu.ca and any protest alleging an unfair ballot can be forward to the executive at exec@tssu.ca, pursuant to Bylaw E.1.5.

As always, if you are interested in getting involved including running for any positions or joining a committee, please email tssu@tssu.ca.

Nominations Form available for download here

The Teaching Support Staff Union (“TSSU”) is presently accepting nominations for the
positions of:

Chief Steward-Organiser - Treasurer - Ex-Officio - Trustee II

Nominations shall close at the February 25th, 2026 General Meeting. All positions are open to any
member in good standing.
All candidates must submit this completed nomination form to Trustee I by email
(trustee@tssu.ca). Candidates must submit a brief candidate’s statement by no
later than Monday, March 4th, following closing of nominations.

You will receive a token to vote by email -- if you do not receive a token, or you believe you were sent one in error, please contact trustee@tssu.ca. Click here for a more detailed description of the executive committee.

Election period will open on March 9th, and close on March 17th. Unfair ballot period will be open March 18th-24th.

We´ll be making Popcorn!

Surrey: SRYC 3290, Dec 10, Burnaby: AQ 5135, Dec 11, Vancouver: HC 7050.2, Dec 15 from (12 - 4 pm)

The 126-page ruling delivers long-awaited clarity in a dispute that has spanned years. It affirms that GSRAs are entitled to the full rights of employees, including the Charter-protected Freedom of Association, and are now officially members of the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU).

"The relationship between GSRAs and the Employer is the type of relationship the Code intends to regulate," the decision states. "The purposes of the Code and Charter values — dignity, autonomy, equality, and democracy — are advanced by putting employees, namely the GSRAs, on a more equal level with their employer, namely the University, through the process of collective bargaining."

The ruling also confirms that SFU is "in the business of research," and that GSRAs are essential to its success:

"There can be no real doubt that the University is in 'the business of research'… the work necessary to achieve the success of the University’s research enterprise… does not get done without GSRAs."

This decision marks a major victory for TSSU, where the Research is Work campaign has been organizing research assistants for over two decades and publicly advocating for their recognition since 2019. It sets a precedent for universities across Canada and affirms the value of academic labour.

Dr. Derek Sahota, SFU PhD in Physics, longtime GSRA,  and TSSU Senior Member Representative:

"This is a breakthrough for everyone who values research, public education, and workers’ rights. It’s a testament to the courage and persistence of thousands of research workers who refused to back down in the face of enormous opposition.The mountain of evidence we built over nearly two decades of organizing was overwhelming and the board ruled emphatically that research is work."

Melissa Radford, SFU MSc in Chemistry, longtime GSRA, and TSSU Organizer:

"This decision means the end of working full-time in a lab and seeing $2/hr on your paycheque. It’s life changing — for me and for my labmates. SFU can no longer rely on the exploitation of cheap labour to underpin a multi-million dollar enterprise."

SFU has spent millions of dollars and countless hours opposing its own research workers. With this ruling, the Labour Board has delivered the "clarity and finality" needed to move forward. The University must now accept this new reality and bargain with workers to build a system that delivers rights, fair pay and benefits for research workers. Doing so is a necessary step not just to respect fundamental rights,  but also to build sustainable research universities for the whole country.

Dr. Merissa Schneider-Coppolino, SFU PhD in Chemistry and longtime GSRA:

"I started working on this campaign in 2019, and there were times it felt like this day might never come. It’s beautiful to see what we’ve always known — research is, and has always been, work”.

TSSU calls on SFU leadership to respect the ruling and seize this moment as a leadership opportunity — to build a productive future by bargaining with research workers, and to position the University and British Columbia as national leaders in labour rights, research, and innovation.

Read the decision here: https://www.lrb.bc.ca/decisions

Today is a day that has been far too long in coming, but a major turning point in the struggle for rights for research workers across Canada.

The Labour Relations Board (LRB) has ruled: graduate student RAs are workers and now included in TSSU's certification. We were right all along.

This decision has been built on the work of decades of organizing and efforts by generations of researchers. RAs first organized in 2018, built upon that in a 2019 campaign that resulted in a voluntary recognition agreement, and finally organized again in 2023 when SFU violated that agreement time and time again.

The testimony from research workers and written evidence we were able to put before the LRB through the dedicated work of our legal team of Emily Wunder, Will Clements, Kayla Hilstob, Liam Kennedy-Slaney and Derek Sahota, was overwhelming. The decision by the LRB emphatic.

The LRB noted:

• many research groups required full-time work, talked about schedules and duties in writing which are cited directly in the decision;
• that research work benefited both the University and the graduate student RA, and that was well known;
• that health and safety impacts were real and significant, as demonstrated by a grad student research worker who suffered a serious brain injury on the job and was covered worksafe BC.

Today we celebrate, and starting tomorrow the University must work to bargain fair wages and benefits for graduate student RAs who have been denied them for decades. We'll send information out this weekend on information sessions to be held next week.

The University can still decide to appeal, but nearly 6 years to the day after they approached us for a voluntary recognize all RAs as union members, we think it is time our University stops spending millions on lawyers and legal fights and instead comes to grip with the reality that its research enterprise depends on graduate student RAs, and it must deliver the rights, benefits, and pay those workers deserve.

It's official. Research is work.

In Solidarity,

Derek Sahota
Senior Member Representative, TSSU

Kayla Hilstob
Chief Steward TSSU