Organize UWaterloo

The Committee to Organize UWaterloo (aka OrganizeUW or OUW) is a grassroots campaign to unionize the academic workers at the University of Waterloo (UW). It was started in March 2020 by a group of graduate students hoping to make Waterloo a better place to work.

Since then, the movement has had great success. In separate votes, both sessional instructors and graduate TA/RA workers have overwhelmingly voted to unionize, receiving certification from the Ontario Labour Relations Board!

While the card-signing and voting campaign is now over, OrganizeUW remains involved in the process of getting our new union up and running.

OrganizeUW is proudly supported by the Canadian Union of Public Employees. With over 715,000 members nation-wide, CUPE is Canada's largest union and a leader in the post-secondary education sector in Ontario and across Canada.

Our new union looks forward to continuing to collaborate with advocacy organizations in the UWaterloo area, including the UW Graduate Students’ Association (GSA). The GSA provides many services and events for UW graduate students. For more information about the GSA, please follow this link.

The primary aim of the organizing committee is:

To build an inclusive OrganizeUW where human rights are built into everything we do, including in how we operate our current drive and what we plan for our future union local. By focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusion we hope to make our spaces open, diverse, fair, equitable, representative, and ultimately incompatible with white supremacy and patriarchy. Only by ensuring full, meaningful, and equitable chances for everyone to participate in our grassroots group can we hope to build a successful union movement that will truly improve the lives of everyone at UW.

The principles and goals for this campaign have been outlined by the OUW Committee for Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and can be found in full here.