News

They changed the rules and didn't tell you - again!

Policy 30 - the policy that outlines the terms of employment for TAs - was updated as of December 13, 2022. We want to explain some of the issues we see with Policy 30 - both the process and the content - and how it would be different if we were already unionized.

Sessional Instructors Have Unionized!

We’re thrilled to announce that Sessional Instructors at the University of Waterloo are the newest members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Sessional Filing Announcement

BREAKING NEWS: The OrganizeUW Sessionals’ union campaign has filed an application to certify our union at the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB)! We've exceeded the requirement of 40% of Sessional Instructors signing union cards, demonstrating loud and clear that Sessionals at the University of Waterloo want to form a union!

Want TAs, RAs and Sessionals to be consulted in the next campus reopening? Unionize!

On January 20th, an email was sent out to the UW Employees contact list by Vivek Goel, President and Vice-Chancellor, and James W. E. Rush, Vice-President, Academic and Provost, to provide employees the chance to give feedback on the February return to campus plan. In text, the email was addressed to the UW Community. Didn't get that email as a graduate student worker (i.e., TA or RA)? Guess you aren’t considered a UW Employee.

Campaign endorsements

Campus organizations continue to pass resolutions to endorse the grassroots campaign to unionize graduate student and sessional workers at the University of Waterloo. Read on to learn more about who has supported us and how we're teaming up to spread the word across campus!

International doctoral student funding: Quick survey and award restriction info

OrganizeUW is concerned that international doctoral students are facing significant and unexpected reductions to their funding packages in their fourth year due to fine print, unclear offer letters, and apparent departmental funding shortfalls.

Health and safety info & short survey

OrganizeUW is concerned that the uWaterloo administration is not communicating relevant health and safety information to graduate student workers and sessional instructors.

The latest from OrganizeUW: Fall 2020 semester preview, reflections on organizing, and more (Interview|KitchenerToday.com)

Sara, a student organizer, was recently interviewed by Ariel Deutschmann from KitchenerToday.com, for her article ["Graduate students from UW plan to unionize"](https://www.kitchenertoday.com/local-news/graduate-students-from-uw-plan-to-unionize-2693305). They chatted about digital organizing during a pandemic, our goal to improve working and learning conditions at UW, and how unionization works. This blog post not only includes some snippets from the full KT article, but also has the latest updates from the drive, some thoughts on being an organizer, and a preview of what's to come in the Fall semester.

"UW graduate workers launch campaign to unionize" (News|The Record)

Our campaign was covered yesterday in The Record! In it, Sophia, a student organizer, is interviewed by reporter Leah Gerber on why she joined the campaign, what we hope to achieve, and why now is the right time to unionize. Here are a few highlights, and be sure to check out the [whole article](https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/2020/08/14/uw-graduate-workers-launch-campaign-to-unionize.html?utm_source=facebook&source=waterloo%20region%20record&utm_medium=SocialMedia&utm_campaign=&utm_campaign_id=&utm_content=)!

The results are in! GSA votes to support OrganizeUW

Late last month we told you about an important vote coming up on July 24th at the UW-GSA Council. Well, the results are in! Council voted in favour of the GSA supporting student-led unionization efforts. Read on to find out more!