OrganizeUW News

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.

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

See the statements sessional instructors made in favor of voting yes for a union.

See what many of Organize UW's volunteers had to say about why they got involved in our grassroots union drive, and how we think our union will make a difference.

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!

This article in The Breach powerfully shows how the cost-of-living crisis, alongside long-standing mistreatment of student workers, are inspiring student-workers across Canada to unionize - in UBC, SFU, Dalhousie, and of course, our movement in UW.

The Community Edition profiles Organize UW, with organizers explaining the motivation and current state of the drive, as well as the precarity, cost-of-living crisis, and neglect pushing us to organize for a better workplace.

Three graduate student organizers just published an Op-Ed in Imprint, the UWaterloo student newspaper, in which they discuss an important question: ‘Does UW have a Teaching Assistant problem?’ (Spoiler alert - the answer is yes). click here to read an excerpt and the link to the full opinion piece!

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.

An editorial by OrganizeUW volunteer Nolan Shaw in Imprint, Waterloo's campus newspaper, describes the impacts of anti-labor legislation on sessionals and student workers - and what we can do to resist these anti-worker and undemocratic actions.