Why OrganizeUW?
The union drive to organize academic workers at the University of Waterloo.
The University of Waterloo is one of the last universities in Canada without a union for graduate student teaching assistants, research assistants, technicians, post-doctoral fellows, and other academic research and teaching staff.
The lack of a union has meant diminished ability to affect your working conditions or get fair wages. It has meant lower health and safety protocols, unclear or inconsistent hiring processes, unchallenged harassment, lack of support for mental health, widespread overwork/burnout, and having to deal with problems at work alone.
The only way to address these issues and advance the rights of graduate student and other academic workers on campus is to organize a union and negotiate a collective agreement with the university.
Goals for the future union are:
- Fairness: Transparency, clarity, and standards at work
- Equity: Enforceable protections for all
- Security: Job security and clear rules for access to work
- Safety: A safe and healthy workplace
- Respect: Recognition as essential academic workers
- Support: Proper training and supervision
- Dignity: Improved mental health supports
- Democracy: A collective voice for TAs, RAs, and Sessionals over working conditions
Together, we can make the University of Waterloo a better space for academic workers.
Are you ready to take action to improve your workplace?
Committee to Organize UWaterloo
supported by CUPE
The Committee to Organize UWaterloo is a grassroots campaign to unionize the academic workers at the University of Waterloo. The campaign is supported by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Canada's largest union.