Support staff at Simon Fraser University served a 72-hour strike notice on Sept. 27 to step up bargaining action with their employer.
The Teaching Support Staff Union has been in negotiation for the past 26 months, according to spokesperson Derek Sahota.
"It is now clear that the employer at SFU will not bargain with us unless we take action," he said, noting the union's goal is not to picket but to settle a collective agreement.
"We will do everything we can to limit the impact on students, while doing what is necessary to get our employer to address critical issues facing the university," he said.
These issues, according to the union, include lack of seniority rights, minimal benefits, and pay that is less than half of what a lecturer is paid for the same work, as well as denied access to work opportunities due to "antiquated posting and awarding rules that fail to support the interdisciplinary nature of SFU's programs."
The union represents teaching assistants, distance course teachers, continuing instructors, and sessional instructors.
The union received a 90 per cent strike mandate from its approximately 1,800 members this summer.
Sahota said if an agreement is not reached, the union will begin with "small job actions" at the university.
"What we really want is for SFU to engage us in dialogue at the bargaining table so we can find solutions to the real problems that are facing the whole university at all three campuses."
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