70 fellows, researchers unionize at University of Regina

Some 70 post-doctoral fellows and non-student researchers at the University of Regina have unionized with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

After an organizing drive that began early in 2018, the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board recently issued a certification order for the union following a secret ballot vote that saw the academic workers vote 88 per cent in favour of unionizing.

The post-doctoral fellows and non-student researchers and technicians are seeking to improve their conditions of work on campus over the long term.

“There has been a dramatic rise in short-term, low-paying contract work in academia,” Marianne Jacobsen, who helped spearhead the organizing drive, said in a news release issued Monday.

Jacobsen is a post-doctoral fellow in the biology department.

“We are part of a wave of precarious academics and researchers across Canada who are unionizing to assert the value of our work and to seek better working conditions as highly educated professionals,” she said.

The workers hope to address such issues as better pay and standardized pay increments, health benefits, workplace representation, and parental leave in negotiations for a first contract with the University of Regina.

In the release, Guy Marsden, CUPE national representative, said the next steps for the union include developing concrete bargaining proposals, electing a bargaining committee, and sending a notice to bargain to the University of Regina to negotiate a first collective agreement.

He suggested if the union’s demands are met, it will help with recruitment and retention of quality researchers.