CREW continues to fight for higher wages
TAs and RAs are bargaining with Concordia to increase their wages to $45 an hour
The Concordia Research and Education Workers Union (CREW) is continuing its fight to increase wages for its members.
In 2024, the union held several special general meetings, town halls, bargaining surveys and rallies, and the fight is still ongoing in the new year.
CREW started the semester with a general assembly on Jan. 30 to discuss wages and a new collective agreement.
On Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, CREW also held its pizza party where the union updated its members on negotiations with the university.
The new collective agreement demands higher wages, job security, no unpaid work hours, and stronger member protection for workers who report grievances or engage in political action outside of work. The demands also call for Concordia to index the hours of teaching assistants (TAs) to enrolment rates and to implement a priority system guaranteeing minimum contract duration. According to CREW, these measures ensure workers can be protected from austerity measures while working sufficient hours to make ends meet.
Jason Langford is a master’s student in history and a member of the CREW Union Bargaining Committee. Langford and his fellow union members are involved in negotiations with the university for the collective agreement.
Langford claims that due to an institutional oversight by the Concordia University administration, TA contracts for the fall semester ended on Dec. 6, before the exam period.
“We found ourselves in a situation where a lot of people would be asked or were planning to [be asked], based on their supervisor’s expectation, to be working past their contract end dates, which is illegal,” Langford said.
In response, CREW countered the unpaid work periods and won five per cent of their total contract hours in wages as indemnity in the 2024 fall semester.
Concerning current work conditions, Langford explained that the common complaint from the majority of CREW members is the increased workload for TAs with no pay increases.
“Not enough TAs are being assigned to particular classes, so TAs are having to mark more with sometimes less hours, so having to take less time per student, and that creates a pretty stressful environment for a lot of people,” Langford said. “The situation with [research assistants (RAs)] is very similar, people feel overworked and underpaid.”
Currently, Concordia’s TAs make $29 an hour compared to McGill’s $36.26 hourly wage, and $42.95 at the University of British Columbia. The largest wage gap is with the University of Toronto’s TA rate of $51.93 an hour.
CREW’s current bargaining slogan, “Fight for $45!” is a shorthand for the union’s demand for a collective agreement that lasts until May 31, 2028. This demand asks for an adjustment of wages to a larger percentage or the rate of inflation in Montreal. The aim is to ensure a wage of over $45 per hour by June 1, 2025.
Langford explained that CREW gave Concordia their monetary demands on Dec. 2 without receiving a counteroffer since. The university responded that they would request conciliation before providing a counteroffer to avoid presenting an inflammatory offer.
The wages of Concordia TAs and RAs have trailed general inflation in Montreal by 7.5 per cent since their last raise in June 2022. An inflammatory offer would be considered something below the rate of inflation, or none whatsoever, Langford explained.
According to Langford, the Jan. 30 union meeting resulted in the adoption of a pressure tactics motion.
Langford said he finds it outrageous that, in this economy, it has become a norm for many TAs and RAs to work multiple other jobs as well as focus on their coursework. Despite providing labour essential to courses and professors, these workers are forced to wait for the university’s response.
“It creates a situation where people feel stressed, burnt out and ultimately need to extend the amount of time that it takes them to finish their degrees,” Langford said. “The situation with our pay and our working conditions keeps us stuck in a cycle of limbo.”
Becca Wilgosh is a geography PhD student who has organized with CREW since its inception. Wilgosh expressed the need for protections for workers who seek to resolve workplace problems, particularly for international student TAs whose graduation and future in Canada rely on their supervisor’s support.
“Some [TAs] face emotional abuse or manipulation, covert racism, sexism, ableism and immense overwork,” Wilgosh said, “but their situation is so precarious that they don’t want to pursue any sort of formal resolution for fear they will become known as difficult and all their relationships in their department will be ruined.”
According to Concordia spokesperson Julie Fortier, the university does not comment on confidential matters related to union-employer discussions.
Fortier added, “[Concordia is] hopeful that we will come to an agreement that addresses the needs of both the union members and the university.”
The Link’s news editor Geneviève Sylvestre and sports editor Jared Lackman-Mincoff are teaching assistants and had no involvement in this article.
This article originally appeared in Volume 45, Issue 9, published February 11, 2025.
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