More than 55 per cent of graduate research assistants at the University of British Columbia have signed union cards as of May 11, according to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
The card signings mean the union — whose CUPE 2278 chapter already represents teaching assistants and invigilators at UBC — will officially also represent graduate research assistants under B.C.’s single-step union certification process, pending an objection from the university at the B.C. Labour Relations Board.
In its submission to the LRB, UBC argued graduate research assistants are not employees in the traditional sense, and that their compensation — in the form of scholarships — do not constitute wages. Union officials have said
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