The Courier continues our investigation of Student Employees pursuit of unionization, and the role of Research Assistants in this process
Kate Henderson (she/they) // Crew Writer
Andrei Gueco (he/him) // Contributing Illustrator
During June of 2023, students frequenting Capilano University’s campus likely passed the sea of protesting support and administrative staff: the Local MoveUP 378 Workers Rally. Over the course of events that MoveUp Vice President Christy Slusarenko defined as “nothing short of union busting,” the CapU full-time staff protested to protect the workflow they became not only familiar, but proficient with during the COVID-19 pandemic; they protested to protect remote work in faculty collective agreement. From trying to “get [CapU Administration] back to the bargaining table” and feelings of “anger, betrayal and disappointment,” an agreement was eventually reached in August of 2023. Including everything from a flat wage increase of $0.25, wage hikes to adjust with the future costs of living, there was still no inclusion of, “contract language around remote work.” Altogether, it’s clear that MoveUp’s history with CapU is not only extensive, but in a lot of ways, strained. This strain has only grown recently with CapU Research Assistants being left out from CapU Student Employee’s application to MoveUP for unionization. The Courier spoke with student employee Niko Williamson and Research Assistant Raphaël Gasc to further investigate.
As explored in the Courier in a February 2025 piece, Student Employees Are Organizing to Join the MoveUP Union, CapU student employees are eager to improve their wages– this being more likely if student employees unionized. “I first started thinking about our need to unionize knowing Simon Fraser University (SFU) and University of British Columbia (UBC) student employees are unionized,” shares CapU Student Life employee, Niko Williamson. Through her years of work as a student employee, Williamson, “made close to two dollars above minimum [wage]” watching this trickle to, “10 cents above minimum” to now making “just minimum wage.” With the impact of the MoveUP strike in summer of 2023, CapU’s student employees spearheaded their own application to MoveUP.
Employees collected 41 cards from their pool of employees and submitted said cards on October 6, 2024. In order for the application to be approved, the number of signed cards (by student employees) has to add up to more than 45 per cent of the total employees. Williamson explains that, “the union also asked our employer to provide a confirmed list of all our student employees.” The employer, CapU Administration, provided a list to the BC Labour Relations Board that declared 108 student employees, the list generated by the student employees contained, “74 people total” Williamson clarifies. With the number from administration causing the signed cards to amount to less than 45 per cent, the application was in danger. “If our application were to bounce, it would take six months for us to be able to re-apply, so our MoveUP representative suggested we withdraw our application, a move that would allow us to keep all of our cards” Williamson shares.
So where do Research Assistants (RAs) play into this? Well, the inflation of the CapU administration’s list was due to the inclusion of RAs, whereas the student employee’s list did not include them. Why didn’t the student employees incorporate Ras in their list? The primary complication has to do with the conflict of who RAs are paid by versus how student employees are paid. RAs’ funding comes from scholarships and grants, specifically through CapU’s Creative Activity Research and Scholarship (CARS) department. This same complication of payment has contributed to RAs’ pursuit of unionization at the UBC, being taken as far as a reason to not constitute them as employees at all: their Director of University Affairs stating “the monies [Research Assistants] receive are scholarship awards and are treated as such and do not constitute wages received for work performed.”
The Courier spoke with Biology Research Assistant Raphaël Gasc, who elaborated CapU’s $1 million grant they received from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NESRC). “Last summer we set up over a hundred cameras on game trails in the Shannon RIver Basin In Squamish” Gasc shared, highlighting the field research possible with these grants. Overall, Gasc speaks positively of his work as an RA; “it’s a great way for me to maximize my time as a student, expanding my network in conjunction with school.” He doesn’t only share contentedness with the schedule and functions of his position, but also with the conditions and pay of his position; “I get paid mileage on top of my wages which makes a huge difference.” When it came to the topic of Research Assistants unionizing, Gasc shared “I didn’t feel the need.” However, when his friend Laura Morales, a student employee at the Centre for International Experience, shared about how work conditions for less fortunate student employees may only be able to improve if all student employees come together, Gasc said “knowing she’s a good friend, I trusted where this could go and what significance this [unionization] could make for future Research Assistants.”
It’s clear Research Assistants have been fighting multiple institutional barriers to unionize. In CapU’s process, it is clear there was a gap between administration’s understanding of who is defined as a student employee. This gap increases the hurdles it consistently takes to unionize within the workscape of this university. However, it is also clear that this gap does not entail CapU Student Employee’s preventing Research Assistants from unionization. Morales and Gasc plan to form a Capilano Student Union club between Research Assistants to build a community, share concerns and advocate together. “Nothing is going to get better unless there is something bigger to advocate for us,” Niko Williamson shares.