Queen’s-PSAC 901 agreement ratified by both bodies

Union will advertise new benefits among its members 

Image by: Curtis Heinzl
PSAC 901 expressed solidarity with other campus unions.

On Mar. 19, Queen’s ratified a new collective agreement with graduate student workers following PSAC 901’s ratification of the agreement on Mar. 8. 

“We had overwhelming success with the ratification vote, and then it went on to Queen’s and they also ratified it,” Astrid Hobill, president of PSAC 901, said in an interview with The Journal

PSAC 901 last went to the bargaining table in 2018. 

“We were really excited, because we did actually get paid sexual violence prevention training as well as paid anti racism training that will be provided to our membership,” Hobill said. 

“We also were able to achieve a new mental health fund and hardship fund, which we can administer to our members over the next couple years.”

Along with these changes in the collective agreement, there’s “new language” surrounding the accommodations process for graduate student workers. 

“We’ve also expanded the definitions of family to be more inclusive within the collective agreement. We have better accommodation processes,” Hobill said. 

PSAC 901 will be diligent when it comes to advertising the new benefits. 

“[We’ll] do education campaigns around what we have gotten, and reminding members of their rights as well as some of the things that they can achieve,” Hobill said. 

“We’re going to be doing a lot of education about the mental health fund because we want to make sure that workers who need it have access to that funding— and will be able to seamlessly apply for that by September.”

PSAC 901 stands in solidarity with other campus unions still in the bargaining process. 

“Queen’s [needs] to do better because as workers, we always deserve a safe and healthy workspace and Queen’s needs to be providing that to us,” Hobill said. 

“The only way that we were able to achieve all of these goals was through the mobilization of our membership and through their engagement. We have to thank all of our engaged members who came out to rallies came out came to town halls, engaged with the process.”

Tags

agreement, bargaining, PSAC 901

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