May Update
Since last month’s newsletter, we have been focused on the upcoming involuntary layoffs the University has decided to carry out. So far this calendar year, 18 continuing APSA members have lost their jobs through position elimination, and we are anticipating this number to increase threefold very soon – there have also been numerous temporary APSA positions that have not been renewed. The University was unable to give any guarantees when I asked whether this would be the last of the redundancies for APSA roles and said only that they hoped it would be. Our primary concern in the coming days is to support and represent every member who will be losing their job, and we have made the necessary preparations to ensure we have the capacity to do this. We will send out another update next week with more details.
For now, here are some of the actions we have taken:
- I am pleased to welcome Caitlyn Moony, who will be helping out Tracey, Lakshmi and Andrew over the next few weeks
- The APSA Advocacy Team and some board directors have also been readied to ensure we have effective APSA representatives for all members affected during the University’s restructuring
- We will be holding multiple conversations with the board sessions at all campuses later this month and will have details of the return of the annual APSA gathering event soon
- Continued dialogue with the University, legal counsel and other impacted labour groups
If you have any immediate advocacy concerns, please contact our APSA team, and if you need to talk to someone, we all have access to the free and confidential SFU Employee and Family Assistance Program too.
Thank you,
Ben