January Update

Welcome back, and happy new year. This year will be another challenging one for APSA, and we must all be alive to this reality. In December, we met the SFU President, VPPEI and Labour Relations representatives for our semesterly meeting, and we were informed that the previous “steady state” messaging we’d received and that I’d referenced in my AGM report is no more. Bluntly, we expect SFU to lay off more APSA members in the coming weeks and months. APSA will do everything in our power to protect jobs, push for transparency from SFU senior leadership, and keep you informed. We are tracking each redundancy made by SFU and will start sharing these statistics on an ongoing basis, beginning with next month’s newsletter. The continuous slow drip of layoffs is incredibly detrimental to morale on campus, and SFU must recognise the impact their strategy is causing on productivity, efficiency, revenue generation and student experience. Please keep us informed of how job losses have directly affected the work you do at SFU so we can raise these concerns with the powers that be.

At the semesterly meeting, we also raised the matter of hybrid work. Some of you have complained about the disparity in work-from-home days and the reluctance of some managers to adopt and support remote days. President Johnson reiterated that any pushback on remote work does not come from a senior leadership directive, that APSA members are trusted professionals, and that hybrid work arrangements are encouraged at SFU if appropriate for that role. If you are experiencing any unreasonable pushback on hybrid work arrangements, please let us know so we can advocate for you in this regard.

Earlier this week, the APSA board met with Belinda Karsen from the Sexual Violence Support & Prevention Office to learn more about the crucial work they do for the SFU community. January is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and APSA is pleased to amplify this important initiative. The keynote event will take place in Halpern Centre 126 and be held online on January 22nd from 12.30 pm to 2.15 pm. You can register for the event here.

Other updates and ongoing work are as follows:

  • APSA Winter Social: Wednesday, January 15th, from 3 pm at The Study. We’ve got some new swag and have ordered more food this time, too! Hope to see you there.
  • Coffee Conversations: We will be returning in February, March, and April at Vancouver, Burnaby, and Surrey. Details will be finalised by next month’s newsletter. We are also going to look at our first remote offering sometime this year.
  • APSA Benefits Lunch & Learn: January 16th at 11.30 am. Note, this event is now full.
  • AGM Motion to Investigate Unionisation: We have already received lots of valuable feedback on this item, and the APSA board will be reviewing our options and consulting with our legal counsel in the coming weeks. We will report back as soon as possible.
  • Strategic plan, policy review and committee terms of reference: The APSA board is committed to developing a strategic plan, reviewing all APSA policies and creating terms of reference for all our committees. This work will be ongoing throughout the year.
  • GP41 Consultation: APSA was invited to provide feedback on GP41—Safe Disclosure of Wrongdoing Policy and will meet with Alison Blair and Margarita Fullerton on January 13th.
  • Employee Joint Pension Committee (EJPC): Representatives from APSA, CUPE, and Poly Party will meet on January 16th. This committee, which has been rekindled after a hiatus, is tasked with all issues related to our jointly held pension plan.
  • Joint University Affairs Committee (JUAC): This committee will meet for the third time on January 14th since it was brought back thanks to our new Basic Agreement ratified last year. This committee negotiates many non-monetary AD-10 Policies with the University.

If you have any comments or suggestions you’d like to share with the board, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at president@apsacentral.ca.

Cheers,

 

Ben