We have recently received some great news from SFU.
Tess Williams and APSA have been advocating for gender-affirming care for members since our last round of negotiations in 2022. We gave previous updates on both SFU's commitment to gender-affirming care coverage and to proactively complete preliminary work to provide a basic suite of gender-affirming benefits with our benefits carrier, Pacific Blue Cross. In a letter on August 1, 2024, Chris Hatty, Executive Director, Human Resources and Labour Relations, wrote to us:
APSA has finally received the agreed-upon mediated recommendations for the Basic Agreement.
[To ratify these amendments, here is what's planned. On August 20, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., we will hold an information session on the changes so you can speak to the main committee members who helped secure these amendments. Please look out for an email with more details and a link to register for the session.
Learn more about the Basic Agreement:
Current Basic Agreement
Ratification Updates
Left Behind: The Impact of Job Cuts
In 2023 and 2024, the Canadian and American job market faced a large number of job layoffs, and SFU was no exception. In May, SFU laid off approximately 100+ workers, which included people from APSA, CUPE, TSSU and APEX. For the APSA members who lost their jobs, many were caught off guard by the lay offs and didn't feel treated like valuable employees of SFU. Their treatment, as reported to us, felt as if they were being fired for cause and not position eliminated for reasons beyond their control.
APSA and SFU are currently confirming that we are both working with the correct Basic Agreement document with all the agreed upon and mediated changes. The Board of Governors for SFU have agreed to the mediated recommendations and we will be announcing further information sessions and voting dates to ratify the changes to APSA's Basic Agreement with SFU. Please look out for any further communications on this in your email.
Please warmly welcome these new APSA members who have joined us in the past month.
Backer, Rachel
Agritech Partnerships Manager
New to SFU
SFU Partnerships Hub
VPR VP Research Summary
Barba Lorenzo, Maria
Coordinator, Faculty Affairs
SFU Budget
On April 16, the University sent a message to all staff on their financial challenges and presented their forecasted balanced budget for 2024-2025 in their 2024–25 Budget Book.
SFU has released their actuals for the 2023-2024 fiscal year, which we are including here.
What Happened with the 2023-2024 Budget?