How Concordia Workers Rebuilt their Union

On Wednesday, the Concordia Research and Education Workers Union (CREW) began an unlimited general strike. CREW represents over 2,000 teaching and research assistants at Montreal's Concordia University. 

Ninety-five percent of the union's membership voted in favour of a strike mandate in late February. The strike vote came after more than a year of contract negotiations. Negotiations came to a standstill due to the university's refusal to meet the union's primary demands.

The CREW is currently affiliated with the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN) after reaffiliating in 2023. Previously, the union was affiliated with the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

"[PSAC] were very top-down. Their advisor could go over the wishes of the bargaining committee and sort of force the union to take any deal that they felt was good enough," says Jason Langford, a member of the CREW bargaining committee.

"And they weren't going to support the members if there was ever a strike. So there was a big push for a reaffiliation to CSN. In part, it was due to the autonomy that CSN gives to all their unions and the democratic structure that we would be able to make as a new union. So, we've been crafting our demands in a very open and consultative way."

The union's primary demands include a pay rate of $45/hr to reflect industry standards, ensuring contracts hours are not cut, and a guarantee of basic job security. The university reacted to February's strike mandate by conceding on retroactive pay and indexation related to student enrollment, but their new offer didn't budge on salary demands. CREW membership voted to reject the tentative agreement.

"Even though two-thirds of members voted to reject the tentative agreement, that third who voted to ratify, many of them are still out here. Many of them are still participating and are out on the picket lines, supporting everybody. Because at the end of the day, they recognize that this is a collective decision and we're all in this together," Langford told The North Star.

"If they don't get involved, then we're in a weaker position overall. And the goal for all of us is to get a deal that ends as fast as possible so that we can get back to grading, get back to teaching and researching and have a salary that we can actually live on."

Following their reaffiliation campaign, CREW adopted a new negotation strategy called open bargaining, where any union member can join the bargaining committee in the negotiation room and sit across from their employer to observe the negotiation process. Langford emphasizes how important this strategy has become for developing union democracy:

"[Open bargaining] has been so invaluable for us as the bargaining committee just to get immediate feedback from members. And I think it's been really helpful for members too on the flip side, to know what we're dealing with and get a sense of how Concordia speaks to us and treats us like children and just always tries to minimize our demands."

"There's definitely an attitude that members get exposed to, which I think is helpful for everybody to know what's going on. So when we come into a room and talk about things, we have people who can say, 'I was there when this happened' and can share their experiences with everyone else," he explains. "It's really enabled us to feel united on this front and this struggle."

Felix Trudeau, president of the STTAL-CSN, was among the crowd on Wednesday's picket line. He spoke to the North Star about why he was there to support the CREW:

"When we had other unions come to our picket, it helped the morale a lot. It's very encouraging to see that people care about your struggle. It's really about forging links between different combative unions and making sure that we can count on each other when the going gets tough."

"As a union, you shouldn't treat a strike as something that you're completely unwilling to do. You should really treat it as your best weapon because as workers it's the fact that we can withhold our labour and the fact that we have this connection with our work that makes us powerful," says Trudeau.

"It's really telling that you can get better concessions, better conditions in your negotiations when you're actually mobilized and ready to use that weapon."

Last year, Concordia announced budget cuts of $35.8 million and enrollment reductions in response to funding cuts by the CAQ government. Langford explains how CREW's fight for better working conditions is attached to the fight against austerity within the university.

"This is a much bigger fight that touches everybody at Concordia," he says. "Students in particular feel the brunt of it, but workers in all departments, the faculty, the support staff, the techs, the librarians, everybody is feeling the pinch now. This is a really great way that TAs (teacher assistants) can feel more secure in our position here, and we can support the rest of the unions next year when we're all renegotiating together."