Graduate teaching assistants at Western have agreed to a new three-year contract with the university. The 2,000 graduate teaching assistants, members of Public Service Alliance of Canada, Local 610, voted on Thursday and Friday to endorse a tentative agreement the negotiating teams reached on April 20 with the help of a mediator.
Ratification will also require approval from Western’s Board of Governors.
The deal would provide hourly wage increases, as well as non-monetary improvements, and would be retroactive to September 1, 2017. Details of the contract will not be released publicly until after the Board of Governors has had an opportunity to vote.
Graduate teaching assistants are part-time employees who assist professors and undergraduate students in lectures, tutorials, labs, exams and other areas, while also studying towards advanced degrees.