Why is UWSA not unionized?

The majority of staff associations at universities across Ontario are unionized, including the Wilfrid Laurier University, York University, Queen’s University, and The University of Western Ontario. Here at UW, the University of Waterloo Staff Association (UWSA) is one of the few exceptions, remaining an association instead of a certified trade union. 

But what are the pros and cons to a staff association compared to a union? 

University of Waterloo Staff Association (Non unionized)

The UWSA represents more than 3,000 staff members at UW, including staff who are not unionized, not casual, and non-academic appointments. The UWSA also represents the staff who work for the Faculty Association, Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association and the Graduate Student Association.

Staff hired before Oct. 26, 2022 had to opt in to UWSA membership. Since that date, new hires automatically pay dues and are part of the association. The UWSA’s dues are 0.28 per cent of a staff members’ salary. “Alongside member events, workshops, and community building, much of our time is spent advocating for staff. That includes advancing better working conditions through policy work and other engagements with the university, as well as providing direct support to individual members. We are seeing more staff reach out for that support than ever before,” said UWSA president Alyssa Kuron.

Kuron attributed this to an increasing volume of employees, along with some specific member complaints, as well as more outreach about the UWSA’s services.

“Return-to-campus and hybrid work are top concerns we’re hearing from staff, especially around inconsistent implementation of the new flexible and hybrid guidelines,” Kuron said. “We raise this regularly with the university and have also developed our own guide to flexible and hybrid work to support members.”

Kuron added that other member concerns included the university budget situation, job security, increased workload and burnout, along with increased parking costs and more.

The UWSA is not certified as a trade union through the labour board, meaning that members do not have the right to strike and do not pay into a strike fund. This also means that the UWSA does not engage in comprehensive collective bargaining, where all terms of employment are negotiated at once.

“It’s certainly not something we’re pursuing at this time,” Kuron said, on unionization. “We are intentionally structured as an association, not a union,which allows us to focus on representing staff through our memorandum of agreement with the university, which we recently strengthened to reinforce our role. Laura McDonald, communications officer at UWSA, noted that their recent Memorandum of Agreement changes has given the association more of the same powers as a union, including salary negotiations and third-party arbitration for both negotiations and association grievances.

In addition, the UWSA operates similar to a union, such as being formally recognized as the sole representative of university staff, getting equal say in approving staff employment policies, and access to labour lawyers.

McDonald said that to her knowledge, the Staff Association has never formally attempted to unionize, although external groups have tried in the past.

A staff member not affiliated with the association ran a campaign to unionize in 2001 through the Canadian Auto Workers. It was later called off. There was another attempt in 2007 by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, which went to vote and failed, with 27 per cent voting in favour (227 votes in favour, 587 against). Faculty made it to a certification vote in May 1996, but it failed, with 287 ballots marked in favour of unionization, 361 against, and four spoiled ballots. The UWSA consists of about 2,000 members and the UWSA Board consists of typically eight to ten elected directors (currently at eight), which includes chair, vice chair, treasurer, and secretary. They have monthly meetings with the operations team, including the president and support staff.

“We talk about issues related to the association specifically, such as governance, finances, staff relations, outreach, and other big topics that come up,” said Sarah Landy, UWSA chair.

The organization also holds annual members meetings where voting members are invited to attend and ask questions. Members elect new directors to the board in this meeting, review bylaw changes, as well as review the treasurer’s report and financial statements.

The history of UWSA dates back to 1969, when a steering committee was formed by staff members. By 1973, the UWSA was incorporated, and became officially recognized by the university two years later.

“The University of Waterloo values its long-standing, collaborative relationship with the UWSA, grounded in a formal Memorandum of Agreement that defines how we work together on matters affecting staff. The UWSA is the recognized representative body for staff and provides an established framework for input on policies, compensation, and workplace concerns, including formal processes for negotiation and dispute resolution,” said Lisa Yuhasz, interim chief human resources officer at UW, in a statement to Imprint. 

“While the UWSA is not a certified union, the university recognizes it within a formal framework that supports structured engagement and ongoing, collaborative dialogue. Our recently renewed agreement and memorandum of settlement reflect this ongoing partnership and our shared commitment to a positive work environment for University of Waterloo staff.”

University of Western Ontario Staff Association (Unionized)

The University of Western Staff Association (UWOSA) is an independent union and represents about 900 staff members, including administrative, clerical, technicians, drivers, and technical staff. 

UWOSA is unique in the sense that it remained independent, rather than joining a national union such as CUPE or Unifor. 

“Joining a national union has its pros and it has its cons,” noted UWOSA president Arzie Chant. “The pros are, in theory, that you might receive support from the national union, so if you’re in a position of a particularly nasty grievance, there is typically a national office you may be able to draw upon. During a strike, you may be able to get support from a national union.” 

He added that one of the benefits of being an independent union is lower dues. Current dues at UWOSA are 1.75 per cent of a staff’s salary, which Chant noted was lower than most unions. 

Members of the organization receive confidential advice for any workplace concern, officers advocating for their rights under the collective agreement, legal representation, stewards training, and a strike fund. 

Chant emphasized the importance of having a union to protect worker rights, especially as employees face increasing workloads.

“Wage theft is so rampant,” Chant said. “Employers are constantly using coercive tactics to try to force people to work unpaid overtime, to force people [without remuneration] to cover for off for colleagues that are on vacation, that are on sick leave, that have resigned, that have retired, and force them to work at higher levels of sophistication, or potentially more dangerous work, or work inviting more risk that other types. And so having a union allows us to combat that.”

He added that wage theft manifests itself in a number of ways – for example, one issue he commonly sees is if an employee retires or resigns from a position or transfers elsewhere, months and months will go by without rehiring for the position. This leaves other employees in the department to pick up increased workloads or responsibilities without any additional compensation. 

“When people can’t get the work done because of excessive volume or expectations… what happens in a non unionized environment is they get chewed out, they potentially get punished, they get made to fear for their job,” Chant said. “But in a unionized environment, when people start coming down on them, saying you have to work extra and we’re not paying you overtime. The union is there to step in and say ‘Excuse me. You do not have the right to force this person to work and to work unpaid overtime.’” 

Chant said this is different from reporting a workplace concern to the Ministry of Labour, where a worker is more likely to face reprisal for doing so. 

“In a unionized environment, reprisal is specifically prohibited under our collective agreement. And it can be severely punished if they attempt to punish people for going to the union,” Chant said. 

Article 44 of the collective agreement addresses job evaluation, which sets out the way in which a job will be evaluated and the frequency of which it will be evaluated. For example, an incumbent employee may request a job evaluation review provided there has been a significant, permanent change in the duties performed at the job. 

The majority of resolutions provided through UWOSA are informal. After a staff member voices a concern to the union, the UWOSA will either train the staff member as to how to address this with the supervisor, or request an informal meeting with the supervisor.

If that fails, they may move to the next step, which is a formal grievance, where the UWOSA would file a standard form indicating that the collective agreement has been violated, and indicates what the violation is and what the remedy is. If that failed, the UWOSA would escalate the concern to the person who oversees the faculty or department. Following that, the UWOSA would contact the head of human resources. 

“After that, if we still can’t come to an agreement, we would file for what’s called arbitration,” Chant explained.

An arbitrator is an objective third party to resolve a conflict outside of court, who evaluates the evidence and hears arguments from both sides, then comes to a firm, binding decision.

University of Guelph Professional Staff Association (Non unionized)

The University of Guelph Professional Staff Association (PSA) operates similarly to UWSA as an association, not a union. The Guelph PSA was established in 1982, and staff noted there is no record of members attempting to unionize in the past. 

“We’re a staff association, not a union,” said Sameer Al-Abdul-Wahid, chair of the PSA. “Many of us are managers, but not all of us. It’s a bit of a different environment from most of the other employee groups on campus who are unionized through USW or OSSTF or CUPE and more.”

The PSA represents about 1,200 employees, with about 960 members. The rest have opted out, or have been at the university for a long time and did not opt in. Staff hired after May 2024 are automatically opted in. Membership dues are about $10 a month (or $120 a year) through payroll deductions. 

About every three years, the Guelph PSA negotiates a compact with the university on behalf of its members, outlining policies around salaries, vacation leave, career coaching, sick leave, performance assessment, and more. 

“So that is really the largest task we will take on as a group because it touches everyone,” Al-Abdul-Wahid noted.

The Guelph PSA also hosts events such as conferences, provides staff awards with cash prizes, offers legal subsidies, as well as offers professional development resources.

Unifor 5555 (formerly McMaster University Staff Association)

The union Unifor 5555 represents some McMaster University employees, including non academic administrative, professional and technical employees, parking and transit staff, facility services and special constables. There are more than 3,400 employees represented across all six units. 

The McMaster University Staff Association (MUSA) was established as an association in 1973, and was later recognized as a certified trade union by the Labour Board of Ontario in 2000.

Emily Heikoop, president of Unifor 5555, clarified that she was not directly involved with the unionization process, but that she was able to speak to the general idea of what happened.

“One of the members in the staff association had a problem… The university recognized automatic dues checkoff for the union, and a member had a problem with that. They [said], ‘We’re not a union. You can’t take dues off my paycheque,’” Heikoop said. “Then they took MUSA to the Labour Board.

“‘The member said, ‘You can’t take dues off me. That’s what a union does.’ And the Labour Board said, ‘Absolutely. That’s what a union does. You’re walking like a duck, you’re talking like a duck, you’re a duck.’ [The Labour Board] granted them an independent charter.”

MUSA operated as an independent union for several years before being accepted for a direct charter with the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) in 2003. In 2005, MUSA members voted to join the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW).  In 2013, CAW and Communications, Energy, and Paperworkers Union of Canada merged into the union, Unifor, representing 300,000 members. 

The minimum dues that a Unifor local charges is 1.35 per cent of an employee’s salary, and locals can set dues slightly higher with approval from membership.

“For us, it’s the resources of our national union,” said Heikoop, on the difference between an association and a union. “If I need research done, the national educational department does it. Most stuff we have – grievances within the workplace, up to including arbitration, our national rep takes care of. We’re paying arbitration costs, but we’re not forking out for a lawyer on top of that.

“Then we have our pension department, health and safety, education… having all of the backup behind you… you’re not an island on your own.”

The Unifor 555 offers its members recreational events, workshops, and educational programs, such as health and safety, grievance handling.