Labour peace closer as UBC support staff including tutors reach tentative deal

VANCOUVER – A tentative agreement between the University of B.C. and a local of the Canadian Union of Public Employees has moved universities in the province one step closer to labour peace.

More than 2,000 teaching assistants, tutors, markers and English language instructors, members of CUPE Local 2278 at UBC, will be voting on the proposed deal in the coming days.

That puts an end to CUPE negotiations at the post-secondary institution because all three CUPE locals, including support staff, have now reached contracts.

Thousands of CUPE members in more than a dozen locals have been involved in negotiations at universities and colleges across the province.

They have settled with two-per cent raises in the third and fourth years of their contracts.

Only CUPE Local 3338 at Simon Fraser University is currently without a contract in the province’s universities sector.