Service Agreements

The Public Service Alliance of Canada Prairie Region welcomes the opportunity to support Academically Employed graduate students,  through recently signed service agreements. We are working with each of the below groups to provide services that assist them with core representational issues that include but are not limited to collective bargaining and representation.

University of Lethbridge Graduate Student Workers:

"As a union, we came into existence when the Alberta Post-Secondary Learning Act (95(2)(f.1)) was amended in 2017. This amendment names the University of Lethbridge Graduate Student’s Association as the bargaining agent for academically employed graduate students at the University of Lethbridge. The union bylaws were filed in accordance with and approved by the Labour Relations Board of Alberta in May of 2018. We have around 350 members who engage in teaching and research assistant work in addition to their graduate student work, at the University of Lethbridge. In 2021, we signed a service agreement with PSAC and appreciate the added strength at the bargaining table with the professional bargainer provided to us by PSAC. The education and financial resources PSAC provides to our union has aided our organization’s maturation and development. We look forward to our continued work with PSAC as we proceed to represent our members during our current collective bargaining process and beyond to strengthen the support of our members in their workplace." - University of Lethbridge Labour Relations Committee

University of Calgary Graduate Student Workers:

"Despite originally not being recognized as a union, the Graduate Student Association (GSA) of the University of Calgary has had an employment agreement in place between graduate student workers and the University of Calgary dating back long before changes to the Post-Secondary Learning Act in 2017.  As a result of those changes, the GSA became the exclusive bargaining unit for academically employed graduate students at the University of Calgary, and gained protections under the Alberta Labour Code and the right to strike.  As with other graduate student associations in Alberta, the GSA created the Labour Relations Committee (LRC) to handle labour related issues of graduate students.  In the summer of 2021, the LRC successfully advocated for the GSA to sign a service with PSAC to better support its members." - University of Calgary Labour Relations Committee

University of Alberta Graduate Student Workers:

"The GSA became a trade union in 2017 and represents between 2500-3500 members at any point in time (it fluctuates given the time of year). While we were granted trade union status in 2017, the GSA has negotiated a collective agreement for academically employed graduate students long before that, as we saw the need for certain rights and protections for this subset of our members. As a union we represent academically employed graduate students under contracts as Graduate Teaching Assistants, Graduate Research Assistants, and Graduate Research Assistantship Fellowships. Our workers are central to the University of Alberta's mission to teach and discover 'whatsoever things are true."- University of Alberta Labour Relations Committee