Toronto Raptors support SFU teaching assistant union strike with $10K donation
Raptors player Garrett Temple spoke to picketers on Friday at SFU's downtown Vancouver campus to show support
In a show of support, Canada's only NBA team has donated $10,000 to the Simon Fraser University's Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU), who are currently on strike.
On Friday afternoon, Garrett Temple, Raptors player and vice-president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) attended picket lines at SFU's Harbour Centre campus in Vancouver, encouraging students to "continue to fight."
His visit came ahead of the NBA team's practice session at SFU's Burnaby campus on Friday evening.
"I applaud you guys for what y'all are doing. I understand the pain, I understand how much y'all do for the university," said Temple, adding he attended Louisiana State University for five years for his degree in business management.
"I'm not one of the guys that was there for six months or a year … Teaching assistants were basically everything for us."
In a statement shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, Temple shared the donation was made on behalf of the NBPA and its members on the Toronto Raptors to support TSSU's fight for a fair contract.
"We are hopeful they are soon able to return to the job they love, with a deal that respects their important contribution to student and university life," read the statement.
The Toronto Raptors are in Vancouver for a training camp and for their first pre-season game against the Sacramento Kings at Rogers Arena on Oct. 8.
Nearly 1,600 members of the TSSU, which includes teaching assistants, sessional instructors and graduate facilitators, have been on strike since Sept. 28, calling for cost-of-living adjustments, wage theft and pension for sessional instructors, in their ongoing collective bargaining efforts.
Practice session led to conversations with Raptors
For TSSU spokesperson Dalton Kamish, the support doesn't come as a surprise given NBA players are part of the NBPA union.
"Many of these players were student athletes at one point and they know how important the work of teaching assistants and sessional instructors … [are] in supporting student athletes," they said.
Kamish says interactions with the Raptors started when the union became aware of the practice session taking place at SFU's Burnaby campus.
They said the union had originally planned to picket all week in Burnaby and notified the team and NBPA of the ongoing strike.
"The event would have been behind the picket line. So the start of the conversation … was about showing solidarity with our fellow union members at TSSU and not crossing picket lines," Kamish said.
They added picket lines were later moved to the Downtown Vancouver campus following unrelated concerns from members regarding events for convocation and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
Kamish says the move shifted conversations to providing financial support for TSSU's strike fund, of which 95 per cent will go toward members' strike pay.
"TSSU has a strike pay policy to support our members … while we're losing pay. Strike pay is not a full replacement of one's wages, but is sort of a bridge so that people can pay their rent and buy groceries," they said.
"The [donation from the NBPA] is going to go a long way to keeping TSSU members housed and fed while we are taking on enormous risks right now."
Job action 'having a material effect'
Since job action began last month, Kamish says bargaining efforts have been "moving much more quickly than expected."
The union has been bargaining with SFU for 19 months since their most recent collective agreement expired on April 30, 2022.
"Our job action is having a material effect at the bargaining table … One of the things that we finally won this week is the employer removing all the concessions off the table," said Kamish.
"That's encouraging to me to see how quickly we can make progress when we show our collective power."
CBC has reached out to SFU for comment.
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With files from Liam Britten and Maurice Katz