The role of the Ombudsperson is to be an independent, impartial, confidential, and informal resource that assists students in addressing concerns related to university decisions, policies, and procedures. The Ombudsperson is responsible for promoting fairness by helping students understand their rights and responsibilities, exploring options for resolution, facilitating communication where appropriate, and reviewing whether university processes have been applied fairly and consistently.https://www.uwo.ca/ombuds/index.html

Off-Campus Housing supports students throughout every stage of off-campus living. From rental listings to lease reviews, the service helps students find and secure suitable housing.The service also offers community engagement initiatives and resources that help students build strong neighbourhood connections and develop essential skills for independent living.https://offcampus.uwo.ca/

Western Wellness and Wellbeing support student health and wellness through appointments with a primary care physician or registered nurse.They also provide professional and confidential services, free of charge, to students needing assistance to meet their personal, social and academic goals. Services include consultation, referral, groups and workshops, as well as brief, change-oriented psychotherapy.https://www.uwo.ca/health/index.html

The University Students' Council provides on campus food support services that are available to all graduate students. https://westernusc.ca/services/food-support-services/A meal calender and list of foodbanks in London is available at this link https://www.informationlondon.ca/31/meal_calendar_food_bank_list/

Community Legal Services (CLS) is both a community legal clinic and a clinical education program, operated by the Faculty of Law at Western UniversityCLS provides free legal services to Western University students and to low-income people in the London community. Services are provided by law students who work under the supervision of experienced staff lawyers.https://law.uwo.ca/legal_clinics/community_legal_services/index.html

The Indigenous Student Centre (ISC) at Western University provides a supportive, culturally safe, and welcoming environment for Indigenous students. Recognizing that university is a time of significant personal transition, the ISC offers holistic support through specialized academic advising, financial counseling, and personal development opportunities.https://indigenous.uwo.ca/students/index.html

The School of Graduate and Postgraduate Studies offers resources of to support postdocs durign the transition to Western. https://grad.uwo.ca/postdocs/index.html

The Writing Support Centre offers year-round support to help you build confidence in your university writing. You can book a meeting with a writing advisor and get feedback on any academic or professional writing project or presentation, at any stage of the process. Their services are offered to undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty across disciplines. https://writing.uwo.ca/

Multiple reasons! Unions provide several benefits that improve employees working conditions. This includes improved wages, access to benefits, regulated hours and contracts, and increased job security. Most importantly, unions create democratic and fair workplaces, by giving workers the opportunity to come together and voice their collective and individual concerns with their employer.  These concerns can be addressed either through collective bargaining or by raising individual grievances to the employer.

A union drive is essentially a campagin to form a union for a specified group of employees. This campaign requires a union to get employees insterested in joining the union to sign cards. These cards are sort of like a peitition to demonstrate that majority of the employee group wants to unionize. In this case, we are campaigning for GSAs/GRAs to join PSAC 610.

The process for unionizing requires currently employed GSAs/GRAs to sign a membership application card. Once a majority of employees sign an application card, the union (PSAC 610) will file for certification with the Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB). If approved, the OLRB holds a secret vote, where 50% + 1 of voters must vote YES for a union to be formed. Once successful, the  OLRB will issue a certificate that allow GSAs/GRAs to form a union.

Only those with a signed Graduate Student Assistantship and Graduate Research Assistantship contract can join the union. GRFs conduct work that is related to their degree requirements and are paid with grants, scholarships, and  other non-taxable income. Because of these conditions, they are not considered employees by the Ontario Labour Relations Board and cannot unionize. If you are not sure about your contract, check out the following link: https://www.psac610.ca/general-7.

Under various Canadian laws, employers are not allowed to threaten, coerce, discriminate, make promises, impose a penalty, or do anything that stops you from making a free decision on union representation.

No, it won't. Signing a union card is confidential and will not be shared with your employer/department.

Absolutely! Anyone who currently holds an active Graduate Student Assistantship (GSA) or Graduate Research Assistantship (GRA) can join the union regardless of other contracts they may hold.

Absolutely! International students have the same rights and protections as domestic students.

We encourage anyone to join our organizing committee. You can get in touch with us at Gradworkersuwo@gmail.com. You may also contact this email for more information.

You can drop-in every Friday from 2-5 pm at Western University's Grad Club or virtually on zoom from 2:30-3:30 pm (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87920900155) to chat with the organizing committee. Alternatively, you may contact the organizing committee at gradworkersuwo@gmail.com.