Veteran mediator Vince Ready has been called in to mediate an ongoing labour dispute that disrupted the first day of classes at Simon Fraser University’s Burnaby campus Tuesday.

The university’s Teaching Support Staff Union picketed the campus’s applied sciences building Tuesday morning.

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The union had also threatened to picket the Academic Quadrangle Wednesday evening to coincide with SFU’s sold-out “Celebrate and Savour” 50th anniversary celebration but cancelled those plans after vice-president academic Jon Driver agreed to join the university’s bargaining team, according to the TSSU press release.

“The TSSU is happy to see the VP academic taking a lead at the table because he’s had teaching experience,” TSSU spokesperson George Temple told the NOW. “Before, we were dealing with a committee of people that had no teaching experience. The single faculty member on that committee was often not at bargaining.”

Meanwhile, Ready, who will start Friday, was called in to help the two sides reach a deal because Labour Relations Board mediator Grant McArthur, who had been mediating the dispute, was out of town, according to Temple.

While Temple said the TSSU is pleased the veteran mediator was available, he said having the university VP academic at the table will make the bigger difference.

“The VP academic Jon Driver was involved in the settlement the TSSU reached with SFU administration in our last strike in 2012,” Temple said. “He came to the table. He came empowered to make a deal. He sat down, we talked things out, we made a deal. It took 48 hours, I think, after he came to the table.”

TSSU, whose contract expired April 30, 2014, represents the university’s teaching assistants, tutor markers, sessional instructors and language instructors.

The union is demanding seniority rights for sessional instructors, protection for teaching assistants and tutor markers from overwork and underpay, more access to teaching-assistant and tutor-marker jobs for grad students and SFU’s standard benefits package for continuing language instructors.

TSSU has withheld student marks since July 21 and has promised to withhold them until an agreement is reached.