CUPE 3906

We are pleased to announce that the new Unit 1 (TAs and RAs in Lieu) and Unit 2 (Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty, and MELD Sessional Faculty) dental coverage rates for 2025-2026 have been determined.

Unit 1 Members can CLICK HERE for a letter that explains the new rates, and provides important information about eligibility, and opting out of dental coverage, and enrolling in family dental coverage for the 2025-2026 academic year. (Unit 1 Dental coverage is only available to members holding an undergraduate degree. Members who do not hold an undergraduate degree are automatically opted out of coverage.) Please note that the Unit 1 deadline for opting out of the dental coverage or enrolling in family coverage is September 26, 2025. Please visit this site for more information about dental coverage, or to obtain a form to opt-out of dental coverage or enroll in family dental coverage.

Unit 2 Members can CLICK HERE for a letter that explains the new rates, and provides important information about eligibility, and opting out of dental coverage, and enrolling in family dental coverage for the 2025-2026 academic year. Please note that the Unit 2 deadline for opting out of the dental coverage or enrolling in family coverage is September 29, 2025. Please visit this site for more information about dental coverage, or to obtain a form to opt-out of dental coverage or enroll in family dental coverage.

Please contact administrator@cupe3906.org with any questions about dental coverage. Due to the high number of inquiries at this time of year, please review the information at the links provided above before emailing. Thank you!

The student-workers responsible for creating and maintaining safe, supportive, and inclusive communities for over 4,000 residence students at McMaster University have delivered an overwhelming strike vote mandate in support of their Bargaining Committee.

After two days of online voting, Residence Life workers in CUPE Local 3906 Unit 4 – including Community Advisors (CAs), Graduate Community Leaders (GCLs), Guest Registration Assistants (GRAs), Residence Orientation Planners and Assistants (ROPs/ROAs), and Project Assistants (PAs) – voted 90% in favour of authorizing strike action should negotiations with McMaster’s Administration break down.

These workers, who unionized in April 2024, play a vital role in residence life. They respond to mental health crises and emergencies, plan and deliver curriculum-based educational and community-building programming, and support the well-being of thousands of undergraduate and graduate students. Much of this work is done unscheduled, and often without adequate compensation. All the while, McMaster charges live-in workers thousands of dollars in mandatory fees (including a mandatory meal plan), forcing workers to pay-to-work.

“This result is clear. We are united, organized, and ready to take action to secure the fair deal we deserve,” said Caleb Smolenaars, Chair of the Unit 4 Bargaining Committee. “For too long, McMaster has profited off the backs of student-workers. It’s time to put an end to McMaster’s exploitative pay-to-work model.”

Unit 4 members are calling for a compensation model similar comparable roles at other Ontario universities, including:

• A living wage for all Residence Life workers
• A stipend for live-in positions
• An employer-paid meal plan for live-in positions, instead of the status quo mandatory employee-paid meal plan
• A supplementary benefits fund

CUPE 3906 President, Oluwadamilola Babatunde, added: “Residence Life workers are on the front lines of student support. They deserve better than the exploitative model currently in place. McMaster cannot continue to ignore the value of these workers and the reality of these working conditions.”

With this strike mandate in hand, the Unit 4 Bargaining Committee will return to the table with a clear message that Unit 4 members are united and ready to take action if necessary.

The student-workers responsible for creating and maintaining safe, supportive, and inclusive communities for over 4,000 residence students at McMaster University have delivered an overwhelming strike vote mandate in support of their Bargaining Committee.

After two days of online voting, Residence Life workers in CUPE Local 3906 Unit 4 – including Community Advisors (CAs), Graduate Community Leaders (GCLs), Guest Registration Assistants (GRAs), Residence Orientation Planners and Assistants (ROPs/ROAs), and Project Assistants (PAs) – voted 90% in favour of authorizing strike action should negotiations with McMaster’s Administration break down.

These workers, who unionized in April 2024, play a vital role in residence life. They respond to mental health crises and emergencies, plan and deliver curriculum-based educational and community-building programming, and support the well-being of thousands of undergraduate and graduate students. Much of this work is done unscheduled, and often without adequate compensation. All the while, McMaster charges live-in workers thousands of dollars in mandatory fees (including a mandatory meal plan), forcing workers to pay-to-work.

“This result is clear. We are united, organized, and ready to take action to secure the fair deal we deserve,” said Caleb Smolenaars, a Community Advisor and Chair of the Unit 4 Bargaining Committee. “For too long, McMaster has profited off the backs of student-workers. It’s time to put an end to McMaster’s exploitative pay-to-work model.”

Unit 4 members are calling for a compensation model similar comparable roles at other Ontario universities, including:

• A living wage for all Residence Life workers
• A stipend for live-in positions
• An employer-paid meal plan for live-in positions, instead of the status quo mandatory employee-paid meal plan
• A supplementary benefits fund
• Stable and predictable hours

CUPE 3906 President, Oluwadamilola Babatunde, added: “Residence Life workers are on the front lines of student support. They deserve better than the exploitative model currently in place. McMaster cannot continue to ignore the value of these workers and the reality of these working conditions.”

With this strike mandate in hand, the Unit 4 Bargaining Committee will return to the bargaining table with a clear message that Unit 4 members are united and ready to take action if necessary.

Your elected union Bargaining Committee has met with McMaster’s Bargaining Committee twelve times since the end of August, 2024. Both parties (the Union and the Employer) tabled their monetary packages in July, 2025. Although some progress has been made, the Employer and the Union are far apart on key issues including compensation, housing, hours of work, meal plans, and the duration of the contract. The Bargaining Team is requesting Unit 4 members’ participation in a strike vote to help negotiations progress in a fair and timely manner.

If you have questions, we have answers: https://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/strike-vote-faq-unit-4-1.pdf

In June, your elected Unit 4 Bargaining Team presented a series of monetary proposals to the Employer. These proposals essentially form a draft Collective Agreement with everything we’re hoping to achieve at the bargaining table. Once we negotiate/bargain these proposals to language that both us and the Employer can agree on, we put all the agreed language together to form our Collective Agreement (contract for all workers).

Monetary proposals are separate from the non-monetary language we have already been negotiating because monetary proposals cover our terms of employment which have an associated cost (eg. contract language around wages). While still important, the language we have been bargaining for the past several months has pertained solely to terms of our employment without an associated cost (eg. policies for health and safety).

Our monetary proposals outlined demands for the following, as voted as priorities by us:

1. A wage increase to a living wage for all Unit 4 members and a new monetary wage in addition to housing as compensation for Community Advisors

2. An employer-paid meal plan for Community Advisors

3. A supplementary health benefits fund for all Unit 4 members for when the student plan isn’t enough (including reproductive and gender affirming care funding)

In response to our proposals, the Employer shared their idea for the future of Unit 4 compensation, which included:

1. A shift towards a pay-to-work model for Community Advisors, with insufficient hours to make a net income after paying rent. This effectively means a 40% pay cut for CAs.

2. No change to the existing mandatory meal plan policy, again leaving Community Advisors out of pocket after even a whole year of work.

3. Negligible wage increases for GRAs, PAs, ROP/As, resulting in lower wages than workers in similar roles at other Ontario universities.

The Employer’s proposal is concerning, but that’s why we unionized – to stop unfair changes from happening without our say.

Bargaining process overview & next steps

As our Unit 4 Bargaining Team continues to negotiate against the Employer’s insulting offer, we (the workers) need to be ready to stand up.

In the near future, our Unit 4 Bargaining Team may choose to escalate by requesting the help of a conciliator (a neutral government-appointed mediator) and calling a Strike Vote. While a positive strike vote does not necessarily mean we will go on strike, it sends a powerful message that we are ready and willing to take action to secure fair wages and better working conditions.

These are both important steps that demonstrate to the Employer that we’re serious about our proposals.

We (the workers) need to be ready to show our support for fair wages now! ✊

Stay tuned for more information in the very near future!

*UPDATED AUGUST 14, 2025*

The next CUPE Local 3906 General Membership Meeting (or GMM) will occur on Wednesday, August 27 at 10:00 AM and will be held via Zoom. The link will be sent to your McMaster email in the coming days.

Please note that the date of the meeting has been moved from August 20th, 2025, to August 27th, 2025.

Please note that we will also be electing an alternate for the Unit 4 Bargaining Team. This position is open to Unit 4 members.

The agenda will include the election of a Unit 3 (Postdoc) Lead Steward, which is open to all Unit 3 members, as well as elections for 7 voting spots for CUPE National Convention delegates. At the last GMM, the membership acclaimed 9 members to attend, but the Local has 7 voting delegate spots and 2 alternate delegate spots. The August GMM convention voting delegate election is therefor restricted to the 9 members who were acclaimed at the last meeting are eligible to run.

You can find the agenda (when finalized) here, as well as minutes from previous minutes that will be voted on for approval on August 20th: https://cupe3906.org/gmm-materials/

Dear Unit 2 Members (Sessional Faculty and Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty),

Based on gains secured to our benefits funds during our last round of collective bargaining, your Benefits Committee voted to expand your Health Care Spending Account (HCSA) entitlement. These gains could not have been secured without your support and mobilization during the bargaining process.

Members of CUPE 3906 Unit 2 (Sessional Faculty and Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty working at McMaster University) can now submit up to $800 in eligible expenses, and will receive a reimbursement of 100% of the cost (to a total maximum of $800 per academic year). (Previously, the maximum yearly entitlement by academic year was $500 total.)

If you have already submitted one (or several) expenses this academic year and have been reimbursed $500 (or less), you can re-submit expenses to have eligible, unpaid costs reimbursed up to the $800 maximum. (For example, if you submitted a claim for $600 worth of prescription eyewear on or after September 1, 2024, and received a $500 reimbursement, you can now re-submit the $600 to receive reimbursement for the outstanding $100.)

You can claim expenses incurred between September 1, 2024, and August 31, 2025, using the same form available on our website, here: https://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/cupe-u2-claim-form-july-2025.pdf

The Benefits Committee will review the feasibility of this entitlement for the 2025-2026 academic year, and we will notify members if the $800 entitlement changes.

For more information, including information on eligible expenses, how to submit a claim, etc., please visit https://cupe3906.org/sessionals-unit-2/unit-2-benefits/

Congratulations to our Unit 2 members for your gains in negotiations. Please stay tuned for further benefits updates for the 2025-2026 academic year!

Just a quick reminder, the next CUPE Local 3906 General Membership Meeting, or GMM, will be held on Thursday, July 3rd from 1 pm to 3 pm via Zoom. A registration link has been sent to all members’ McMaster emails. The agenda is still TBA, but will be posted online in advance of the meeting at www.cupe3906.org/gmm-materials

As always, we hope to see you there!

Calling all Indigenous artists!

CUPE 3906’s Indigenous Solidarity Working Group’s first-ever merch contest is now open! Submit your work and a short bio to the link below for your chance to have your art featured on ISWG’s merch. Winners will also receive a $500 honorarium and free merch with the featured work! The deadline to submit is August 1^st!

Interested artists can submit their work here: https://forms.gle/kFk4FTQq5Gt7DCHNA

Not eligible for this contest? You can still join our team! ISWG is accepting Indigenous and non-Indigenous members, so check out our attached flyer or our Instagram for more details on how to join.

For more information, check out ISWG’s Instagram: @iswg.cupe3906 or email us at: iswgcupe3906@gmail.com

We can’t wait to see your work!