CUPE post-secondary members: You are invited!

Join CUPE for a look at how sexual violence and harassment on campus affects our work in the post-secondary sector and the new tools CUPE has created to help locals navigate the union’s response.

Featuring Wendy Komiotis, Executive Director of METRAC, Carole Neill, vice president of SCFP Quebec, Michelle Waite, president of CUPE 3479, and Chandra Pasma, CUPE National Senior Research Officer.

CUPE’s new toolkit provides information on how to handle disclosures, navigate the complaints process, respond in a trauma-informed way, and much more!

Date: April 7, 2022
Time: 2:30 NL/2:00 AT/1:00 ET/12:00 CT/11:00 MT/10:00 PT
Register here: https://cupe-ca.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_KSfXnNy5SmeeMUhEw15v0w

At a well-attended virtual Special General Membership Meeting on Friday, March 25th, Unit 3 members elected the following five-person bargaining team: Dr. Lisha Zhao (Chemical Engineering), Dr. Muhammad Nabeel (Material Science and Engineering), Dr. Kezhuan Gu (Material Science and Engineering), Dr. Michelle Kalaman (Earth Sciences), and Dr. Javier Gonzalez Mantecon (Engineering Physics). Congratulations!

The current postdoc collective agreement – the oldest in Canada – expires on August 31st, 2022. The newly elected committee will be working on a bargaining survey and will have that out to members shortly.

We are very excited to congratulate and thank all the fellows of the 2021-2022 International-Domestic Peer Support Program for their wonderful participation! The Program is a cross-institutional initiative that has been developed in partnership with 5 different universities in Ontario to provide a platform for exchanging valuable resources, broadening connections, gaining cultural awareness and mentorship experience, showing appreciation of diversity, and most importantly building the community!

Watch the video below that was presented in the 2021-2022 International-Domestic Peer Support Program Ceremony to learn about what fellows/participants think of the program and how it helped them! 

If you have any questions, please reach out to the International Officer, Sarah Elshahat at international@cupe3906.org

The Mike Skinner Award is a member-mandated award offered by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 on an annual basis. Its title honours long-time labour activist and former CUPE 3906 Staff Member Mike Skinner.

The recipient of the Mike Skinner Award should have been engaged in activism over the course of their time with CUPE 3906 on issues such as labour solidarity, gender equality, equity issues, social justice, environmental justice, the advancement of peace.

This is not an exhaustive list, but includes a few common examples of the things that past award winners have been involved in and that the selection committee considers.

The value of the award is $500 to one person (or committee), an award certificate and an inscription on the Mike Skinner Award plaque. This award is open to all current members of CUPE 3906 (this includes all Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants in lieu, Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows), and/or anyone who has been a member of the local between January 2021 and March 2022. This year’s award will be for the 2021-22 year.

The nomination period for this award is from March 1, 2022 to March 30, 2022. We might extend it, but please don’t count on it and submit it at the last minute!

For more information on the award, please click here.

CUPE 3906 Members: Save the Date!  Our Annual General Membership Meeting will be held on Wednesday, April 6, 2022 from 3:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M.  The meeting will occur online on the “zoom” platform.

Agenda items include:

• Annual Reports of Executive Committee Members and Committees
• Election of all Executive Committee Officer positions

To review the elections process and a summary of the duties of executive positions, please visit: CUPE-3906-Bylaws-updated-Dec-2021.pdf (cupe3906.org)

More information (including how to receive a link to the meeting and how to participate in nominations and voting) will be sent to members soon.

The Mike Skinner Award is a member-mandated award offered by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 on an annual basis. Its title honours long-time labour activist and former CUPE 3906 Staff Member Mike Skinner.

The recipient of the Mike Skinner Award may have been involved in the following possible issues over the course of their time with CUPE 3906:

• Fighting for social justice issues (these issues are diverse and can include environmental justice, labour solidarity, gender equality, equity issues, and the advancement of peace);

• Promoting the welfare of humanity and the environment, and the elimination of pain and suffering through acts of community organizing, mobilization, education and/or solidarity;

• Labour organizing and solidarity in support of workers in Hamilton, Canada, or abroad.

This is not an exhaustive list, but includes a few common examples of the things that past award winners have been involved in and that the selection committee considers.

The value of the award is $500 to one person (or committee), an award certificate and an inscription on the Mike Skinner Award plaque. This award is open to all current members of CUPE 3906 (this includes all Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants in lieu, Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows), and/or anyone who has been a member of the local between January 2021 and March 2022. This year’s award will be for the 2021-22 year.

The nomination period for this award is from March 1, 2022 to March 21, 2022.

If a suitable candidate has been active in your organization or department between January 2021 and March 2022, or if you have seen a suitable candidate around campus or in the community, we invite you to nominate them for this award.

Award Criteria:

Please review the award criteria, and, when writing your letter of nomination and seeking supporting letters from others, include the nominee’s specific contributions. The main criterions are:

• Impact of their service to the community;
• Length and level of involvement or commitment of the nominee to their act of community service;
• The dedication and courage of the nominee’s activism.

The selection committee is comprised of members of the CUPE 3906 executive and members-at-large. Members of the selection committee cannot nominate a candidate, and members of the selection committee who have personal ties with the nominees must yield their place to another member of the Executive or a CUPE member-at-large nominated by the members of the selection committee.

This year’s Award will be presented at the Annual General Meeting in late March or our GMM in early April, 2022.

We look forward to receiving your nomination of an amazing CUPE 3906 member.

For further information please contact president@cupe3906.org or staff@cupe3906.org

A PDF copy can be found here..

About CUPE 3906:

CUPE 3906 represents roughly 3200 precarious academic workers employed as Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants (in lieu), Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows at McMaster University each academic year.

A rank-and-file member reached out to the executive and requested that a version of the following motion be endorsed. The CUPE 3906 executive committee strongly endorses the following motion in solidarity with girls and young women in India:

Whereas some might think that the world has gone well past the era of struggle for the right of education for everybody, regardless of their sex, race or religion. Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere in the world;

And whereas no one should be deprived of education because of their sex, religious beliefs or for any other reason.

And whereas since last month, female Muslim students in the Indian state of Karnataka are being asked to choose between following their religious beliefs or pursuing their education;

And whereas several schools across the state barred female students who choose to wear hijab from entering classrooms, sparking nationwide protests by student activists that were faced by right-wing nationalists. 

And whereas in video footage that went viral across social media, a hijabi female student “Muskan Khan” was attempting to hand in a college assignment in the city of Mandya, when she was harassed by a group of men wearing saffron scarves (the colour of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party) who demanded her to take her hijab off;

And whereas these events have occured concurrently with an alarming rise of Islamophobic speech by right-wing Indian politicians, that went as far as openly calling to kill Muslims during the proceedings of a political conference in the city of Haridwar in December last year.

Be it resolved that CUPE 3906 stands in solidarity with the struggle of Indian girls and young women to pursue their education;

And be it further resolved that CUPE 3906 demands the Indian authorities to take every reasonable and necessary measure to fight Islamophobia and to guarantee safety and equality for all Indian students.

For further background reading:

https://twitter.com/IRF_Ambassador/status/1492153532350402564?s=20&t=shPHmK5oOH0P7vynGY_KgQ

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/10/india/hijab-karnataka-india-protest-intl-hnk/index.html

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/videos/toi-original/meet-muskan-khan-karnatakas-hijab-wearing-girl-whose-video-is-going-viral/videoshow/89461476.cms

https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/14/asia/india-hindu-extremist-groups-intl-hnk-dst/index.html

February 25, 2022

The Executive Committee of CUPE Local 3906, representing over 3,000 contract academic workers (teaching assistants, sessional faculty, and postdoctoral fellows) at McMaster University, stands in solidarity with the York University Faculty Association, as their Executive has called for a strike vote. Faculty at York have been working under an expired contract since May 1 of last year, and their bargaining team has met with university administration 17 times to try to reach an agreement under the constraints of Doug Ford’s anti-worker Bill 124. Despite their best efforts, the administration at York refuses to address their concerns around workloads, fair compensation and benefits, equity in hiring, privacy, and research support.

York’s unwillingness to bargain with the Faculty Association on the proposals that matter most to its members is a continuation of a disturbing trend, both at York and in the broader post-secondary education sector. Over the years, York has become infamous across the province for provoking bitter strikes by its workers with its complete disrespect for collective bargaining. College Faculty across the province have been working-to-rule as the College Employer Council refuses to offer meaningful improvements to workload issues and holds to a rigid interpretation of Bill 124. Earlier this month we saw a strike at Ontario Tech University over similar issues. Here at McMaster, the administration continues to offer no meaningful improvements with respect to wages, job security, retirement security, or working conditions in our ongoing round of Sessional Faculty bargaining.

Post-secondary employers across the province seem resolute in their desire to extract as much work for as little as humanly possible from their workers, despite having enriched themselves substantially throughout the pandemic. They are banking on the assumption that we won’t strike as the pandemic drags on, or that if we do, students won’t support us. For the sake of our working conditions–and by extension, students’ learning conditions–we must be willing to prove them wrong, as the Faculty Association at OTU recently did. As YUFA members vote on a strike mandate, CUPE 3906 stands ready to support them, and we encourage education workers across the province to join us.

Solidarity!

The CUPE 3906 Executive Committee

For a PDF file of this statement, please click here

The Mike Skinner Award is a member-mandated award offered by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 on an annual basis. Its title honours long-time labour activist and former CUPE 3906 Staff Member Mike Skinner.

The recipient of the Mike Skinner Award may have been involved in the following possible issues over the course of their time with CUPE 3906:

• Fighting for social justice issues (these issues are diverse and can include environmental justice, labour solidarity, gender equality, equity issues, and the advancement of peace);

• Promoting the welfare of humanity and the environment, and the elimination of pain and suffering through acts of community organizing, mobilization, education and/or solidarity;

• Labour organizing and solidarity in support of workers in Hamilton, Canada, or abroad.

This is not an exhaustive list, but includes a few common examples of the things that past award winners have been involved in and that the selection committee considers.

The value of the award is $500 to one person (or committee), an award certificate and an inscription on the Mike Skinner Award plaque. This award is open to all current members of CUPE 3906 (this includes all Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants in lieu, Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows), and/or anyone who has been a member of the local between January 2021 and March 2022. This year’s award will be for the 2021-22 year.

The nomination period for this award is from February 22, 2022 to March 19, 2022.

If a suitable candidate has been active in your organization or department within this time frame, or if you have seen a suitable candidate around campus or the in community, we invite you to nominate them for this award.

Award Criteria:

Please review the award criteria, and, when writing your letter of nomination and seeking supporting letters from others, include the nominee’s specific contributions. The main criterions are:

• Impact of their service to the community;
• Length and level of involvement or commitment of the nominee to their act of community service;
• The dedication and courage of the nominee’s activism.

The selection committee is comprised of members of the CUPE 3906 executive and members-at-large. Members of the selection committee cannot nominate a candidate. Members of the selection committee who have personal ties with the nominees must yield their place to another member of the Executive or a CUPE member-at-large nominated by the members of the selection committee.

This year’s Award will be presented at the Annual General Meeting, set to happen in late March or early April, 2022.

We look forward to receiving your nomination of an amazing CUPE 3906 member.

For further information please contact president@cupe3906.org or mary@cupe3906.org