Our next General Membership Meeting (GMM) will be held on February 22nd, Tuesday, from 12 PM to 2 PM. Any members wishing to present pre-written motions should provide theirs via email to staff@cupe3906.org and vicepresident@cupe3906.org till the end of February 21st.

As always, pre-registration will be required to attend this meeting. Please remember: You must register with your McMaster email address no later than 10 AM on the day of the GMM. Using your Mac address is needed for us to confirm your union membership prior to the meeting.

Register in advance for our GMM here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIldO2prTojHt2vJVpi83_-2ushFMQx_U6T 

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

By-elections on this GMM agenda

Along with other important union business, this GMM will include a by-election to the position of Equity Officer. You can find the details on this position – as well as certain eligibility criteria – in Section 5 of the CUPE 3906 Bylaws: Duties of Executive Officers.

About the virtual GMM elections process:

Nominations for both elections will be held on the (virtual) floor of the GMM, but our Bylaws also allow for those unable to attend to self-nominate in writing ahead of the meeting. If you are unable to attend the GMM but wish to run for one of the two positions up for election, you can nominate yourself by emailing your 500-word candidate statement to brad@cupe3906.org anytime before 10 AM on the day of the GMM. Because our Bylaws require that only staff accept nominations for elections, only those sent to brad@cupe3906.org will be accepted, and their CUPE 3906 membership then verified.

Voting on these elections will occur in real time (via Zoom), meaning only members in attendance will be able to cast a ballot. This is the method we have determined most closely aligns with our in-person GMM elections and the processes laid out in our Bylaws and the CUPE National Constitution. Please note: if you are attending via a phone call (instead of using the Zoom app), you will not be able to be able to vote, because all votes in elections are anonymous.

You may have seen a recent COVID-10 updatep posted by McMaster online: https://covid19.mcmaster.ca/campus-health-safety/ventilation/

The above update confirms:

All McMaster classrooms and lecture halls have been assessed to ensure they meet ventilation requirements as outlined in ASHRAE 62.1. Standard 62.1 outlines minimum ventilation rates and other measures intended to provide indoor air quality that is acceptable to human occupants and that minimize adverse health effects.

Though all of our current operational classroom inventory meets or exceeds Public Health guidelines, McMaster further enhanced our ventilation plan to ensure all lecture theatres and classrooms on campus meet a minimum six equivalent air changes per hour (eACH), a standard considered ideal by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Healthy Buildings for Health guidelines.

This list (last updated January 28) indicates which classrooms and lecture halls on campus meet 6 eACH and actions taken. For classrooms do not meet our minimum standard of six equivalent air changes per hour (eACH), McMaster is:

• Changing operations or equipment to increase air flow.
• Equipping the space with appropriate standalone high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter units to increase equivalent air changes. The number of HEPA units and sizes were selected for each room in order to meet 6 eACH.

We have confirmed that the HEPAs do have a max speed and low speed setting (some have a 3 speed setting as well). The units need to be at max speed to meet the eACH for the room. When they were installed, the units were defaulted to max speed. There are signs in place indicating that the units should not be moved or turned off (see attached photo). Some instructors have put in microphones to address the noise, Facility Services has also moved units further from podiums to help with noise. They have also asked their custodial staff to turn units on if they are found in the off position.

You can find the eACH of your teaching room on the chart below. All figures should be above 6, especially when filter is running at full strength. If the figure was below 6 eACH, the HEPA filter will bring it to at least 6 eACH

https://facilities.mcmaster.ca/app/uploads/2022/01/Classroom-and-Lecture-Halls-eACH-January-28.pdf

Dear Friends and Comrades,

As many of you will recall, at our 2018 CUPE Ontario Convention, delegates passed a comprehensive anti-racism action plan, better known as the Anti-Racism Organizational Action Plan (AROAP). This important plan seeks to address the systemic underrepresentation and exclusion of Black, racialized, and Indigenous members in our union. This work is more important and more critical than ever.

Over the past year, the University sector and our coordinating committee has worked to move us forward and ensure we are in a place to begin this important work. Friends, it is time for our sector to begin the important task of breaking down barriers and eradicating racism from every single aspect of our sector’s structures, practices, and policies. This work is important. This work is not work that your sector committee can do alone. We need you to join us!

We are inviting applications from individuals interested in joining our AROAP working group. This group will work over the coming months to fully review our sector, to suggest ways forward, and to prioritize the work ahead to be done. The sector’s AROAP Working Group will consist of the sector Chair, Equity Representative, as well as 5 rank-and-file members. Please note that the sector will prioritize applications from BIPOC members. Members appointed to the Working Group will have wages, per diem, accommodations, and travel paid for by the Union where these expenses are incurred.

The deadline to apply is Friday, February 11, 2022.

Thank you and we look forward to engaging in the important work ahead of us!

In solidarity.

David Simao
Chair, Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee (OUWCC)

Dear Members,

As you may have heard, McMaster University announced its return-to-campus measures in a January 5th letter from President David Farrar and Provost Susan Tighe. The return-to-work plan states the following:

Our plan to have all classes delivered virtually for the week of January 10th, with the exception of some clinical programs, remains in place.  We will incrementally offer more hands-on learning to our students in alignment with the latest government and public health measures.

Beginning January 17 – Undergraduate labs, studios, clinical and other high priority hands-on learning and experiential activities will be in person, with limited exceptions. 

Beginning January 31 – All level-one undergraduate courses will be in person giving students who have had limited opportunity to interact and spend time on campus the opportunity to adjust. All graduate courses offered at the Ron Joyce Centre will also begin on January 31.

Beginning February 7 – All in-person classes begin for all students (undergraduate and graduate).

This is in stark contrast to Mohawk College, which announced that all classes in the Winter 2022 semester will be delivered in a remote or virtual format. As Mohawk College noted, “the ongoing spread of the Omicron COVID-19 variant has created uncertainty” for the community and a clear decision at the beginning of the semester “will allow students to plan ahead with certainty.” We would also add that a clear and early decision provides certainty for teaching staff, who cannot be expected to pivot from one format to another on a whim and require sufficient time to move to remote delivery.

While we believe that a focus on in-person delivery is pedagogically sound and in the best interest of staff and students alike, doing so at the risk of staff and students is dangerous. Ontario has had one of its deadliest pandemic months in January and the situation is only expected to worsen.  Universities have already been exempted from distancing and capacity limits in teaching and learning spaces, meaning that rooms have the potential to be just as over-crowded as they were pre-pandemic.

While dangerous and almost uncontrollable hazards such as Omicron exist, the Employer should limit hazards to workers and students by minimizing on-campus activities where safer alternatives exist.  When workers and students are required to be on campus, safety standards that go above and beyond minimum standards should be in effect. Workers who are not willing to face the risk should be offered virtual appointments.

To return to in-person work, we require a stronger health and safety plan which mitigates risk for both workers and students. This includes:

• Mandatory N95, KN95 or KF94 masks provided by McMaster. McMaster, which boasted a surplus of $232 million last year, should be providing these to all staff and students that it expects to be on campus and should not be downloading those costs on staff and students who have already faced financial hardship during the pandemic;
• The provision of freely available and accessible rapid tests for all staff and students to ensure maximum safety when coming to campus;
• Proper distancing and capacity limits that are stronger than the bare minimum that the provincial government has permitted;
• A reporting and tracing system of all confirmed COVID cases on campus, that includes actively reaching out to staff and students (via email, Mosaic, or Avenue) about known cases and their location, rather than posting an update online;
• Easy access for students and staff to the view following information for each room on campus:
  • The dimensions of the room (length/width/height in ft).
  • HVAC design flow rate (in cfm) and measured flow rate (cfm).
  • Proportion of outdoor air supply in %.
  • Total air turnovers per hour (ACH).
  • MERV rating of the filters installed.
  • Whether any supplemental portable air filters are installed.
  • Whether or not C02 monitors are installed in the room or available to staff to measure C02 levels in our classrooms.
  • Clear instructions on the operation of HEPA Filter Units and Air Purification Units (e.g., guidance on keeping units on, whom to call when units break down, etc.)
• The low-barrier option to continue work virtually or immediately return to virtual work if aspects of this stronger health and safety plan are not sufficiently met or the worker feels the risk is too high for the duration of the pandemic;
• Transparency in the factors, measurements, and scientific assessments used to determine re-opening measures;
• Fair compensation to instructors for the added work of delivering their courses in a hybrid format when large numbers of students are inevitably unable to participate in in-person learning, as well as any additional support the added work might warrant, including additional paid training, TA support, etc.; and
• Paid sick days for a full isolation period of an employee or a member of their household, even if this is more than what is contained within a collective agreement.

A return-to-school will have disproportionate impacts on members of the McMaster community. A petition being circulated by a group of students rightly notes, in part, that “Qualifications for accommodations must be eliminated.  It is unacceptable that disabled, Black, Indigenous, people of colour, elderly, and immunocompromised people be sacrificed in favour of return to the status quo.  We must carry forward the lessons learned throughout this pandemic to create a more inclusive university that puts commitment to innovation and excellence into concrete action.”

The petition maintains that “thoughtful and innovative integration of in-person and off-campus components is necessary and we urge ongoing development while making the provision of existing online tools such as Zoom for “live” classes throughout the Winter term the very basic minimum.” We agree, but this can only be achieved if adequate support is provided to instructional staff, especially those staff who are precariously employed.

Returning to in-person instruction in the midst of a pandemic is irresponsible and jeopardizes the safety of the McMaster community as a whole. While workers would like to return to in-person work, it cannot be done by ignoring the toll of this ongoing pandemic on front-line workers and by not doing all we can to decrease the spread. If the Employer continues to insist on a physical return to campus, it can only be done with the effective safety and inclusionary measures we have articulated above.

We ask you to please share this letter with friends and colleagues and to forward your concerns to David Farrar, McMaster’s President and Vice-Chancellor, at president@mcmaster.ca , or by phone: (905) 525-9140, ext. 24340.

In solidarity,

Your CUPE 3906 Executive Committee

A PDF version of this letter can be downloaded here: https://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/2022/02/CUPE-3906-Return-to-Work-open-letter.pdf

We have received a few questions about payment for the winter semester and feel that an update to all members would be useful. There is not a pay date on January 21, 2022 nor was there on January 14th. The final pay for the (Fall term) was December 31st, and the first payment for the Winter Term is January 28, 2022. There is a reason for this.

This year the winter semester started on January 10, the latest calendar date that the semester can begin. The first biweekly pay period (for most permanent employees) fell on January 14, the latest calendar day in which a first pay period of the year could run. This occurs infrequently, but is possible depending how the semester and calendar lineup.

Wages paid to you are one week in arrears. This means that the January 14 pay covered the last week in December and the first week in January – a time when Sessionals were not employed (and thus were eligible to collect Employment Insurance). For those of you working this winter, your contract started on the first day of the semester (January 10), instead of starting the contract on January 1. This more accurately reflects the period you work, and allows those of EI to collect for a longer period.

You should be/should have been able to collect EI from January 1st to January 9th if you have enough insurable hours. For information on EI, click here. If you did not apply for EI over the holidays but met the criteria, it is not too late to apply. More information can be found at the link above.

If you have already served a withholding period in the past 52 weeks, you would have been able to collect EI as of January 1st. If you have not served a withholding period, you could have served one week over the holidays and should be able to collect EI for a day or two. However, you will have served the one-week waiting period, which means you won’t need to do so again in the spring.

If you are not working this winter semester, we would encourage you to apply to EI. Service Canada will determine your eligibility. In certain instances, it is possible to both work and collect EI (with some clawbacks) if the amount of work have in the winter has dropped substantially from the work you had during the fall term. More information is available here.

If you were collecting EI over the holidays and are teaching this semester, you should be reporting to Service Canada that you are back working. If McMaster is your sole employer, you should report your first day worked/first day for which paid as January 10, 2022.

The employer has already uploaded your ROE automatically to Service Canada for the past semester.

The final pay date for this semester is April 22, which covers the period from April 3rd to April 16th. April 16th is the date that you can report to EI as your last day of work/last day for which paid if you are applying to EI over the spring. The full pay schedule can be found here: https://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/2021/09/Pay-Dates-for-CUPE-TA-and-Sessional-Faculty_2021_22.pdf

If you have any questions, please contact brad@cupe3906.org or Carolyn (chiefsteward_sessionals@cupe39306.org)

CUPE National is publishing a series of fact sheets on sexual violence and harassment in post-secondary institutions, and the steps your union can take to address it. The first of 5 fact sheets can be accessed here: https://cupe.ca/responding-sexual-violence-and-harassment-campus-and-duty-represent .

This fact sheet presents the multiple options for reporting or pursuing a complaint on experiences of sexual violence and harassment on campus.

In case you missed the news, McMaster is starting a voluntary testing program and will be distributing a limited number of Rapid Antigen Tests (RATs) to TAs and Sessional Faculty who are providing in-person teaching / instruction over the next few weeks. These members will receive the tests through their Faculty, however an exact date hasn’t been given to us yet. If you don’t hear or receive anything in the coming weeks, please contact your departmental administrator.

Individuals who can participate in this voluntary rapid testing program will be contacted directly by McMaster’s Rapid Test Distribution team. The announcement also says that “the effectiveness of this strategy will be closely monitored over the next two weeks with hopes to expand the distribution of test kits as access to inventory allows”.