Run-Off Election Results Announced

Brad WalchukUncategorized

Our Staff Representative, who chairs our Executive election processes, has asked us to share the results of this week’s run-off elections. The successful candidates are:

Benefits Officer: Zobia Jawed
International Officer: Avijit Mallick
Health and Safety Officer: Arghyadeep Sarkar
Chief Steward Unit 3: Kezhuan Gu

Thanks to everyone who participated, and congratulations to those who were elected!

Unit 2 (Sessionals) Bargaining Update

Brad WalchukUncategorized

As many of you know, CUPE 3906 Unit 2 – employed as Sessional Faculty, MELD Faculty, and Hourly-Rated Sessional Music Faculty – is currently in the early stages of bargaining a new Collective Agreement with McMaster.

As this will undoubtedly be a difficult round of bargaining (due to both the passage of Bill 124 and the University’s fiscal situation post-COVID), having widespread and mass member engagement to pressure McMaster will be vital to negotiating a fair contract.

We would thus encourage all CUPE 3906 members to join us in building our Union’s collective capacity to secure better working conditions and compensation as academic workers. This is an opportunity to develop communications, campaigning, organizing, and advocacy skills and does not require any previous experience. Those looking to get involved in this exciting work should contact mobilizer@cupe3906.org.

Unit 2 Bargaining Team Alternate elected
The Unit 2 Bargaining Team is pleased to announce the election of their Alternate member, MELD instructor Lisa Dent. The team looks forward to working with her over the next several months. Welcome, Lisa!

Run-off elections for Benefits Officer, International Officer, Health and Safety Officer, and Unit 3 Chief Steward

Brad WalchukUncategorized

Monday, June 15 @ 12pm to Tuesday, June 16 @ 12pm

In addition to our previous announcement that three of our Executive positions would require run-off ballots, we can now confirm that our Unit 3 Chief Steward election will need one as well. None of these elections resulted in a majority candidate, as defined in Article 4 of our bylaws.

The following positions thus require run-off elections between the candidates listed for each:

Benefits Officer:
Zobia Jawed
Maxwell Lightstone
International Officer:Avijit Mallick
Sarah Elshahat

Health and Safety Officer:
Arghyadeep Sarkar
Sudarshan Sharma

Chief Steward, Unit 3:

Kezhuan Gu
Reza Heydarian

The run-off elections for these positions will be open from Monday, June 15th at 12pm until Tuesday, June 16th at 12pm. The process will be identical to our previous election. You will receive an email from Helios Voting prior to the election with your voting credentials. Please double check your spam folders for your credentials, as some emails have wound up there for members.

Statements of candidacy from each of the remaining nominees can be found here.

Elections 2020- Technical Difficulties/Extension

Brad WalchukUncategorized

Despite our best efforts to work out all technical glitches in advance of today’s Executive elections, it has come to our attention that several of you have yet to receive your ballots via your McMaster email addresses. We have located a solution and, barring any further issues, those of you who have yet to receive your credentials should receive them soon, along with everyone who has yet to vote. Due to these delays exacerbating an overlap with a religious holiday, we will be extending the voting until 12pm, Monday, June 1st.  We appreciate your patience and understanding as we navigate this new online platform.

All elections related information can be found here: https://cupe3906.org/elections-2020/

Click here for candidate statements.

Unit 2 Post-Contract Work: Fall Semester Prep Work

Brad WalchukUncategorized

As most of you will know by now, McMaster University has officially announced that the Fall 2020 semester will be hosted entirely online. We are in regular communication with the Employer about how this will affect our members, and you can expect more details from us soon. In the meantime, we would encourage you to track any hours spent preparing to take your Fall classes online. While the Employer has yet to definitively say whether they will acknowledge such work as Post-Contract work, we firmly believe that it should be treated as such and would thus encourage you to submit a Post-Contract Payment Form for any time spent moving or preparing to move your courses online. You can read more about what constitutes Post-Contract Work in Article 15.05 of the current Collective Agreement for Unit 2. The full statement from President Farrar can be found here. Should you have any additional questions, feel free to email us at either president@cupe3906.org or mecampbell@cupe3906.org.

Online AGM on May 28 & 29

Brad WalchukUncategorized

Nominees and acclamations for this week’s Executive elections
As you know, nominations for the upcoming Executive elections closed yesterday at 5:00 PM. According to our bylaws, the following people are acclaimed to the following positions:

Nathan Todd as President
Chris Fairweather as Secretary Treasurer
Rohit Gupta as Recording Secretary

Aside from the above acclamations, we were pleased to receive multiple nominations for every position on the Executive. The official list of nominees for each position is below, and their statements of candidacy can be found here.

Vice President:
Mollie McGuire
Karim Soliman

Vice President External:
Vinay Patel
Sharoni Mitra

Benefits Officer:

Zobia Jawed
Nikita Jhaveri
Maxwell Lightstone

Chief Steward, Unit 1:

Nishant Kashyap
Kyle Morrison

Chief Steward, Unit 2:

Sylvia Nickerson
Peter Graham

Chief Steward, Unit 3:
Kezhuan Gu
Reza Heydarian

Equity Officer:

Shirleen Datt
Laurie Sherry-Kirk
International Officer:

Avijit Mallick
Mehrshad Kafi
Sarah Elshahat

Undergraduate Officer:

Rivka Ohayon
Alannah DeAngelis

Health and Safety Officer:

Arghyadeep Sarkar
Sudarshan Sharma
Sabah Haq


Voting to occur through our online AGM on May 28 & 29
On a related note, the polls for the abovementioned elections will open at 12:00 PM EST on Thursday, May 28 and close at 12:00 PM EST on Friday, May 29. Although the polls will be open for 24 hours, it should take no longer than 10 to 15 minutes to cast your ballot. You can expect to receive your ballot (in the form of a hyperlink) via your McMaster email address shortly before the polls open on Thursday. Full details on the elections process can be found here.

Changes to the Postdoctoral Support Fund application process

Brad WalchukUncategorized

Several weeks ago, we sent a detailed update on some changes the University has made to the PSF application process in the context of COVID-19. As a follow up, we’d like to remind you that applicants are no longer required to complete the Estimated Expenses and Estimated Income table in the PSF application form.

You can read the full update here, and a detailed overview of the PSF itself here.

Update on the Canada Emergency Student Benefit

Brad WalchukUncategorized

As many of you will already know, applications for the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) opened today, May 15. CUPE National has created a helpful FAQ on the CESB, found here. Given that your potential eligibility for the CESB relates primarily to your student (not worker) status, we recommend sending any questions you may have to student associations within the University such as the GSA, who have remained apprised of the situation since the news first broke. We thank the GSA for their diligence in providing so many detailed updates to McMaster graduate students, many of whom are also our members!

Annual General Meeting 2020: Elections to be hosted online starting May 28 @ 12 PM & closing May 29 @ 12 PM

Brad WalchukUncategorized

As you likely know by now, the current circumstances of COVID-19 require that this year’s Annual General Meeting (wherein our Executive Committee is elected by the membership) be hosted online. Nominations are now open, and will close May 25 at 5 PM. Elections will then be open from 12 PM on May 28 to 12 PM on May 29.

To learn more about the elections process, and how to nominate yourself or a fellow member, click here.