By now, you’re likely aware of McMaster’s decision to cancel classes. Specifically, McMaster has determined that all in-person classes for undergraduate and graduate students will end at the end of day Friday March 13th and that no in-person exams will be held at the end of this term. We applaud McMaster for the decision to put the safety of students and staff at the forefront.

We are sending this email to you in your capacity as an employee. Decisions around your responsibilities as a student will come from your department chair or graduate chair. We encourage you to reach out to the instructor of the course to which you are assigned to determine next steps and expectations for your role in the remainder of the semester. We do not foresee any loss of pay as all work should be restructured in a way that it can easily be made up. If it is restructured in a way that you feel it cannot be made up, please let us know.

Normally, any changes to your existing responsibilities must be accompanied by a revised Hours of Work form from your supervisor to be signed by you. Work cannot be unilaterally changed by your supervisor. Given that these are exceptional circumstances, the Union recognizes that completing these protocols may not be feasible. In lieu of official changes to your hours of work forms, we want to encourage members to request clear instructions (written is preferred) from their employment supervisors regarding any changes to their duties and to log their hours from now until the end of their current TA assignment. If you feel additional hours are required, please inform your supervisor. New duties should not deviate far from duties normally expected to be done by a TA. Under no circumstance should you be expected to perform any additional work over what you were originally allocated without proper compensation. Finally, you must be paid for any tasks that you are no longer expected to do. The cancellation of classes should not lead to any loss of income.

Article 19.02 of your Collective Agreement provides you with sick leave equivalent to 10 working hours per term. Please use these at your discretion and be sure to inform your supervisor if you require the usage of these days.

Article 19.01 of your Collective Agreement provides that, with the approval of the employment supervisor(s) concerned, you are able to arrange to exchange your work with or by a qualified person, for periods not to exceed 1 week, 10 days at a time, and not to exceed 3 weeks per term. If the employee cannot find a suitable replacement, the employment supervisor, upon request, will assist in finding a suitable replacement. If such an arrangement would be useful, please reach out to your supervisor.

Article 19.02.1 provides you with access to paid family medical leave in the event that this is needed. Please contact your Union if such a situation arises.

Please note that each course – and perhaps even each section of a course – is likely to be different. We recognize that a one-size-fits-all solution is not possible in such a situation.

If you have any other questions, please let us know. Please note, however, that we have a large volume of emails and a response may be delayed. We will prioritize emergent situations. We would like to recognize that McMaster Human Resources has been in regular contact with your Union. We appreciate the transparency and information that they’ve provided to us.

Finally,  please make use of the Employee Family Assistance Program if you are experiencing additional stress, anxiety, or any issues related to your mental health. A flyer outlining the program can be found here. You can access the program directly by visiting https://homeweb.ca/.

Dear Members,

As you may have heard, McMaster has just announced the suspension of all in-person classes effective the end of the day, March 13^th.  We are currently in communication with the University to get clarity on what this means for TAs, Sessionals, and Postdocs. Members will experience NO disruptions of pay. Please watch for updates from us, McMaster, and your departments, and contact us with any questions or concerns regarding your employment (pay, alternate duties, etc.) by emailing president@cupe3906.org or staff@cupe3906.org

As for Union business, I can confirm with you now that our office will be closed, effective immediately. Below are instructions for how to submit benefits claims while the office is closed:

For Healthcare Spending Accounts, UHIP Rebates, and Childcare rebates, please continue to leave forms in our drop-box (directly outside KTH B111) or mail them directly to the Prosure Group:

PROSURE GROUP ADMINISTRATORS LTD.

2225 Sheppard Ave East, Suite 1400, Atria III.

Toronto, ON. M2J 5C2

For Dental claims, please create a login at www.equitable.ca with Policy Number 97528 and your employee number as your certificate number (if you do not have a specific employee number, then use your student number), and follow Equitable Life’s instructions for submitting online claims.

For Professional Development Fund applications, please email benefits@cupe3906.org.

For further assistance, please contact administrator@cupe3906.org or mecampbell@cupe3906.org.

Members who have arranged to pick up their menstrual cup next week will have to wait until further notice. We appreciate your patience at this time and look for to getting your menstrual cup to you in the future.

Also, our Annual General Membership meeting, which normally should be scheduled for the end of March, will be postponed. The AGM is where our executive officers are elected, meaning the election process will also be postponed. It would be irresponsible of us to request that our members gather together in these circumstances, even for something as important as executive elections. The current executives will remain (unless any need to resign, individually), to ensure the operations of the local for the time being. As soon as it is deemed safe to return to campus, we will schedule our AGM.

Sincerely, and In Solidarity,

Nathan Todd

President

Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906

Due to popular demand our local has ran out of REGULAR size menstrual cups!!! We still have a limited number of size LARGE (made specifically for those who have given birth) menstrual cups.

The Women’s and Equity committee remain committed to their campaign tackling period poverty and will be requesting additional funding in the next GMM (April 2020). Due to the high demands of menstrual cups we are restricting mail-outs orders so we can purchase more cups for members.

We are so appreciative of everyone’s interest and are overjoyed by the positive feedback we are receiving!

Shirleen, Amelia and Alexis.

Last week, one of our Unit 1 members, a Teaching Assistant, participated in one of the ongoing rail blockades in support of the Wet’suwet’en. Our member was interviewed by a public news source and was reported to have made claims about requiring students to participate in the blockades. The comment she was alleged to have made was not an accurate representation of what she actually said regarding students and the potential for a teachable moment. By virtue of this reported comment, our member has been subjected to targeted harassment and bigotry by members of the Hamilton community and beyond. Let us be clear at the outset: The claims our member was said to have made were not accurately reported, and even if they were, they would constitute no violation of the Collective Agreement which sets the terms of her employment.

CUPE 3906 has issued a statement standing in full solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en and has offered financial support to the Unist’ot’en Camp’s growing legal defence fund.

Meanwhile, in what appears to be an indirect yet targeted response to our member, McMaster University (our member’s employer) published a message via their Twitter account addressing the situation, claiming that grades cannot be associated with attendance at any particular protest. This message does not refer to any portion of the Collective Agreement between Unit 1 of CUPE 3906 and McMaster University, nor does it refer to any internal university policy.

The Collective Agreement does, however, outline McMaster’s duty to provide its Teaching Assistants with a safe working environment. By posting this message to the university’s public Twitter account, McMaster created an unsafe environment for one of its employees (who is also a student), essentially inviting – indirectly or not – targeted harassment and bigoted vitriol. Since the tweet was posted, our member has received direct messages rooted in racism and misogyny, as well as calls for the termination of their employment. As a union member, a Haudenosaunee womxn, and a human being, it is completely unacceptable that she has received such messages. McMaster’s tweet has drawn dozens of online comments, many of which are in clear violation of the university’s Discrimination and Harassment: Prevention and Response Policy. While we recognize that McMaster itself has not posted these racist and bigoted comments, deleting the tweet would be a step in the right direction to securing a safe working environment, enforcing their own discrimination and harassment policy, and taking away the space for these comments to be made and seen publicly.

Further, since our member has not violated any aspect of the Collective Agreement, any and all statements calling for our member’s termination are not only completely unfounded, but demonstrate a striking lack of understanding of what it means to be an employee, let alone a Unionized employee.

We find this event particularly egregious and ironic given McMaster University’s repeated public support of reconciliation. In particular, McMaster has stated it is “fully committed to supporting our Indigenous students, faculty, staff and local communities now and in the weeks and months to come.” Within the past weeks, McMaster has had the opportunity to put these words into action by standing up for its members (be they students or employees) as they support Indigenous rights across Turtle Island. Instead, McMaster chose to remain silent and, even worse, to tacitly (if not explicitly) endorse the harassment our Indigenous members are facing. The irony of allowing such anti-Indigenous hatred to go unchecked in a time when the university continues to tout its commitment to so-called “reconciliation” should not be lost on any of us.

CUPE 3906 stands in solidarity with our member (and indeed any other land defenders) in the face of such abuse. We also support their participation in the solidarity blockades.

Because McMaster has facilitated and exacerbated the issues outlined above, we publicly call on the university to immediately take the following actions:

1. Remove the tweet.
2. In keeping with McMaster’s stated commitment to reconciliation, as well as its duty to ensure a safe working environment of its employees, issue a statement condemning the attacks being made against our member.
3. In continuation of the above, issue a statement condemning anti-Indigenous violence in all forms, including both resource extraction and the harassment of so many land defenders, including our member discussed herein.

Sincerely

Nathan Todd

President, CUPE 3906

For a signed PDF version of the above statement, click here.

The membership of CUPE Local 3906 overwhelmingly passed a statement of support for the Wet’suwet’en protests at our February 25, 2020 General Membership Meeting.

At our most recent General Membership Meeting, CUPE 3906 approved a $3,000 donation to the Unist’ot’en Legal Defence Fund.

We also endorsed the following statement, and urge other labour unions to do the same:

CUPE 3906 stands in solidarity with the land defenders of Wet’suwet’en, the hereditary chiefs of this sovereign Nation, and all other Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island fighting to protect the land from unwanted degradation and militarized police intervention. We understand that extractive industries, environmental devastation, and police violence against Indigenous peoples are all inextricably linked as pillars of the settler colonial project that requires the continuous dispossession of Indigenous lands.

Earlier this month, RCMP trespassed further into Wet’suwet’en territory and began arresting both members of this sovereign Nation and (settler) legal observers, forcibly removing women in ceremony, and tearing down the gates that that had been set up for their protection – all while denying journalists the access to record such illegal acts.

Indeed, these acts fly in the face of Wet’suwet’en, Canadian, and international law. Most importantly, under Wet’suwet’en law, authority over the Nation’s territory remains with the hereditary chiefs of five clans, all of whom oppose the pipeline. While elected band councils may or may not have jurisdiction over reserve lands (at least under Canadian law, which forcibly imposed the band council system on Indigenous peoples in the first place), they absolutely do not have jurisdiction over the territories closest to the pipeline. The jurisdiction of hereditary chiefs over these lands was further confirmed by the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1997 Delgamuuk’w decision. In that case, the Court sided with the hereditary chiefs of the Wet’suwet’en and neighbouring Gitxsan nations, finding that both retained title to their territories. Furthermore, the evictions of land defenders from Wet’suwet’en constitute blatant violations of Article 10 (“No Forced Removals”) in the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which clearly states that “Indigenous peoples shall not be forcibly removed from their lands or territories.” We would like to remind the federal government that in their quest for so-called “reconciliation,” they agreed to abide by the UNDRIP in 2017. The violation of Indigenous people’s territorial sovereignty has been the norm in Canada for well over a century, yet somehow our government continues to frame this country as a progressive global leader on matters relating to Indigenous issues and the climate.

This week, OPP officers violently arrested several Tyendinaga Mohawk land defenders who had occupied a rail line in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en. As tensions continue to escalate and blockades increase in strength and numbers, we know that the only way to end the stand-offs in a peaceful manner will be to ensure the demands of the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs are met. We unequivocally support these demands, which are listed below:

• That the province cease construction of the Coastal Gaslink Pipeline project and suspend permits.
• That the UNDRIP and the Wet’suwet’en right to free, prior and informed consent (FPIC) are respected by the state and RCMP.
• That the RCMP and associated security and policing services be withdrawn from Wet’suwet’en lands, in agreement with the most recent letter provided by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination’s (CERD) request.
• That the provincial and federal government, RCMP and private industry employed by CGL respect our laws and our governance system, and refrain from using any force to access Wet’suwet’en lands or remove Wet’suwet’en people.

We also call on other labour unions and progressive organizations to make similar statements of support, not just in words but also in action. As of now, our Local has plans to send a substantial donation to the 2020 Unist’ot’en Legal Defence Fund, and many of our members stand ready to answer the call of Indigenous land defenders nearby, on the Haudenosaunee and Mississauga territories on which we live.

ALL EYES ON WET’SUWET’EN.

1. A  group of us will be meeting at the CUPE office (KTH B111) at 11:00 AM and taking the bus from campus to the nearby schools in Westdale together (closest stop: Longwood @ King). The more, the merrier!
2. It is VERY important that each person sign in with at Picket Captain upon arrival at the picket line. This goes for those who arrive in the large group, and for those who find their own transportation to the picket line. Picket Captains are typically easy to locate. Look for brightly coloured hats, vests, or other distinctive clothing.
3. Come by the CUPE office anytime before 11:00 AM Friday to grab your very own 3906 toque to wear on the picket line!
4. Those interested can also come by the office to make your own signs in support of Ontario’s education workers, starting at 9:00 AM Friday morning. We will provide the supplies!

We are getting questions about accessing McMaster T4 and T2202A tax forms from members.  We don’t believe they are available yet, but the Employer must make them available by the end of this month.