Our Unit 2 Bargaining Team is meeting with the Employer today for ongoing negotiations with the McMaster University Administration. These negotiations are part of a process called conciliation, which precedes a strike or lockout and is assisted by a government-appointed Conciliation Officer.
There are a few outstanding issues at the table. First and foremost is the Employer’s position on proration—that is, the Employer’s ability to determine, arbitrarily and unilaterally, the amount of work involved in teaching a course (and, by implication, the amount of stipend a member should be paid for teaching). The Union is absolutely opposed to this position.
The Bargaining Team will provide an update for members following our Conciliation Session today (November 16th). Please check your emails for updates, and follow us on social media (@cupe3906 and @cupe_3906).
To support your Bargaining Team and to join our strike committee, please contact Sylvia at mobilizer@cupe3906.org. You can also attend tomorrow’s strike committee meeting, happening via Zoom at 1pm EST. Click here to join the meeting. We hope to see you there!
CUPE 3906 Executive Committee Opposes the Ford’s Anti-Democratic Bill-168, Which Silences Palestinians and Threatens Academic Freedom
The CUPE 3906 Executive Committee stands firm against the Ford government’s recent adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA-WDA), through an Order-In-Council, circumventing a third hearing and public debate on the associated Bill 168. The IHRA-WDA is the product of a growing movement that seeks to redefine antisemitism to include criticism of the Israeli state. We, the executives, believe that this definition poses a serious threat to critical research and scholarship in Ontario.
Recently, the Trump Administration has begun considering labelling several human rights organizations, (including Amnesty International, Oxfam, and Human Rights Watch), as “antisemitic,” and two Ontario universities have been the site of false and destructive charges of antisemitism against respected international human rights scholars. These attacks are deeply troubling for us as scholars and teachers. The IHRA-WDA is a direct attack on academic freedom, endangering our ability to engage in scholarship and teaching that explore facts and perspectives that are critical of a foreign state. It can place Ontarian academics at great risk of being falsely accused of being antisemitic, which could result in intimidation, censorship, job precarity, and costly litigation.
The conflation of antisemitism with critique of Israel is dramatically out of step with the views of most Canadians, including the executives at CUPE 3906. No Ontario university has adopted the IHRA-WDA. According to a poll released earlier this month, 80% of Canadians do not believe that criticisms of Israel are antisemitic. The Ford government has shown that it is willing to back down on reactionary decisions when it is met with robust public opposition. Strong intervention in defence of academic freedom and the necessary autonomy of university governance can prevent this neo-McCarthyist definition from being used to silence Palestinian rights defenders.
Outlawing and censoring critique of a foreign state in university research and teaching is governmental overreach. Modern universities have been defined and governed as autonomous institutions of learning for a reason. Expectations of institutional autonomy and collegial governance, like that of academic freedom, protect universities from governments or private interests wishing to set limits on what can be researched and what can be taught. Human rights research is as vulnerable to such intrusion as research in pharmaceuticals, energy, white collar crime, foreign relations, or any other potentially contentious research subject.
In solidarity,
The CUPE 3906 Executive Committee
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We have confirmed that McMaster will be compensating incoming international postdocs during their mandatory quarantine period. Depending on when the individual arrives in Canada, the quarantine period may happen prior to the actual appointment start date or overlap with the appointment start date. In any case, folks will be paid their full weekly salary for each week during the mandatory quarantine period. In cases where the mandatory quarantine period falls within the start date of the appointment, the employee may be required to work, subject to them being able to complete the work remotely, during the quarantine period.
We’re back at the conciliation table on Monday and hoping to secure a fair collective agreement. Sessionals make vital contributions to McMaster and deserve a collective agreement that reflects this. Let’s go!!!
The CUPE 3906 Unit 2 Bargaining Team met in conciliation with the Employer on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 and Wednesday, October 21, 2020. “Conciliation” refers to contract negotiations that are assisted by a government-appointed Conciliation Officer, who tries to help the parties reach agreement before they can initiate a strike or lockout deadline.
The implications of the Conservative Party’s Bill 124 continued to make negotiations difficult and frustrating for both parties. The legislation limits compensation to 1% per year over the first 3 years of a contract.
Aside from the implications of Bill 124, the Employer refused to cede ground on job security, training, and the proration of 3-unit positions.
Both parties are returning to the table in the near future to continue negotiations. The Bargaining team would like to thank members again for the strong show of support through the 81% strike mandate.
We wish we had better news, but our policy grievance regarding the Employer’s efforts to exclude out-of-province TAs from the bargaining unit was recently denied at Step 3, thus blocking these TAs from accessing our dental plan, healthcare spending account, Gender Affirmation Fund, various worker protections, and more. We have referred the matter to arbitration and continue to work closely with CUPE National’s legal department in preparation for this next (and hopefully final) step.
It is important to note that while out-of-province TAs are indeed being denied the benefits and protections of bargaining unit members (at least for now), this can have no bearing on one’s political membership. Essentially what this means is if you held a TA contract anytime during or after the Winter 2020 term, you can still attend union meetings, run for office, and vote in any by-elections – at least until the Fall 2020 term has ended.
If you are an out-of-province TA who has been affected by McMaster’s union busting and you have yet to get in touch with us, please do so by emailing president@cupe3906.org or staff@cupe3906.org. We’d also ask any CUPE 3906 members – be they out-of-province TAs or not – who are interested in organizing around this issue to please email us at organizingchair@cupe3906.org.
Hamilton, ON— The front-line instructors responsible for a significant proportion of undergraduate teaching at McMaster University have concluded a strike vote after three days of socially distant voting. Sessional Faculty and Hourly-Rated Sessional Music Faculty at McMaster University, comprising CUPE Local 3906 (Unit 2), voted 81% in favour of providing their Bargaining Committee with a strike mandate should negotiations the table with the McMaster Administration fail.
A historic number of members participated in the vote between October 14th and October 16th, which was held online due to pandemic safety measures and restricted access to the University campus. The Bargaining Team is overwhelmed that so many members participated in the vote. “We are grateful that members demonstrated such strong support for the Union’s proposals on the table,” says Sharoni Mitra, the Local’s President, “especially given the pressures and stress that members already face due to the pandemic, the increasingly precarious nature of employment at postsecondary institutions, and the restrictions imposed on front-line public sector workers by the Ford government’s legislation.”
This 81% mandate highlights the Employer’s need to take members’ concerns to heart immediately or face job action. Proposals that erode job security and make already precarious work more piecemeal must be removed from the table. The Employer must work with the Union to find ways to support members’ access to the training and resources they need to continue providing the teaching excellence on which McMaster prides itself. Finally, proposals that address members’ fundamental needs—such as improvements to basic health funds and a promise not to reduce positions in the move to online teaching—must not be neglected in such volatile times where front-line workers everywhere are struggling.
The results of this vote do not mean that a strike is forthcoming, but do empower the bargaining team to call a strike should negotiations not provide meaningful gains to members. The next step in the bargaining process is conciliation, in which a provincially appointed conciliation officer will meet with the parties. Conciliation is scheduled on Tuesday, October 20th, and Wednesday, October 21st, 2020. More days may be scheduled if progress continues and the Parties agree to meet.
Local 3906 is eager to put the support of its members into action at the bargaining table and is committed to membership engagement throughout the process. Please watch for our updates and additional bargaining support initiatives.
CUPE Local 3906 (Unit 2) represents over 500 Sessional Faculty and Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.
