CUPE 3906

Our first General Membership Meeting (GMM) of the academic year will take place in MUSC 311-13 on Wednesday, September 26th at 12:30. As always, pizza lunch and childcare reimbursements are provided.

We will be debating and ratifying the 2018-19 operating budget at this important meeting. Further agenda items will be finalized closer to the meeting.

Thank you everyone who attended the General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, August 22 at noon. The meeting went well and we had many U2 members who joined the meeting, asked questions/clarification and context behind these new proposed changes to the Health Care Spending Account.

The two co-pay options were discussed as follows: Option 1: 70% co-pay option and no travel insurance and Option 2: 55% co-pay option with travel insurance.

The U2 members present at the meeting unanimously supported the 70% co-pay option without the travel insurance (option 1). This simply means that a U2 member can get back 7 dollars for every 10 dollars claimed. So, out of 500 dollars allocated, the U2 member can claim 350 dollars from Health Care Spending Account.

These new changes will take place for U2 Health Care Spending Account Claims starting September 1^st, 2018. If you have any further questions, please contact the CUPE office (administrator@cupe3906.org) and/or benefits officer (benefits@cupe3906.org)

Travel insurance will still be available for Unit 2 members use until March 2019 (when the purchased insurance expires) at which point it will not be renewed.

There are potential impacts to an employee’s EI if their first day worked is stated as September 1.  EI is payable Sunday to Saturday and since this is part of the payable week it may impact their earnings.  Therefore the start date for the Fall Term will be September 2.

Pay periods for the 2018-19 academic year are as follows: https://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/2018/08/2018-19-pay-peroids.pdf

Dear Members,

The Union’s most significant decisions are made by Union members at General Membership Meetings (GMMs).

All CUPE 3906 members of all 3 units (TAs and RAs in lieu, Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows) can attend regular GMMs and get involved in the Union’s decision making processes.

Our next GMM will be held on Wednesday, August 22nd at noon in BSB 108.

We offer a free lunch and reimbursement for childcare costs. The agenda will include a discussion of the Stoney Creek Rent Strike and a sponsorship package of the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre.

We hope to see you there!

We will be holding our August General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, August 22nd at noon in BSB 108. The agenda will be posted in advance of the meeting. We hope to see you all there.

The General Membership of CUPE 3906 strongly condemns the recent policies of the Trump administration and the practices of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency who have willfully abused human rights and engaged in torture through the separation of parents and children in various detention centers across the country. The most recent numbers indicate that at least 2300 children have been separated from their families since April; however, this is a considerable underestimation given that not all ports of entry have reported their numbers to Homeland Security.

While the Trump administration has rescinded its policy of separating families at the border due to mounting political backlash, there have thus far been no efforts to actively reunite families, as children are effectively being used as hostages for political leverage. This gross violation of human rights is utterly deplorable and must not pass with silence.

The international community, including Canada, must take a stand against these practices. CUPE 3906 would like to call on elected officials and ordinary citizens alike to take two minutes out of their workday to sign and submit the Council of Canadians’ and Amnesty International Canada’s letters to Justin Trudeau and Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, Ahmed Hussen, urging them to suspend Canada’s “Safe Third Country Agreement” that prevents the vast majority of asylum seekers who arrive in the U.S. from making claims in Canada. By now it should be clear to everyone that refugees are no longer safe in the United States.

Furthermore, Prime Minister Trudeau’s statement that “this is not the way we do things in Canada,” denies a history of forcibly separating children from their family, and contradicts the practices that continue today. The forceful separation of families has been a central practice in Canada’s settler-colonial institutions. The current child welfare system represents a “humanitarian crisis” as over 50% of the are Indigenous.

Moreover, while we must rightly call on the United States to end their policy of detention and reunite these families for good, CUPE 3906 also calls on Canada to end its policy of separating children from their parents in immigration detention. Year-over-year the number of families separated in detention has increased. This unacceptable and inhumane practice has lasting negative consequences that do not conform with the best interests of the children that our system is intended to protect.

We urge you to take the following action(s):

The Council of Canadians’ letter to PM Justin Trudeau and Minister Hussen: https://secure.canadians.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1899&ea.campaign.id=65127

Link to Amnesty International Canada’s letter to Minister Hussen: https://e-activist.com/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1770&ea.campaign.id=63426&_ga=2.70040338.363122809.1529501450-419011758.1529501450

You can also contact your local MP directly by following the directions linked here: https://www.amnesty.ca/blog/tell-your-mp-usa-isnt-safe-refugees

Anyone looking for more information on Canada’s Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. can read the FAQ fact sheet provided by the Canadian Council for Refugees linked here: http://ccrweb.ca/en/refugees-entering-us-and-safe-third-country-faq

Finally, we’d also urge you to connect with local migrant rights groups, such as Justicia 4 Migrant Workers (http://www.justicia4migrantworkers.org/), the Hamilton Immigrant Working Centre (http://iwchamilton.ca/), Wesley Urban Ministries (https://wesley.ca/refugee-information-portal/) , Refuge: Hamilton Centre for Newcomer Health (https://www.newcomerhealth.ca/), the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War (http://hamiltoncoalitiontostopthewar.ca/), and the Emergency Support Committee for Refugees (https://www.escr1987.com/), to whom our General Membership Meeting supporting making a financial donation to on June 27^th, 2018.

We urge you for your support in these trying times.

Sincerely,

Angie Perez, President

On behalf of the General Membership of CUPE Local 3906

Our next General Membership Meeting will be held on Wednesday August 22nd at noon. The location is TBA at this point, but will be confirmed soon. The agenda will be posted in advance of the meeting. We hope to see you there, and as always, lunch will be provided and child-care costs reimbursed upon request.

Recently, William Kaplan, one of Ontario’s most respected arbitrators, heard a grievance put forward by the Ryerson University Faculty Association at arbitration. The grievance dealt with the usage of Student Evaluations of Teachings (or SETs) and their applicability for employment related decisions by Ryerson University.

Your Union has long expressed concerns about the effectiveness of SETs when we have bargained with the Employer. Among other things, we have been concerned that various factors, especially personal characteristics such as race, gender, accent, age and “attractiveness” skew the results. We have also expressed concern that a simple numeric figure is limited in its effectiveness and easy to skew. We believe that the decision by Arbitrator Kaplan, which can be read in full here, confirms many of our long-held concerns about the shortcomings of SETs (or course evaluations, as they are more commonly referred to here).

Perhaps the most notable part of the decision is as follows: “The expert evidence led at the hearing persuasively demonstrates that the most meaningful aspects of teaching performance and effectiveness cannot be assessed by SETs. Insofar as assessing teaching effectiveness is concerned – especially in the context of tenure and promotion – SETs are imperfect at best and downright biased and unreliable at worst.”

We believe this decision has the potential to have important implications on hiring decisions here, especially in those instances in which departments rely heavily on SETs to deny members employment. We will also address this decision at our next round of collective bargaining, scheduled for 2020.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact either Peter Graham (Unit 2 Chief Steward- chiefsteward_sessionals@cupe3906.org) or Brad Walchuk (Unit 2 Staff Representative-bwalchuk@cupe3906.org)