Bargaining Support Ping Pong Event

Brad Walchuk Uncategorized

We will be booking a party room at Serve Ping Pong club from 7:30-10:30pm, where you can work on your ping pong game, enjoy some refreshments, and catch up with members of the Unit 1 and Unit 3 bargaining and bargaining support teams.

Come join us at 115 King St. E #105 from 7:30-10:30pm on Friday, June 10th!

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Post-Doc Support Fund: Expanded Access for unanticipated UHIP fees

Brad Walchuk Uncategorized

We have been following up on those cases involving members who have incurred UHIP expenses due to delays in renewing work permits, and we are pleased to inform that this concern is largely resolved.  Although we are not in a position to speed up/alter the CIC processing time, we were able to secure an arrangement by which affected members are able to submit their UHIP payment as an expense for refund through the PDF Support Fund. To be eligible, you need to demonstrate that you applied for OHIP coverage in a timely manner, but due to processing delays you had to pay to enroll to UHIP.

More specific details about the eligibility, process and requirements to apply for this fund is laid out in the documents below.

Click here for a list of commonly asked questions (FAQs) regarding the Post-Doctoral Support Fund.

Click here to download the application package for the Post-Doctoral Support Fund.

Reminder: General Membership Meeting on Wednesday May 18- Noon- TSH B128

Brad Walchuk Uncategorized

We wanted to let you know that we’ll be having a General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, May 18th at noon in TSH B128.

The main item on the agenda will be the ratification of our unit 1 bargaining priorities, something that we didn’t have the opportunity to finish at our last meeting. This item is of considerable importance as it allows you to have a final say on the package that we present to the Employer in June. Members will have the opportunity to review the current proposals and make amendments to them.

We will also be voting on a cost-share motion with CUPE National, which will help to secure additional funding from our national union to help with bargaining outreach and support.

Finally, we have a recently opened position on the Unit 3 (post-doc) bargaining team.  Unit 1 members are able to run for this position.  If you are interested, please contact your union (staff@cupe3906.org) for more information.  We will need a quorum of at least 5 post-docs at this meeting to facilitate an election at the meeting on the 18th.

As always, lunch will be provided.

We hope to see you there.

ROE Update #3

Brad Walchuk Uncategorized

Another message from the Employer:

“I just received confirmation that 275 records were uploaded to the Service Canada site. 154 of the 275 were accepted and 121 were rejected.

It is not out of the ordinary to have an ROE rejected, it can happen for a variety of reasons. The 121 rejected records are being reviewed and uploaded to Service Canada as they are completed.”

ROE Update #2

Brad Walchuk Uncategorized

From the Employer:

“A quick update to let you know that it appears that the software upgrade has worked and I should know within the next couple of hours if there was an issue with the upload to Service Canada.”

General Membership Meeting- May 18th at noon

Brad Walchuk Uncategorized

We wanted to let you know that we’ll be having a General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, May 18th at noon in TSH B128.

The main item on the agenda will be the ratification of our unit 1 bargaining priorities, something that we didn’t have the opportunity to finish at our last meeting. This item is of considerable importance as it allows you to have a final say on the package that we present to the Employer in June. Members will have the opportunity to review the current proposals and make amendments to them.

We will also be voting on a cost-share motion with CUPE National, which will help to secure additional funding from our national union to help with bargaining outreach and support.

Finally, we have a recently opened position on the Unit 3 (post-doc) bargaining team.  Unit 1 members are able to run for this position.  If you are interested, please contact your union (staff@cupe3906.org) for more information.  We will need a quorum of at least 5 post-docs at this meeting to facilitate an election at the meeting on the 18th.

As always, lunch will be provided.

We hope to see you there.

Unit 2- Record of Employment Update

Brad Walchuk Uncategorized

Hello Sessionals,
We wanted to pass along a quick update regarding Records of Employment (ROEs), as this is an issue that many of you have had concerns about.  We have spoke with many of you about this, and have been in discussions with Employee/Labour Relations all week on this issue.
An ROE is issued when there is an interruption in earnings, or quite simply at the end of your contract.  This needs to be issued within 5 days of the end of contract, and is required for accessing Employment Insurance. The Employer uploads these to Service Canada, which you can then access online.  These must be issued within 5 days of the last day in which you were paid (which was April 29th), not the last day worked. At this point, they are roughly a week late.
We have been informed, perhaps not surprisingly, that an issue with MOSAIC, McMaster’s multi-million dollar computer system, has caused the delay.  Approximately 100 ROEs have been uploaded, but another 175 ROEs have yet to be uploaded by the Employer.
We were informed that a software update is happening overnight (between Thursday night and Friday morning), and assuming that all goes well, ROEs will be automatically generated and uploaded to Service Canada tomorrow morning.  If a computer glitch remains, the Employer will have to manually upload them.  Please check our website tomorrow afternoon for some update.
Once all ROEs have been uploaded, the Union will continue discussions with the Employer to ensure that proper processes are in place for the spring semester to prevent another delay. The present practice is frankly unacceptable, and a clear violation of federal regulations. New processes are needed.
We are aware that this has caused issue for many members who are applying for EI.  If you have any concerns about this, please do not hesitate to contact your Union.