CUPE 3906

This is a publicly fund project to help relief Mental Health issues at the university, it includes several workshops where you can participate:

• COG (Cooperative Outdoor adventure Games): Take a quick break and activate by joining us for a mid-week adventure. You’ll work together to discover the secrets of the McMaster campus on foot and to clear your mind. No experience or skills required, just you and your runners.
  • Running on Wednesdays from 5:30pm until 6:30ish. We meet in the plaza area between Mills and MUSC. Our staff and volunteers will be wearing blue Arrive and Thrive t-shirts.
• WIND (Walk In Nature Days): you can get outside and leave your worries behind, by getting into nature with others in a positive, mutually supportive environment. No experience or skills required, just you and your hiking/walking shoes.
  • Running on Saturday mornings starting at 10:30am and meets in DBAC by the business office (glassed in office by front entrance). The walk goes for about an hour or so and then we provide a pizza lunch.
• Koru class: An evidence-based 4-week program, specifically designed for teaching mindfulness, meditation and stress management touniversity students and young adults. The curriculum consists of mind-body skills, guided meditations and more, aimed at helping you open your mind and manage your stress.
  • A graduate student only Koru class is scheduled to begin Thursday, April 7^th and goes for 4 weeks (time and location will be sent after pre-registration). Register: arriveandthrive@mcmaster.ca
• Pause: is a 1:1 session with a counsellor which allows for individualized assessment and discussion of a student’s use of substances (alcohol, marijuana, or tobacco), reasons for use and motivation to change their use. If the student is ready to make a change, support, suggestions and referrals. An email will to us will start that process, and we hope to see the person at their convenience (yes, we plan to have evening and day time hours – possibly even weekends). Once we receive someone interested in Pause we will be in contact within a week (if not sooner).
  • Contact arriveandthrive@mcmaster.ca
• Exploring Change: Do you have a habit that you are thinking about changing or would like to change? Using a variety of activities and a judgement-free approach, these 4 week groups focussed on partying (substance use), procrastination or perfectionism will help you figure out if you’re ready and how to make a change in your life.
  • Contact arriveandthrive@mcmaster.ca

All of our programming is confidential and in no way connected to either the student record or the health record unless the student requests it to be. For more information email arriveandthrive@mcmaster.ca or check their website:  http://arriveandthrive.ca/

Save the Date

Monday, 11th of April 2016

For more information and schedule visit:  http://wp.me/P5iRLY-2Nq

As you well know international students and workers face many of challenges and injustices in their intersecting roles as students, employees, immigrants and travelers.

You will have the opportunity to hear first hand experiences of the following issues:

• Unjust tuition fees increase

• Unjust access to health care

• Mental health issues

• Political rights

• Immigration accounts

• Money planning

• Successful international student stories

Save the date and get involved in the Hamilton and Mcmaster international community

 For any questions contact: vicepresident@cupe3906.org or politicalaction@cupe3906.org

Are you a great TA/RA? Of course you are!  Do you know someone else who is a great one as well? Of course you do!

the 2016 CUEP 3906 TA/RA award is open to all CUPE 3906 Unit 1 members (Graduate and Undergraduate TAs and RAs in lieu). Members may be nominated by their students, employment supervisors (supervising Professor) or other
TAs.

Successful candidates will receive a certificate recognizing their excellence, a letter of acknowledgement from the CUPE 3906 Executive Committee, a copy of this form as well as $200.00.
There will be a total of six awards given, one for each faculty listed below. Please fill out all applicable fields and deliver this form in person to the CUPE 3906 office (B111 Kenneth Taylor Hall) or via email to chiefsteward_tas@cupe3906.org before March 18th, 2016. Awards will be given out during our April GMM (date TBA)!

The nomination form is available here: http://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/2016/02/TAAward.NominationForm.pdf

We hope to see you on Tuesday February 23rd at 1 p.m. in KTH B135 for our monthly GMM.  We’ll have a free pizza lunch, and will be presenting changes to the by-laws.  We can also talk mental health fees, bargaining, and whatever else is on your mind.

CUPE 3906 ANNOUNCES THE TENTH ANNUAL MIKE SKINNER ACTIVIST AWARD!

The Mike Skinner Activist Award is a member-mandated award offered by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 3906 on an annual basis. Its title honours long-time labour activist and former CUPE 3906 Staff Member Mike Skinner.

CUPE 3906 represents roughly 3 000 Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants (in lieu), Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows at McMaster University each academic year.

The value of this year’s award is $500 to one person (or committee), an award certificate and an inscription on the Mike Skinner Activist Award plaque. This award is open to all current members of CUPE 3906 (this includes all Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants in lieu, Sessional Faculty, Hourly Rated Sessional Music Faculty and Postdoctoral Fellows), and anyone who has been a member of the local within the past 12 months.

The nomination period for this award is from February 1^st, 2016 to March 18^th, 2016.

If a suitable candidate has been active in your organization or department, or if you have seen a suitable candidate around campus or the in community, we invite you to nominate them for this award.

Specifically, the recipient of the Mike Skinner Activist Award may have been involved in the following possible issues over the course of his or her stay at McMaster University:

• Fighting for social justice issues (these issues are diverse and can include environmental justice, labour solidarity, gender equality, equity issues, and the advancement of peace);
• Promoting the welfare of humanity and the environment and the elimination of pain and suffering through acts of community organizing, education and/or solidarity.

This is not an exhaustive list, but includes a few common examples of the things that past award winners have been involved in and that the selection committee considers.

Award Criteria:

Please review the award criteria, and, when writing your letter of nomination and seeking supporting letters from others, include the nominee’s specific contributions. The main criterions are:

• Impact of their service to the community;
• Length and level of involvement or commitment of the nominee to their act of community service;
• The dedication and courage of the nominee’s activism.

The selection committee is comprised of members of the CUPE 3906 executive and members-at-large. Members of the selection committee cannot nominate a candidate. Members of the selection committee cannot nominate a candidate. Members of the selection committee who have personal ties with the nominees must yield their place to another member of the Executive or a CUPE member-at-large nominated by the members of the selection committee.

This year’s Activist Awards will be presented at the Annual General Meeting in late March or early April, 2016.

We look forward to receiving your nomination of an amazing CUPE 3906 member activist.

The nomination for is available here: http://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/2016/02/mike-skinner-activist-award-call-out-2016.docx

For further information please contact president@cupe3906.org or staff@cupe3906.org

Just a heads up, we’ll be in the Mills library entrance from 10:30 to 3:30 with bargaining surveys for TAs/RAs in lieu and post-docs for our upcoming negotiations. We hope to see you there. This is an important way to make sure that your voice and priorities and reflected in the bargaining process.

The electronic slips for anyone who opted in to receive the electronic format before February 17^th should have their slips available by February 19^th. The printed slips, for those who have not opted in, will be mailed out by the last day of the month.  Employees who are no longer active will receive their T4s in the same delivery method mentioned above.  Employees still have the ability to opt in on the Mosaic portal to receive their T4s electronically.

Dear TAs and RAs (in lieu),

We just wanted to remind you about our bargaining survey launch, happening today, between 10:30 and 4:30. It is a drop-in event, so swing by at a time that is convenient for you. We’ll have pizza over the lunch hour, and a fruit tray, veggie trey, and timbits throughout. The event is taking place in MUSC 301 (the Student Centre).

At the event, you can meet members of your elected bargaining teams, enjoy some food, and fill out your Bargaining Survey for your chance to win a prize (a $200 pre-loaded MasterCard) that is exclusive to those who fill the survey out at our launch party!

If you can’t make it to the event, you can also fill out the survey at your leisure online.  A link will be sent to your inbox.

The survey is crucial to ensure that we have your input and support to make this round of negotiations a success!

Survey Launch Party invitation flyer