We’re pleased to announce that Local 3906 President Chandra Kavanagh was awarded the 2015-16 CUPE Ontario “Sisters in Solidarity” award at last week’s CUPE Ontario annual convention. Congratulations!!!
Cast your vote for the Ontario Health Care Coalition Referendum on May 26th!
This just in! CUPE 3906 will be hosting a voting station in our office, KTH B111, for the Ontario Health Care Coalition‘s Referendum on cuts to hospitals! Please stop by tomorrow, May 26th, between 10 and 4 and cast your ballot for public health care!
For more information, please visit: http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/
Graduate Student Mental Health petition
A group of graduate student is fighting to regain access to mental health services that were recently cut by McMaster University, help support them
Reminder: General Membership Meeting on Wednesday May 18- Noon- TSH B128
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
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
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
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
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.
Cupcake Celebration: Notice to Bargain
WHAT: Notice to Bargain Celebration!
WHEN: May 4, 2016, from 11:00 A.M. to 2:00 P.M.
WHERE: McMaster Student Centre
As you may know, the CUPE 3906 Collective Agreements that cover Unit 1 (TAs and RAs in lieu) and Unit 3 (Postdoctoral Fellows) expire on August 31st, 2016.
This means that it’s time to renegotiate the Collective Agreements!
Tomorrow, May 4th, 2016, we are giving notice to bargain the agreements.
Come and find out about the bargaining process between 11:00 A.M. and 2:00 P.M., and enjoy a CUPE cupcake too (while they last)! Speak to your bargaining representatives and bargaining support committee and find out how you can get involved in the process that determines your wages, benefits and working conditions.
We hope to see you there!
In solidarity,
Your Bargaining Support Committee
Unit 2 (Sessionals) End of Term Information
The end of the term is here, and for many of our members, that means the end of their employment. This has a few implications, discussed below.
We wanted to remind sessionals that can (and should) apply for Employment Insurance (EI) as soon as possible. The last pay period of the semester is on Friday, April 29th, and this will represent an ‘interruption in earnings,’ which is a technical term that must first happen before you can apply for EI. You’ll also need to have received a Record of Employment (ROE) from McMaster, which should be automatically uploaded to Service Canada. You’ll need to create a Service Canada ID if you don’t have one already. Normally, each 3.0 unit credit is equivalent to 238 hours, and you will need to reach a certain threshold of hours worked in the past 52 weeks in order to be eligible for EI (in Hamilton, for example, you will need 700 hours if you a return EI applicant, but it is generally lower in other areas). More information can be found here: http://cupe3906.org/sessionals-unit-2/employment-insurance-unit-2/
If you feel that you have exceeded the 238 hours for a 3.0 unit course, you can speak to us and make a request to your chair. There won’t be additional payment, but the additional hours will be reflected on your ROE and will count toward the EI threshold.
Finally, for those of you with a large class (that is, a class over 75 students), you will receive an additional lump sum payment (if you haven’t already) that reflects the higher workload associated with a large class. It will appear on a separate line on your pay stub and listed as ‘class size.’ If you don’t receive this, please notify your Union.
Your collective agreement provides you with protections from post-contract work, and offers an additional payment if you are required to perform it. In the event your supervisor requests you to re-read papers or exams, attend appeals, deal with cases of academic dishonesty, grade or regrade late papers or exams after the contract expiry date, and in the event that you agree to perform such extra work, you will receive extra remuneration at the hourly rate of $61.00/hr. If this occurs, payment should be processed automatically and paid within one-month. You will need to verify the time spent doing such work with your department. If this payment is not processed, please contact your Union.
If you have any questions about this information, including Employment Insurance, please contact Brad, the staff representative assigned to Unit 2: bwalchuk@cupe3906.org