Please be advised that our benefits provider, Equitable Life of Canada, notified the Union that access to dental benefits will be suspended for an unspecific period of time.  There is currently a discrepancy surrounding the total premiums collected for the 2014-15 academic year.  The Union, Equitable Life, and McMaster are all working to resolve this issue.

During this period, you will still remain eligible for dental coverage and can visit a dentist, but unfortunately Equitable will not be paying out any dental claims until it is satisfied that an appropriate amount of premiums has been paid.

We know that this situation is likely to cause inconvenience to those who have recently submitted a claim or who have a dental appointment scheduled in the next few days.  We are committed to ensuring that the situation is rectified as soon as possible so you don’t go long without reimbursement.

Please check cupe3906.org regularly for all updates, and contact staff@cupe3906.org if you have any questions in the meantime.

edited: October 7, 2015 at 4:04 p.m.

We are having a General Membership Meeting, or GMM, on Tuesday September 29^th at 5:00 p.m. in TSH B-105.  A free pizza dinner from Basilique will be provided, as well as drinks.  There are a number of important happenings at this meeting, including a presentation and debate of, and voting on, the 2015-16 operating budget, as well as the election of a new President and a new Treasurer.  In addition, we are electing a Unit 1 bargaining committee.

The Unit 1 collective agreement expires on August 31, 2016 and the Unit 1 bargaining committee will be responsible for helping to re-negotiate a collective agreement, aided by the support of the union’s staff.  Your collective agreement is a democratically decided employment contract that covers all TAs and RAs (in lieu), and includes a variety of rights and benefits, including wages, hours of work, benefits, sick days, and working conditions.  Collective bargaining is the process by which we are able to make improvements to the existing collective agreement.  The elected bargaining committee plays a key role in this process.  The time commitment is minimal over the fall and winter, though it picks up in the spring.  There are up to eight elected positions on the committee, each which pays $300 per month. The positions will be active for approximately 12 months.

More information on the vacant executive positions (President and Treasurer) can be found here.

We hope to see you next Tuesday at 5:00 pm in TSH B-105.  If you have questions in the meantime, please e-mail cupe3906@mcmaster.ca

CUPE 3906 members were proud to be on the picket lines of locked-out MANA workers. These workers have been locked-out for two years because they said to “no” to a $10/hr wage cut.

An article on the lock-out, and yesterday’s rally featuring a concert from punk band D.O.A., can be found here.

The 19th Annual Graduate Student Awards acknowledges student excellence in teaching, communicating and translating research, and leadership on campus and beyond.

Congratulations to the 27 Teaching Assistants, all CUPE 3906 members, that are nominated for the GSA Keith Leppmann Teaching Assistant Excellence Award.

Congratulations also to our President, Evan Johnston, who is nominated for the Mary Keyes Award for Outstanding Leadership and Service to McMaster.

The position of Treasurer has recently become vacant on the CUPE 3906 Executive Committee, for which an election will be held at our next General Membership Meeting (GMM) on September 29. For a brief description of the responsibilities for this position, please see the following overview of executive portfolios.

All members in good standing may be nominated. A member in good standing is someone that is currently a CUPE 3906 member or someone who has been in the past eight (8) months. During the GMM, a member may nominate another member (or choose to self-nominate) from the floor.

The Executive Committee would also like to thank our previous Treasurer, Herman Poon, for his many years of dedicated service to the local, and we wish him well in his future endeavours.

For more information about this position, please contact Evan Johnston (president@cupe3906.org).

The CUPE executive, thanks largely to the hard work of Darko (our International Officer) and Ulduz (our former Unit 3 Chief Steward), has developed a helpful Welcome Guide for international members.  We think it will be useful in orienting newcomers to McMaster and to Hamilton more broadly. It can be read on-line here.

Information for Unit 1 dental benefits, including eligibility, updated  premium rates, opt-out provisions, family coverage information, and deadlines is now posted on-line.

The 2015-16 rate for single coverage is $12.43/mth, while family coverage is $77.19/mth.  The opt-out and family enrollment deadline is Wednesday, September 9th at 4:00 p.m. This is a firm deadline. Please note if you are opting-out or enrolling in family coverage, it must be done each year.

Full information can be found here

Please note that we are in the process of updating our Unit 1 dental forms for the 2015-16.  The reason for the delay is that the Employer informed us in July that they planned to take 100% of the dental premiums (12 months worth of premiums) off of the first paycheque in September.  At our July General Membership Meeting, the members in attendance unanimously said “no!” to this costly proposal.  Previously, 12 months of premiums were collected over the duration of one’s employment (8 bi-weekly installments for those working in only one term, or 16 bi-weekly installments for those working fall and winter).

Allowing 12 months of deductions to be taken off in full on a single pay period would be financially crippling to many of members, especially in light of recent changes to scholarship payments which paid them out in full in May 2015, which have meant that many of our members have been without income over the past three months. This would have meant that over $144 would have been deducted off the first pay period, a time when grad student employees are also paying supplemental fees, textbooks, and a large chunk of tuition.

Since late July, we have been negotiating a more equitable and affordable means of collecting the premiums.  This has resulted in an inability to publish any updated forms for the 2015-16 academic year.  In the meantime, should you need to enroll in family coverage or opt-out of the plan, please use the forms from 2014-15, which are available in the Unit 1 Benefits section of our website.  Please note that the rates have increased to $12.43/mth for single coverage and $77.19/mth for family coverage.  The duration in which those premiums are to be deducted is still in the process of being negotiated, but we have firmly refused to have them deducted in full on the first pay period as the Employer originally proposed.

New sessionals (this includes anyone who has been employed for 3 years or less as a sessional) are invited to a New Faculty Welcome on August 27th at the Faculty Club. The event begins at 8:30 and ends after a complementary lunch.

CUPE Local 3906 and the McMaster Institute for Innovation & Excellence in Teaching & Learning (MIIETL) are also hosting a workshop for new sessionals on October 9th.

These events are not one-on-one orientations with your Department Chair, which we believe are a vital part of the orientation process at McMaster.

All events are free and can be registered for at:

New Faculty Welcome: https://2015nfo.eventbrite.ca

Fall Workshop Series: https://2015nfoworkshops.eventbrite.ca

For more information, please see: http://miietl.mcmaster.ca/site/teaching-learning-forum/