Here is your executive committee for CUPE Local 3906 for the 2015-16 year.  Some new faces are joining an experienced executive to continue to provide close to 3 500 members with excellent service, advocacy and representation. We’re also proud of the diversity on our executive committee.

President- Evan Johnston
Vice President- Rebecca Collins-Nelsen
Vice President External- Ryan Sparrow
Secretary Treasurer- Herman Poon
Recording Secretary- Naim Tajavpour
Chief Steward Unit 1- Kevin Barnhorst
Chief Steward Unit 2- Barb Bloemhof
Chief Steward Unit 3- (currently vacant)
Health and Safety Officer- Samira Farivar
Equity Officer- Chandra Kavanagh
Benefits and Advocacy Officer- Sathish Pichika
International Officer- Darko Ljubic
Undergraduate Officer- Jennifer Tang

Congratulations to Ismael Traore, a Unit 2 (sessional faculty member) in Sociology, and the winner of the 2014-15 Mike Skinner Activist Award.  The award is given annually to a CUPE 3906 member who displays progressive activism on social justice issues in the broader community, and is named after Mike Skinner, a former long-time staff representative with Local 3906.

Ismael has played a major role in Black, Brown and Red Lives Matter, a social movement that deals with race and police interaction in the Hamilton area.

Congratulations for all of your hard-work.

Congratulations to our 2014-15 Teaching Assistant/Research Assistant Award winners: Duha Al-Sajee (Health Sciences), Ali Mohammad Rabea (Engineering), Madeline Mant (Social Sciences), Sepideh Ebrahimi (DeGroote School of Business), and Natashya Wall (Science).  Thanks for all of the hard-work and dedication to your students.

These awards are determined based on nominations from both students and the professors that our TAs work for.  Further evidence the McMaster works because we do!

Pictured below are Madeline, Duha, and Sepideh.

CUPE 3906 Annual General Meeting

  March 30, 2015  (5:30 PM)

 B105 – DeGroote School of Business

Our Annual General Meeting (AGM) to be held on Monday, March 30, 2015 at 5:30 PM (DeGroote School of Business (DSB) B105).

All executive positions will be up for election. The executive consists of the following positions:  (Description of each position)

– President
– Vice President
– Vice President External
– Secretary Treasurer
– Recording Secretary
– Chief Steward Unit 1
– Chief Steward Unit 2
– Chief Steward Unit 3
– Health and Safety Officer
– Equity Officer
– Benefits and Advocacy Officer
– International Officer
– Undergraduate Officer

All members in good standing may be nominated. A member in good standing is someone that is currently a CUPE member or someone who has been in the past eight (8) months. For unit-specific positions (the three Chief Stewards), only members of that unit may be nominated. For all other positions, members of all three units may be nominated.

As our By-Laws further specify: “The Undergraduate Officer shall be an undergraduate member. The Equity Officer shall be a member of an ‘equity seeking group’ (Appendix B). The International Officer shall be a member who is classified as a non-Canadian citizen.”

Nomination forms are available in the CUPE 3906 office, located in Kenneth Taylor Hall (KTH) B111. Nomination forms will be accepted until the day of the election. The nomination form can be downloaded here. Members may also choose to nominate (or self-nominate) from the floor during the meeting.

The nomination, campaigning, and election of Executive Committee members is governed by the bylaws of CUPE 3906. All terms are for 1 year.

For more information, please contact a staff member (cupe3906@mcmaster.ca) or Rebecca Collins-Nelsen (president@cupe3906.org).

Free food and refreshments will be provided at 5:00 PM.

If you require reimbursement for childcare costs, please email cupe3906@mcmaster.ca.

CUPE 3906 has celebrated an International Women’s Day with a Cake on March 6, 2015.

Dear members of CUPE 3906,

Over the past week, academic workers of CUPE 3902 (University of Toronto) and CUPE 3903 (York University) have gone out on strike to demand better funding packages for teaching assistants, long-term job security for contract faculty, and justice for international graduate students.

The issues they are fighting on their campuses are the same that we face here at McMaster due to a systematically underfunded post-secondary system in Ontario, and that is why the CUPE 3906 Executive Committee has made it a priority to support our sister locals in their struggles for a fair and just collective agreement.

For more information, you can read our letters of solidarity to CUPE 3902 and to CUPE 3903.

Ryan Sparrow (VP External) and Kevin Barnhorst (Chief Steward Unit 1) on the picket lines at the University of Toronto – Mississauga.

Evan Johnston (Vice President) and Rebecca Collins-Nelsen (President) at the University of Toronto (St. George campus).

In solidarity,
Evan Johnston, Vice President

The General Membership Meeting (GMM) is the highest decision-making body of our union. All members are encouraged to attend and participate!

Ever been confused by the rules we follow at our GMMs? Then check out our handy ‘Rules of Order’ guide here: http://cupe3906.org/wp-content/blogs.dir/501/2015/02/CUPE3906_RO.pdf

If you wish to add an item to the agenda, please contact the Recording Secretary, Naim Tajvarpoor (recordingsecretary@cupe3906.org).

A tentative agenda will be posted soon.

Time  : March 12, 2015. 12:30 PM

Location : Building T13, Room 106

Dear CUPE 3906 members,

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. 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). The nomination period for this award is from March 1^st, 2015  to March 23^rd, 2015.  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.

For more information, including a nomination form, please click here