CUPE Local 3906 will be holding our first General Membership Meeting, or GMM, of the academic year on Monday, October 6th, at 5:00 in Life Sciences Building, room B130-E.  Free pizza and drinks will be served at 5:00, and the meeting will get under way at 5:30.  The GMM is the highest decision making body of the union, and is an important way to be involved in your union.  The main agenda item on Monday night will be the adoption of the a yearly budget.  It will allow you to see how the local is spending its money, and members will have the opportunity to  add, delete, amend, and ultimately vote on this budget.
The meeting agenda : GMM_2014_Oct-06 Agenda

Following this meeting, the local will be hosting an Employment Insurance (EI) information session for all members.  The session will help to wlak you through the ins and outs of applying for EI.

We hope to see you there!

One of our stewards recently attended the 2014 Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions (CGEU) conference.  The CGEU (link to facebook page) brings together graduate student unions across North America to discuss common issues of concern and share strategies and best-practice when dealing with university administrators.

The conference attendees amended and adopted a Constitution (CGEU Constitution 2014-08-02) for their member unions, such as ours, to ratify.  Our executive has recommended we bring this to membership to vote on at our upcoming executive meeting on October 6th.

We think that this is a great opportunity for CUPE Local 3906 to become a founding member of the CGEU.

This past Friday, a few of our executive members attended a Save Door to Door Mail Delivery rally in Toronto.  Here is a picture of our two Vice Presidents (Caroline and Evan) with CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn.  More information about why it is important to Save Canada Post can be found here.

CUPE Local 3906 is proud to announce the winner of our 2014 Mike Skinner Activist Award: Dr. Brock Dubbels.  Brock is a post-doctoral fellow (Unit 3 member) working in the Department of Computing and Software.

Brock won the award for his role in launching Hamilton’s first ever “CoderDojo”.  CoderDojo is a movement orientated around running free not-for-profit coding clubs and regular sessions for young people.  At a CoderDojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more. Dojos are set up, run by and taught by volunteers, and also puts a strong emphasis on open source and free software.  For more information, click here.

The Mike Skinner Activist Award is presented annually to a CUPE 3906 member who plays an active role in improving the local community in a variety of ways, including fighting for social justice issues, environmental protection, and community organizing, education and/or solidarity.   It is named after Mike Skinner, a former business agent for CUPE 3906 and longtime social activist in the Hamilton community.

Congratulations Brock!!!!

Graduate Unit 1 (TA and RAs in lieu) members: CLICK HERE for six things you need to know about the upcoming payroll changes and your TA/RA (in lieu)!  

Did you know that the upcoming payroll changes will change how you receive your TA/RA (in lieu) pay and may change how you pay your dental coverage premiums?

Make sure to check out our “Six things you need to know…” flyer posted above, and visit the section of our website dedicated to TAs and the MOSAIC payroll changes: http://cupe3906.org/dental2014  The site has specific and useful information that could help you avoid unpleasant surprises (such as disruptions to your dental coverage) as the academic year progresses.

Also, don’t forget about the change of coverage deadlines (i.e., OPT OUT and FAMILY ENROLLMENT deadlines) for your dental benefits!  Forms must be in by September 8th, 2014, for your change of status to take effect retroactive to September 1st, 2014, or by September 30th, 2014 to have the changes take effect for October 1st, 2014.  For forms and information about OPTING OUT of or ENROLLING FAMILY MEMBERS into CUPE dental coverage, please CLICK HERE.

*NEW!* Click here for the School of Graduate Studies’ Payroll schedule for Graduate TAs and RAs (in lieu).

*NEW!* Click here for the School of Graduate Studies’ Scholarship Payment schedule for Graduate Students.

And don’t forget to check out our new TA/RA (in lieu) Hours of Work Tracking form by clicking here!

What’s not to love about free chocolate bars in the middle of a work day? What bars? Snickers, Mars, Kit Kat and other popular ones

When: Wednesday August 6th, from 10 am-1 pm

Where: Your building of course! We know you will be working (or at least trying to work 😉 ) at that timeWe will start at 10 am and move from building to building. Please join the Facebook event to get real-time updates on when we will be at your buildinghttps://www.facebook.com/events/282950981878053/?notif_t=plan_user_joinedSee you all on Wednesday!Equity Action Committee, CUPE 3906

As you may know, McMaster University is phasing in a new payroll system, MOSAIC, as part of a broader “human capital” management system called “PeopleSoft.”

The separation of employment pay (e.g., TA and RA pay) from academic funding (e.g., scholarships, loans, etc.) is one of the most significant impacts of this change for Graduate Students.  The School of Graduate Studies will no longer collect eligible Unit 1 (TA and RA in lieu) member dental premium deductions from academic funding.

For the most recent updates on the dental benefits coverage and premium changes for 2014-2015, please click here.

Please see our most recent communique regarding these changes here.

We will continue to make information available to our members regarding these changes and their impact on dental benefit premium deductions as information arises.