Nominations opened for three different elections/by-elections on Tuesday December 13: Grievance Officer, VP Unit 3, and the bargaining teams for Units 1, 2, and 3. Candidates must fill out a nomination form, available at the CUPE 3903 office (143 Atkinson), and sign the register. For the bargaining team positions and VP Unit 3, candidates must be members in good standing of that unit. The members who sign the nomination form must also belong to that unit. Grievance Officer is a position open to all units. Nominations will close and campaigning begin at the January 19 GMM.
The Grievance Officer position is vacant because Sarah Hornstein, our current GO, has been offered a job in British Columbia. Congratulations and best of luck to Sarah!
The VP Unit 3 position will be vacant as of December 31 because the union membership of the current VP Unit 3, Jeffrey Zavala, will expire on that date. As the bylaws do not specify what to do in the case of an expired union membership, and to simplify the election process, nominations for this position will open before the position is vacant, following the precedent set by the yearly general elections.
The bargaining team is composed of three members each for Units 1, 2, and 3. The Grievance Officer is automatically part of the bargaining team, and counts towards their unit’s total number of bargaining team members (for example, if the Grievance Officer is a Unit 2 member, Unit 2 only elects two more bargaining team members). While our contracts expire on August 31, 2017, it is important to get the bargaining team elected early so that they can be active participants in the development of bargaining surveys and bargaining proposals.
Voting will begin at the February 8 GMM. Executive committee positions are filled until April 1, while bargaining team positions will be filled until we achieve a new contract. The decision to run these elections simultaneously was made in order to lessen expenses and avoid having multiple timelines.