Nominations for the 2022-23 Executive Committee closed on February 28th. As there have been two candidate withdrawals, the positions of Communications Officer and Grievance Officer have now been acclaimed, leaving only one contested position of the Secretary-Treasurer. The candidates’ statements for Secretary-Treasurer are below. Voting for this position (via Simply Voting) will start at the AGM on March 15th at 5pm and continue until March 20th at 5pm.
Click through for candidates’ statements:
- Secretary-Treasurer
CANDIDATES FOR SECRETARY-TREASURER
Niloofar Golkar
My name is Niloofar Golkar and I am a candidate for the position of Secretary-Treasurer. During my eight years as an active member of CUPE 3903, I have had the opportunity to sit on the bargaining team twice (2014 and 2020). This experience has given me a deep knowledge of all unit collective agreements, including monetary items. Over the years, I have also been a member of numerous committees, including Extended Health Benefit, Ways and Means, and Labour Management committees. As a result, I am very familiar with online forms, digital funds, and the significant areas of grievances for our membership.
I have an extensive background in community organizing and activism that gives me a deep understanding of the value of member-led/member-driven decision-making practices, and I have a demonstrated commitment to Social Unionism. I recognize that there is a technical aspect to the Secretary-Treasurer position. My knowledge of finance and experience as a financial officer of various grassroots organizations has enabled me to gain a variety of technical accounting skills. Yet I see the supporting role of the Secretary-Treasurer as extending beyond finance books, I also appreciate that this role is part of the executive and should work collaboratively with the membership to empower and organize our union, driven by rank-and-file members. We are dealing with an employer that, instead of solving major grievances and issues, pushes everything through arbitration, mediation, and grievance processes which are incredibly time-consuming and expensive. An organized and robust membership can change that approach.
If I am elected as secretary-treasurer, I will:
- Provide accessible monthly financial reports to the membership;
- Assist caucuses, working groups, and committees concerning their budgets;
- Review the Local’s online forms and digital fund transfers to ensure they are in the best possible format for committees to adjudicate funds;
- Support staff and members with various finance, funding, and payroll-related concerns, issues, and grievances;
- Help move the organizing body in the direction that membership asks us to take by providing adequate relative financial information.
I hope to have your support to be elected and do this work!
Sylvia Peacock
My name is Sylvia and since 2010, I am a U2 contract teacher in multiple departments at YorkU (Labor Studies, BuSo, GWS, COMN, GenEd, and FES). You might hear me raise points during membership meetings, but most of my union activism happens in the background. In various volunteer roles for our union and in the wider the social economy, I do checksums, go over balance sheets, and assess numbers. Present and past, I volunteered on finance committees both at a housing coop and the TDSB, where I explain balance sheets, audits, and yearly budgets planning to stakeholders.
At 3903, I represent CUPE 3903 on the LAPS Faculty Council, the All University Pension Committee (AUPC), and the York University Pension Board of Trustees. Our pension is $1.5 billion dollar fund invested in equities, real estate, currencies, and infrastructure. My voice is one for sustainable, ethical investments, divesting from fossil fuels, and a transition to a 2ᵒC scenario. In my final third term now, I study the books for CUPE 3903 in my function as your Union Trustee. A Union Trustee reads our local policies and bylaws, and evaluates whether our committees operate within our funding mandates. My more sporadic 3903 engagements include my current position on the Bargaining Research Committee and, of course, as rank-and-file at our monthly union meetings.
As an activist volunteer in finances, I used my stakeholder input for budgetary planning at city hall and YorkU budget consultations, had several stints for the CITPV (Community Income Tax Program Volunteer), and am the current treasurer for our parent council at a Toronto Middle school (TDSB).
In sum, effective management of our finances gives us credibility when we ask questions of our university administration and probe their ways to raise moneys or allocate it. Our local leads by example, not only when it comes to questions of social justice but also when it concerns open and transparent union finances. I will continue this approach and improve on this goal, whenever possible. In my private life, I’m a mother of two; one in their second year at YorkU already and one still a teenager. I like to cycle, hike, curl or skate in the Winter, and see friends whenever there’s time. If you believe in my ability to fill the position of treasurer secretary at 3903 with integrity and continuity, please award me your vote.