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Most Recent Updates + Information.

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Petition: I oppose C-377 / Je m'oppose à l'adoption de C-377

Bill C-377 is a federal piece of legislation that is supposed to be about union financial disclosure. However, after careful analysis it is increasingly clear that it is a highly partisan and political attack on the right of free association in Canada.

Please sign the petition. If you do not know why you should oppose Bill C-377 then check out the Bill C-377 section of the Citizens' Press.

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CUPE 3903 General Membership Meeting

Tuesday, December 11th, 2012; Harry Crowe Room (109), Atkinson, 12pm-3pm

For any SGMM or GMM, please contact Sheila at cupe3903.equity.officer@gmail.com or at 416.736.5154 ext3 if you
require any of the following: ASL interpretation, reimbursement for childcare/caregiver/attendant care, and/or
transportation costs for members who are unable to, secure Wheeltrans.

CUPE 3903's: Union Holiday Social

At the Fox and the Fiddle, 280 Bloor St West, on Tuesday, December 11 beginning at 9pm!!! Come to celebrate the end of first term.  Meet fellow colleagues from various departments and unwind from the busy semester!  Some refreshments will be provided.

The Fox and the Fiddle is located between Spadina and St. George subway stations on the north side of Bloor. This space is wheelchair accessible with an accessible bathroom.

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December 6th Memorial Walk

The Gender-Based Violence Prevention Group is conducting a Dec.6th memorial walk at YorkU this Thursday (Dec.6th). The walk will start in Vari Hall at 11:30am. Folks will be walking from Vari Hall through the link, pass the Scott Library, with a stop for a speaker about the origins of the memorial, and then through to the Campus Walk, with a stop outside the William Small Centre for a speaker about the intersectionality of violence and current issues, then continue on to the Sacred Fire Pit behind Stong College.

For more info. or questions please feel free to contact Tanya McFadyen, YUGSA VP Gender at gender@yugsa.ca.

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Unit 3 Members: Remember to cast your ballot!

Voting for CUPE Chief Steward Unit 3 Election runs from December 03 to December 06: Keele Campus (In the Vari Link)

Monday, December 3rd:  9:00 AM-5:00 PM
Tuesday, December 4th:  9:00 AM-5:00 PM
Wednesday, December 5th, 9:00 AM-1:00 PM
Thursday, December 6th: 9:00 AM-1:00 PM

Also, if you are able to volunteer to be a scrutineer for the vote counting that will take place in the CUPE 3903 Union Office starting at 1:00 PM on December 6th, please email Karen Walker (k162walker@gmail.com) and Albain Bargain (bargain@yorku.ca), CUPE 3903 Elections Officers.

Because this is a Unit 3 executive position, only unit 3 members will be eligible to vote.

Candidate Statements

CANDIDACY STATEMENT FROM HUGO BONIN

CANDIDACY STATEMENT FROM ZOHA ZUBARI

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Download the mail-out to 3903 membership concerning Bill 115 here.

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CUPE 3903 General Membership Meeting

Thursday, November 29th, 2012; Harry Crowe Room (109), Atkinson, 12pm-3pm
Please try and attend this important meeting to discuss what the "Protecting Public Services Act" means for CUPE 3903 specifically, and the wider labour movement more generally.

For any SGMM or GMM, please contact Sheila at cupe3903.equity.officer@gmail.com or at 416.736.5154 ext3 if you
require any of the following: ASL interpretation, reimbursement for childcare/caregiver/attendant care, and/or
transportation costs for members who are unable to, secure Wheeltrans.

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Interlibrary Loans at Library and Archives Canada to END on Dec. 11, 2012

Whether you're looking for theses from Theses Canada or primary source material from any of the libraries of Archives Canada; December 11 is the last day to borrow them via the inter-library loan system.

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CUPE 3902 Unit 4 Strike support

Please call Principal Pietropaolo of St. Mike's so that 3902 Unit 4 can get a fair contract negotiated as quickly as possible.

Call Principal Pietropaolo's office at 416-926-7102 between 9am and 5pm on Tuesday November 20th, to support CUPE 3902.  Here is a sample script:

"Hi, my name is____ , and I am a member of ______ calling to support members of CUPE 3902, and ask that you agree to equal benefits and job security language in their contract."

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Note to CUPE 3903 from, Abouzar Nasirzadeh, Chair of CUPE 3902

Hi CUPE 3903,

I am writing to ask for your support for members CUPE 3902 Unit 4 (St. Michael’s College).

After 13 months of trying to secure a fair first contract, contract course instructors, teaching assistants and continuing education instructors at the University of St. Michael’s College, have gone on strike on Friday. Despite positive movement on a number of fronts, talked stalled over the issue of job security.

We need to have a strong showing on the picket lines, especially on this Monday.

Picket lines are up every day from 9:30-3 in front of the Kelly library (113 St. Joseph St.).

Also, we are planning to hold a big rally on Wednesday at noon in front of the Kelly Library (113 St. Joseph St., Toronto, ON) as we try to put pressure on the employer. We would be very grateful to have your support on the picket lines and we hope to see you there in solidarity with our unit 4 members.

I have attached a flyer of events.

We would also be thankful for a statement of support on your website. Also, here is our Facebook page with updates. Please spread the word to your members.

Many thanks,

Abe

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Stewards Council Organizing Workshop Reminder: Sunday, Nov 18 (OISE) and Tuesday, Nov 20 (York)

This is a reminder of Sunday's workshop, which will be held at *OISE, Rm 3310 from 1:00 to 2:30 *and *Tuesday* in *Ross N120., from 2:00 to 3:30*

Stewards Council has organized these workshops to help us build a movement to take on the brutal assault on collective bargaining, public sector workers and public services more broadly. It is designed particularly for those who have committed to doing department, door-to-door organizing, but it is open for any union members or allies who would like to sharpen their skills and help us build this fightback.

Please forward widely and encourage people to attend. We will begin to organize teams of two to do department/office visits on Monday, November 19th.

Please write to Peter Brogan if you are interested in joining in these efforts, pbrogan1@gmail.com

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Next Executive Council meeting of CUPE 3903:

Thursday, Nov 15, 2012 in TEL Building (see above). The meeting is scheduled to go from 2:30pm to 5:00pm.

All members are welcome to attend!

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Next Stewards Council meeting:

Wednesday Nov 14th, at 2 pm

In the union office (2050 TEL building)

Covering: the passing of Bill 115 by the Government of Ontario. This legislation removes the right of employees (teachers, support-staff, custodial-staff, & clerical-staff) of the various school board's to collectively bargain. Further, there is now draft legislation titled "The Protecting Public Services Act" which would do the same for other public-sector workers in Ontario, including university workers. If passed, this legislation would allow the Government of Ontario to unilaterally change, impose and even rollback any language in future collective agreements.

Please see the following flyer for more information.

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Women and Trans Self Defence Course

Weds, November 14th, 12:00pm ­ 3:00pm.
Harry Crowe Room
108 Atkinson

Lisa Marsan the instructor is a certified use of force instructor, who also
has a black belt in several styles of martial arts. She also has experience
teaching both women and members of the transgender community. Please see
flyer for more details.

TFAC, moreover, is footing the tab for this workshop that usually costs
$25/participant. There are a maximum of 16 participants so please sign up
ASAP. Please email Marnina at mnorys@rogers.com to reserve a spot. You will
get an email confirming whether a spot is available.

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2011-2014 Collective Agreements Posted Online

Please go to "Useful Documents" to download the latest collective agreements.

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Next General Membership Meeting, Tuesday, October 30th

10:30am-1:30pm, Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson.

All members are encouraged to attend!

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Next Executive Meeting of CUPE 3903

Thursday, Oct 17, 2012 in TEL Building (see above). The meeting is scheduled to go from 2:45pm to 6:00pm.

All members are welcome to attend!

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Nomination period for Chief Steward, Unit 3 closes October 14th.

The nomination period for the position of Chief Steward Unit 3 will open on October 1, 2012 and last for two weeks, closing on October 14th, 2012. Only members of Unit 3 are eligible for this position. Nomination must be signed by the nominee and by two additional Unit 3 members in good standing. Nominations must be brought to the union office during the nominations period. Each nominee must also record his/her nomination by signing the register that is to be publicly displayed next to the nomination box. Only members in good standing can be nominated and no member may sign more than one nomination for his/her own candidacy in the same nomination and election period. If at the end of the nomination period only one candidate is nominated, the executive, on the advice of the elections officers, shall declare the position filled by acclamation.

For any contested position, a formal campaign period of no less than fourteen days will commence immediately following the close of the nomination period. The campaigning phase will begin on October 17th end at the General Membership Meeting on October 30th. The candidates will give statements at the GMM, at the end of which voting will begin and will last for 5 days following the GMM at the both the Keele and Glendon campuses. The voting stations shall be open from 9am to 5pm at Keele and from 11am to 3pm at Glendon. Because this is a Unit 3 executive position, only unit 3 members will be eligible to vote.

Communications officer election results

The votes were as follows

Faiz Ahmed - 80

Peter Brogan - 51

Laura Lepper - 16

Spoiled - 2

Total votes 149

Congratulations to Faiz and thank you to all the candidates and the volunteers who worked on the election.

Erin Dolmage

Elections Officer, CUPE 3903

Updates regarding health enrolment forms and dental coverage

New CUPE 3903 members who faxed their forms to the Pensions and Benefits office will need to resend the form. We were informed yesterday that the fax machine in the Pension and Benefits office has not been working for weeks. The completed form can be scanned and then emailed as an attachment to askpb.yorku.ca. The form can be downloaded by clicking this link.

Amounts listed for dental in the manual distributed to new students in orientations were incorrect. All members are eligible for $3,000 of coverage/calendar year. This means new members have $3,000 in coverage between now and December 31st. The deadline to submit the form and to receive coverage for the month of September is Sept 31.

Time to sign up for CUPE School!

Once a year CUPE Ontario offers courses that relate to union activism on topics including privatization, collective bargaining skills, and labour law. There is up to $1,000 available from 3903’s budget to pay the registration fees for interested Members. Classes take place between October 23 and October 26 in downtown Toronto.

Dates, times, and a brief description of these courses are available here.

Decisions on how many and which people to send will take place at the General Membership Meeting on Wednesday, September 26, between 11am-2pm in room 109 of the Atkinson Building.

If you are interested but can’t attend the GMM please contact our Recording Secretary by Tuesday, September 25. CUPE3903recordingresearch@members.cupe.ca

Candidate statements for Communications Officer position

To download Faiz Ahmed's statement, please follow this link

To download Peter Brogan's statement, please follow this link

To download Laura Lepper's statement, please follow this link

Agenda and notices of motion for upcoming GMM

GMM: Sept 26, 11:00 am - 2:00 pm, Harry Crowe room, 109 Atkinson. Please click this link to download the agenda. Important notices of motion are included. People currently pro-temmed on committees should attend this GMM, as their position could be contested at this meeting. We will also fill the Restructuring Committee proposed at the 05-08-2011 GMM. 

Disorientation and JAFAAP rally

DisOrientation kicks off its 10 day event with an action from Jane and Finch Action Against Poverty - who want to respond to the poor-basing editorial in the Excalibur. Denizens of Jane and Finch will be bussed in that day to have a presence and raise awareness to the discrimination they face in the community.

September 19^th, 3:30 pm, Vari Hall.

DisOrientation is an OPIRG event running and is a radically different, politically progressive week of events that will offer all students and community members access,  critical thought and insight into the exciting and political social  justice spheres that exist within and beyond York U. For further details of the 10-day-long event go to: http://opirgyork.ca/diso2012

Next General Membership Meeting & Communications Officer campaign period open

The nomination period for the Communications Officer has ended and we have three candidates who have put themselves forward for the the position.

The candidates are:

Faiz Ahmed, Laura Lepper and Peter Brogan.

As the position is contested, a 16-day campaign period lasting from September 11th, 2012 to September 26th, 2012. Candidates will give statements at the September 26th GMM and voting will begin at the close of the GMM.

GMM: Weds, Sept 26th 11:00 am - 2:00 pm, Harry Crowe Room  109 Atkinson.

New Contract FAQ.

All new contract language that was negotiated over the last round of bargaining is in effect as of April 21, 2012.  We have compiled a new FAQ documenting the changes to the contract, which can be found here.

Student Power Group (Stewards Council SubCommittee. July 24th. at OISE (5th floor) 4pm.

The 3903 Student Power group will be meeting again on July 24 at 4
PM (OISE, 5th floor). We also encourage members to attend two important
events that are relevant to our work.

First is the student solidarity tour organized by a number of activists
from Québec. The tour will be stopping in Toronto on July 19. You can get
more details at: http://solidaritytour.tumblr.com/

Second is the student strike training being organized by CLASSE on July 28
and 29 at the University of Toronto. Registration is free:
http://www.utgsu.ca/stuorgtrain/

The student power group will be meeting immediately after the
training session on the 29th for an open discussion. We will be providing
more details about these events very soon.

Also, look out for our new Facebook page!
http://www.facebook.com/groups/205259079599511/

In solidarity.

Callout for Research Committee Members.

3903 is currently looking for members to join 3 research committees: Research Committee on the Casualisation of Labour at York University, Research Committee on the effects of 'blended learning' (e-learning) on teaching and education and a new Archives Committee for the local.   For more information on these committees, please read the document which can be found here.

Cupe 3903 Letter in Support of JFAAP.

CUPE 3903 wrote a response to Excalibur's article "The strange story of York University" by outgoing Editor-in-Chief, Michael Sholars, and Jane Finch Action Against Poverty's (JFAAP) open letter, which protests the assumptions made by Sholars suggesting that Jane Finch community is responsible for incidents of violence at York University. We agree with JFAAP and believe a public apology should be issued to JFAAP by the Excalibur.

Click here to read our Letter Responding to this issue.

 TFAC co-Chair  Election Results

On July 4 the final ballots were cast in the TFAC by-elections. Congratulations to winner Lauren Pragg.

Lauren Pragg: 15 votes

Parbattie Ramsarran: 10 

The Executive Committee extends Congratulations to Lauren Pragg, and thanks to both candidates for running for the position.

May 8th, 2012. Update - Executive Chair Election Results.

1. The results of the Election for the position of Chair of the Executive Committee are in.

   
   Alison Fisher 80
   Charles Battershill 16
   Spoiled 1
   
   Congratulations Allison Fisher.
   
   Thanks to both of Charles Battershill and Alison Fisher for taking part in the election, and to Joanna Pierce, Erin Dolmage, and Peter Braun for volunteering to be scrutineers.

April 20, 2012 -  UPDATE!!!! Ratification Vote Results!

Over the past week the membership has been voting whether or not to ratify the Tentative Agreement with the employer.  The results are in:

All 3 Units have ratified the collective agreements.
The results are as follows:

      Yes  No  Spoiled  Yes     No

U1 399  14      2          96.6%  3.4%

U2 178  42      0          80.9% 19%

U3   53   3        0         94.6% 5.4%

Total Votes: 689
Yes: 630
No: 59

Due to the Tentative Agreement being ratified across all 3 Units, the Emergency Meeting scheduled for Monday has been Cancelled.

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-TENTATIVE AGREEMENTS NOW ONLINE!-

The attached documents are drafts of the tentative agreement signed by the employer and the bargaining team for folks to review before voting. They are also available in hard copy at the voting booth. There are a few errors in these documents that have been corrected in the hard copy that the employer and the bargaining team signed.  These are generally just typos and grammatical corrections but one substantive error was that the Trans fund was not listed in the U3 agreement. These errors will be corrected in the final agreement. 

To read the Tentative Agreement for Unit 1, click here

To read the Tentative Agreement for Unit 2, click here

To read the Tentative Agreement for Unit 3, click here.

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• Bargaining updates: the latest updates are an FAQ for members covering information about strike/lockout details (e.g. how does strike pay work), posted on April 3, and a bargaining update on April 8

• Strike or lockout preparation: for information on alternate duties, childcare, and partial picket requests--in event of a strike / lock out--and picketing on our first day, click here... to apply for alternate duties click here and to request reduced picket hours (should we need to picket) email 3903pickethours@gmail.com (include the days/times you are able to picket and the reason why you are unable to picket for a full 20 hours in a given week)

• Click here for the overview page all about bargaining ... if you're pressed for time, here's just the basics (how bargaining works)  

• Open bargaining: CUPE 3903 members are welcome to sit in and observe bargaining. Upcoming sessions: Mon April 9, Tues Apr 10 and Wed Apr 11 from 10am until at least 5pm (Wednesday could go very, very late... midnight?) - all in Room C30, East Office Building. For more about open bargaining click here 

• Petitions: click here to access our petitions

• I'm an undergrad: what do I need to know? Visit our page for you at 3903.cupe.ca/undergrads

• Our supporters: individuals and organizations, on campus and off are listed here

• Summary of our proposals: see what kind of movement there's been since the Strike Mandate Vote came back as "Yes" on March 16. Click the image below for the complete proposal package still being negotiated (union proposals presented to the Employer in conciliation) [your browser will open a PDF].

You’re on twitter? OMG, so is 3903! Follow @cupe3903comms on twitter for CUPE3903 information, news and announcements.

We've Moved!!

CUPE 3903 has a new temporary location in the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) Building. Our new office location is TEL 2050; conveniently placed right behind the buildings' server room on the second floor.

Our phone numbers haven't changed though - so feel free to call at 416-736-5154

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