Ten years ago today Raj Virk began working as a Staff Rep for CUPE 3903. In this time he has helped countless members with individual grievances and has guided the local through four bargaining rounds (including the most recent first contract for Unit 4).

Last September 18th also marked Sheila Wilmot’s ten year anniversary with us, as Equity Officer. Sheila has also helped us form bargaining proposals, and has helped countless members with grievances, workplace harassment issues, securing workplace accommodations, and a multitude of other equity issues within our local and with regards to our employer.

Together Sheila and Raj’s service to our membership has proven invaluable, and their insight and contributions become more important every day. Their jobs are by no means easy, and yet their commitment to our local’s membership is never wavering.

Thank you for ten years of great service, Raj and Sheila!

The Bargaining Team (BT) for Units 1, 2, and 3 met for the first time on Thursday, February 23. Below is the report provided by the BT.

Processes

The BT estimates that a full team will be assembled by March 22. This is due to a Unit 3 by-election and a Unit 2 run-off. We guessed this would occur simultaneously with the Executive elections. For meetings, we need to advertise better, ask staff to join us, ask union committee members to participate and have better coordination more generally. We can also hold joint BT-Executive meetings to foster better cooperation.

Training—we discussed soliciting CUPE National to do a workshop on Ontario labour laws and an overview of the bargaining process.The BT needs to learn more about our national representative and the role of lawyers as a resource.

The BT needs to discuss the rules of quorum. There are no formal by-law rules on this.
Justin can do a presentation on financial analysis and reading income statements of large organizations.

We need to schedule an anti-oppression workshop for each member to complete.

Communications

The BT needs to create an e-mail account. We will also request a website log-in so we can post reports right to the website. The minute-taker for the day will be in charge of posting to the website.

Surveys

Focus groups were brought up as a way to hear from unit 2s.

Unit 1 suggested contract workshops where we try to bring departments together and distribute the contract and survey members.

Unit 3 surveys can be direct contact since the bargaining unit is so small now.

Next meeting: Tuesday March 7 at 2:30pm. We will create a draft of the survey. 3903 staff offered to do a short presentation on issues among members at the March 7 meeting.
We can schedule town halls between March 15 and March 30.

On February 28, the York University Board of Governors will be meeting to discuss the presidential search. It is almost certain that they will ratify the university’s new president at this meeting. In the past, CUPE 3903, as part of the Cross Campus Alliance, has criticized the lack of transparency and consultation in the presidential search process. Now is our opportunity to demand a seat at the table.

We encourage all of our members to send an email to the board secretary Elaine MacRae at emacrae@yorku.ca telling her you would like to be at the meeting. This is a public meeting open to the whole York community where members of the Cross Campus Alliance will be in attendance. Regardless of whether or not you can attend, this will show the board of governors that teaching assistants, contract faculty, graduate assistants, and part-time librarians and archivists at York care about this presidential search and we want our voices heard.

The meeting will be held on February 28th at 1:30pm on the 5th floor of Kaneff Tower.

See the Cross Campus Alliance’s previous statement on the presidential search here.

Exciting updates have been made to the office that you, yes you!, should know about.

Alongside our new recycling station, we have a new box for lost and found items. It will be emptied once an month, at which point the objects left are first come, first serve.

The Lost and Found box, alongside the new recycling center.

Some binders of GMM and executive minutes have been moved to the shelves above the member’s computer. These binders are here so member’s have access to the minutes of our various meetings. If you are interested in reading up on the history of the local, here is a place to start!

The binders are located above the computer, which is also available for members to use for union work.

A bookshelf has been moved to make other meeting minutes, such as Stewards’ Council, and other resources more available to members as well. This bookshelf is located next to the supplies closet.

Feel free to read and borrow books, magazines, and other publications from the office. These resources are available for you!

Moving this bookshelf has also opened up more space in 143D, the largest meeting room in our office. With the bookshelf out of the way, more space has been opened for CUPE 3903 archive materials, such as past t-shirts and other paraphernalia.

The tvs in the office have also been set up with an instructional poster to guide you in how to use them, such as using them for a Skype meeting, powerpoint, etc.

We hope this changes will make CUPE office resources more accessible.

Recycling station in the CUPE 3903 office, located between the Collective Agreements and the Dropbox.

CUPE 3903 is excited to announce new recycling stations in the CUPE Office, located in 143 Atkinson building. Boxes are in place to collect and recycle writing instruments and batteries. All members are encouraged to drop off their writing utensils and batteries in the CUPE Office to ensure the materials are safely recycled.

The writing instrument recycling program is in collaboration with Terracycle.ca. Any brand of pens and pen caps, mechanical pencils, markers and marker caps, highlighters and highlighter caps, permanent markers and permanent marker caps are accepted in for recycling. For every writing instrument recycling, two cents will be donated to Earth Day Canada. Learn more about this program here.

Information flyer from Terracycle.ca detailing recyclable writing utensils.

A box to recycle batteries is also now in place to recycle single-use batteries, rechargeable batteries, cellphones and/or cell phone batteries. Lithium Ion (Li-ion), Small Sealed Lead Acid (SSLA/Pb) rechargeable batteries and lithium primary batteries must be individually bagged or have their terminals taped. If recycling cell phones, it’s recommended you remove any and all personal information before recycling. In the recycling process, the memory on the phones is destroyed and reusable materials are recycled before they are resold. For more information about this battery recycling program, visit call2recycle.ca.

For any questions, please contact Jacqueline Ristola, Chief steward Unit 3, at cupe3903csu3@gmail.com.

Employer: CUPE 3903
Website: http://3903.cupe.ca/
Position: Administrative Coordinator
Position Type: part-time, term (5 months, possibility for 6 months)
Location: York University Keele Campus, Toronto, Ontario
Salary: $53.31 per hour for a 21 hour work week, plus health benefits and pension plan
Posting Date:  16 February 2017
Closing Date:  3 March 2017, 5:00 p.m.
Start Date: 3 April 2017

Workplace

CUPE 3903 is a radical democratic union at the forefront of the labour movement in Canada, with a commitment to anti-oppression politics, anti-racism, diversity and equity, and supporting our members in achieving some of the best Collective Agreements in the country. Our workplace includes two full-time Staff Representatives, a part-time Equity Officer, a 14-person elected Executive Committee, other elected committee members, and an active membership. Our membership is comprised of approximately 2600 contract faculty, teaching assistants, and graduate assistants at York University.

Responsibilities

The responsibilities of the part-time Administrative Coordinator are governed by the CUPE 1281 Collective Agreement. The job description is available: Administrative Coordinator job description.

Required Skills and Experience

• Formal training in accounting, or equivalent
• Extensive experience in finance and general administration, including filing and bank reconciliations
• Familiarity with small systems, QuickBooks required
• Competence in performing all transactions related to accounts payable, accounts receivable, payroll and financial statement preparation
• Ability to work with volunteers in a union and/or non-profit setting

Equity Commitment

CUPE 3903 is strongly committed to employment equity within our workplace, work environment, and broader community. We particularly encourage applications from persons with one or more disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, gay, two-spirited, queer and trans persons, persons from racialized groups, Aboriginal persons, and women.

How to Apply

Please submit (via mail or email) a cover letter, resume, and two references by 5:00 p.m. 3 March 2017 to:

CUPE 3903, Atkinson 143
York University, 4700 Keele Street
Toronto, Ontario, M3J 1P3
Email address: hiringcupe3903@gmail.com

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted the week of March 6^th for interviews to be scheduled on March 16^th.

Voting in the bargaining team (BT) elections for Units 1 and 2, as well as the Grievance Officer by-election, ended at 5 pm on Wednesday, February 15. There will need to be a run-off election for Unit 2 BT, as only one candidate managed to secure more than 50% of the votes. As the Grievance Officer, who in this case is a member of Unit 2, sits on the bargaining team, the Unit 2 BT only has two positions.

Unit 1 Bargaining Team

Justin Panos: 133 — Elected
Chelsea Bauer: 118 — Elected
Lina Nasr Ali: 103 — Elected
Tracy Mack: 44
Brendan Bruce: 34
Spoiled: 3

Total ballots: 170

Unit 2 Bargaining Team

Murray Cooke: 100 — Elected
Maria Wallis: 50
Waseem Malik: 48
Sharon L. Davidson: 39
Spoiled: 2

Total ballots: 128

Grievance Officer

Elizabeth Brule: 194 — Elected
Kyle Belozerov: 98
Spoiled: 14

Total ballots: 306

Food service workers at York University represented by Unite Here Local 75 will be out on strike as of 8 am tomorrow, February 16. CUPE 3903 stands in unconditional solidarity with the struggles of these workers. The following lays out a) the reasons for the strike, and b) your rights and responsibilities as a member of CUPE 3903.

Why a strike is necessary

A strike is never a decision made lightly. Food service workers have been in bargaining for months. The breakdown in bargaining is due to the refusal by their employer to concede to absurdly basic demands:

• A decent wage
• An end to harassment, anti-black racism, and islamophobia in the workplace
• Paid sick leave
• Improved benefits
• A safe working environment
• The right to organize

These are rights that are owed to every worker. The labour movement cannot pick and choose which of us are worthy of basic respect. This is why the struggle of food service workers has been supported by the Cross-Campus Alliance, which has representatives from most the unions on campus.

While York is attempting to distance itself from these negotiations, saying that they are not involved in this process because Aramark is a sub-contractor, this is a blatant lie. As the institution that provides the funds to Aramark, they could easily end this strike now by increasing the funding attached to their contract with Aramark. York chooses not to; we must call on them to support food service workers and not allow the university to escape responsibility.

When an employer is so intransigent that basic dignity and respect has no place on the bargaining table, withdrawing their labour is the last and most powerful tool at the disposal of workers. We stand in solidarity with food service workers represented by Unite Here Local 75. Strike to win!

What this strike means for the York community

CUPE 3903’s collective agreements (CAs) do not protect us in the event that a member refuses to cross a picket line. Those members who are students are also covered by the Senate Policy on Academic Implications of Disruptions or Cessations of University Business Due to Labour Disputes or Other Causes, but only in their roles as students. There is no protection for a member who opts to cancel classes or tutorials due to the strike.

If you feel obligated to cross the picket lines, please show solidarity in other ways:

• Join the picket lines when you are on campus
• Boycott all Aramark locations; see a full list here
• Talk to your students and colleagues about why this struggle is important and encourage them to also boycott Aramark
• Organize solidarity pickets in your departments or hiring units
• Organize indoor pickets at Aramark locations to discourage others from purchasing products from scab labour
• Show your support on social media
• Go to York15.ca to send a message to President Shoukri.

We will be providing regular updates on this strike as it progresses. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, check our website regularly, and be sure to subscribe to the CUPE 3903 Newsletter.

At the February 8 General Membership Meeting, an Elections Officer was acclaimed and the new donations policy was passed. The donations policy was passed as a bylaw amendment so that it will be inserted as an appendix to the CUPE 3903 bylaws.

Elections Officer: Sara Farhan

Bylaw amendment vote result: 25 in favour, 1 opposed.

All members are encouraged to acquaint themselves with the new donations policy, available here: CUPE 3903 Donations and Solidarity Policy.