The Executive of CUPE 3903 together with the CUPE 3903 Palestinian Solidarity Working Group vehemently condemn York University administration’s use of police force to physically remove the York Popular University for Palestine encampment held at the Peoples’ Commons for Palestine. It is appalling for the University to claim a “commitment to dialogue and engagement” based in “heartfelt empathy”, and then immediately direct police intimidation, aggression, and destruction onto peaceful student activists. 

Student, academic, and worker activism—particularly around Palestinian solidarity and denouncing the genocide in Gaza—has been met with intense backlash this year on campus. The police suppression of political expression on our campus was also apparent in the arrest of one of our picketers during our recent strike. The continued, reckless disrespect of the rights and well-being of students and workers by the University’s administration and Board of Governors has been made clear. The near immediate removal of the student encampment three minutes after they were given notice, an aggressive move unseen at other local universities, is a disturbing and shameful escalation of this trend.

We reject the University’s framing of the student activists as a mysterious “group of individuals”. Student activists are vital members of the York University community. As much as the University might want to obscure this, the call for divestment, disclosure, and boycotts have been echoed from students, staff, faculty and members across the community over many years.

We absolutely declare: under no circumstance will we tolerate the cost of our education and employment being paid with human lives.  

Shame on York University. 

2024/25 Executive Committee Elections – Candidate Statements

i) Bargaining Team Representative Unit 4
ii) Bargaining Team Recording Secretary Unit 4

The nomination period for these positions are open as of June 5th. At that time, members interested in nominating themselves will fill out a nomination form (https://form.jotform.com/cupe3903/election-nomination-form). If needed, the nomination period will be followed by a two week campaign period and a five day election (via Simply Voting).

Timeline:
Nomination period (2 weeks) – June 5 – 12pm to June 19 – 12pm
Campaign period (2 weeks) – June 19 – 12pm to July 3 – 12pm
Voting (5 days): July 4 – 5pm – July 9 – 5pm

90% of salary that would have been earned completing the Winter Term should mean exactly that.

Even though the Memoranda of Settlement and the Employer’s own remediation FAQ states that remediation pay is 90% of what “would have been earned completing the Winter Term”, York has been choosing to pay out 90% of entire full contracts – at the expense of members’ pay cheques! Let’s tell York to give CUPE 3903 members their money.

Who to email:

• danbrad@yorku.ca – Dan Bradshaw, Assistant Vice-President Labour Relations
• president@yorku.ca – Rhonda Lenton, President of York University
• provost@yorku.ca – Lisa Philipps, Provost & Vice-President Academic
• abereza@yorku.ca – Adam Bereza, Director of Faculty Relations
• defilip@yorku.ca – Leanne De Filippis, Senior Counsel, Labour & Employment
• kaylieg@yorku.ca – Kaylie Gordon, Coordinator, Office of Labour Relations

Email script:

Hi, my name is _________. I am emailing today to request that HR deposit a correction for the “Winter 2024” error in the 90% remediation pay. I am also requesting that HR will calculate and issue a second correction for the error related to “completing” the term. Fix CUPE 3903’s pay now.

Who to call:

• (416)-736-5881 – Assistant Vice-President Labour Relations
• (416)-736-5200 – Rhonda Lenton, President of York University
• (416)-736-5280 – Lisa Philipps, Provost & Vice-President Academic
• (416)-736-2100 x 66220 – Mary Catherine Masciangelo, Assistant Vice-President Human Resources

Phone script:

Hi, my name is _________. I am calling today to request that HR deposit a correction for the “Winter 2024” error in the 90% remediation pay. I am also requesting that HR will calculate and issue a second correction for the error related to “completing” the term. Fix CUPE 3903’s pay now.

The background:

On May 24th, members received payment from York University that did not reflect our expectations of the remediation period. We reject the Employer’s mischaracterization of 90% remediation pay as being 90% of members’ full contracts, regardless of whether they are Fall-Winter or just Winter term.

We interpret this as contravening the Memoranda of Settlement, which states that:

“The amounts paid will provide for up to 100% of the total payments for the Winter 2024 Term. The Employer will, as soon as practicable, provide the difference between what has been paid to the commencement of the strike and 90% of salary (less statutory deductions not including union dues) and Grant-in-Aid (GIA) that would have been earned completing the Winter Term.” (emphases ours)

The emphasis on Winter Term is also stated in the Employer’s own language in their remediation FAQs, which states,

“The agreed upon return-to-work protocols provide that upon return to work, CUPE employees will receive 90% of the salary (less statutory deductions) that would have been earned completing the Winter Term” (emphasis ours).

We are also concerned that the Employer’s current interpretation may not be aligned with the past-practices of previous remediation periods. If you are concerned too, let’s share our frustrations with York.

A warm welcome to our new Unit 5 members from the Canadian Observatory for Homelessness! Nominations are open for members from Unit 5 to join their bargaining team so that they can negotiate the first Unit 5 collective agreement. This team ideally includes three BT members and one Recording Secretary.

If you are interested in learning more about the Unit 5 bargaining team, bargaining team roles, and bargaining-related matters, please email cupe3903chairperson@gmail.com

To nominate yourself for the Unit 5 bargaining team, please email cupe3903eo@gmail.com

The nomination period will open May 21st and be open for 7 days (until May 28th), with 2 days for campaigning (until May 30th), and 5 days to vote (until June 4th).

The nomination period for the two Executive positions of Trans Feminist Action Caucus (TFAC) co-chairs is open and will remain open until 4 PM on June 6^th, 2024.

TFAC members of any unit are eligible for this position. All women, trans, gender queer and gender variant members of the local are automatically members of the TFAC whether or not you have ever attended a meeting.

We welcome and strongly encourage involvement of BIPOC persons with one or more disabilities, lesbian, bisexual, two-spirited, queer and trans persons. Please see below for a full description of the position’s responsibilities.

To nominate yourself, or to ask questions about the position, please email the election officers Khaoula and Orçun, at tfacelection@gmail.com. Nominees are welcome to submit a 300-word statement regarding their interest in the position. These statements will be accepted until 4PM June 6^th, 2024.

Voting to elect TFAC Co-Chairs will occur at the TFAC AGM on June 7^th, 2024 from 12:30 – 2:30 PM. The AGM will be hybrid. We will update with an in-person space (likely the board room in the Atkinson office)!

Click here to join the Zoom meeting

 Only TFAC members may participate in this election.

 TFAC Co-Chair Responsibilities:

• Organize and advertise TFAC meetings
• In the absence of volunteers, chair TFAC meetings
• Oversee the Caucus listserv; add members to list.
• Respond to list-serve postings/questions where appropriate.
• Conduct conference registration and payment for members attending conferences.
• Distribute minutes from the previous meeting to members for approval at the subsequent meeting.
• Act as a point of contact for local equity groups to advance the work of the Caucus.
• When donations are approved by the Caucus, the Co-Chairs are responsible for ensuring that paperwork for donations is submitted, and where appropriate, letters are written and mailed.
• Write letters at the request of the Caucus.
• Attend meetings of the Executive Committee and General Membership.
• Provide periodic updates (once per month or less) about the work of the Caucus over the list serve.
• At the TFAC AGM to be held in February/March each year, propose a budget to the Caucus for discussion and debate.
• Oversee and help with the formulation and carrying out of Caucus projects.
• Ensure that TFAC brochures are available in the union office (this may involve updating brochures over time).

Executive Committee Nominations Open May 16

The CUPE 3903 2024 Executive Committee election nominations period will be open from May 16th at 12pm to May 30th at 12pm.

All members, especially Black, First Nations and racialized members, and members from other equity seeking groups, are strongly encouraged to run for the next executive committee in fulfillment of our equity mandate. For a list of executive positions, please see CUPE 3903 Executive Committee.

(NB: Trans Feminist Action Caucus (TFAC) co-chairs are elected by members of TFAC through an independent election run by TFAC election officers.)

Election Timeline

The election timeline will be as follows:

• Nominations Period: May 16 – 12pm to May 30 – 12pm
• Campaigning Period: May 30 – 12pm to June 13 – 12pm
• Voting Period (via SimplyVoting): June 14 – 5pm to June 19 – 5pm

Nomination Instructions

The online NOMINATION FORM is available here: Executive Committee Nomination Form. The form will close at the end of the nomination period (May 30, 2023 at 12 pm).

To nominate yourself:

• Nominees must fill out and submit the electronic nomination form linked above.
  The traditional register and nomination form have been combined into a single electronic election nomination form, thus it is the only thing a nominee will need to fill out.
• A nominee will need to know the names and email addresses of two supporters, who need to be members in good standing. If the nomination is for a Lead Steward or Vice President position, the supporters must be members of the relevant bargaining unit (e.g., for a Unit 1 position, the supporters must be members of Unit 1).
• Upon submission of the nomination form, the supporters will be automatically contacted by email to endorse the nomination via a pre-populated supporter form. Both supporter forms must be submitted before the deadline in order for the nomination to be considered complete. The form will be disabled at the close of the nomination period. Please note that some people have had the supporter form go to their Junk folder, so if you have agreed to support a candidate, please also check your Junk folder for the form.
• The nomination period will open at 12pm on May 16th and will close two weeks later on May 30th at 12pm. The nomination form and supporter forms will automatically be disabled at the close of the nomination period.
• Information concerning the campaigning period and electronic voting will be forthcoming.

Should members have any accessibility concerns, they should contact the Electoral Officers at cupe3903eo@gmail.com, or the Equity Officer at cupe3903equity@gmail.com

During office hours, an executive committee member will be available to greet and help members who stop by. During the summer semester there will not be full coverage of all business hours, but as we approach the fall term and there are more people on campus regularly, we will increase the coverage.

Office hours are hybrid, meaning that there are both online and in-person options for dropping in. Here is the zoom link for online: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85813878456?pwd=UGtHdnM5dllzSVNnc3cyazZleU80QT09

Office hours are held at the CUPE 3903 office – Atkinson 143.

Please check this document for the operating CUPE 3903 office schedule.