Report Back from A Day of Organizing! 

On June 10th, 2024, members of CUPE 3903 came together to discuss where we are, where we’re going, and how we can get there! The members who attended came from different bargaining units and different faculties; some had been working at York for decades, while others will be joining CUPE 3903 in September. While participants were all very different, we all share the most important thing: the desire to build power together to improve working conditions at York University!

Through brainstorming and discussing, we learned that the main issues on people’s minds are remediation pay, restructuring, and how to improve communications to increase solidarity. People also expressed a desire for more social spaces and a need to find organic ways to connect despite our work environment changing so that less of it is in person. The event was opened with discussion and closed with planning next steps, facilitated by the incoming Chairperson Zoë Newman!

We also worked on how to reach more members, how to build campaigns, and discussed what our next steps are to build power and address the problems we are facing. The first workshop, led by the outgoing Chairperson Mackenzie Edwards, highlighted on how to mobilize your fellow members toward actionable change. The second workshop, led by Assistant Staff Representative Maija Duncan, focused on structural ways to build campaigns.

Several attendees agreed to bottom-line wide-ranging initiatives and will be meeting to develop these. The campaigns members devised included workshops to help members understand their pay statements, a remediation-centric petition, and creative ideas for protest swag. Eventually, these initiatives will hopefully be brought to the next Stewards’ Council. If you are interested in getting involved with one of these campaigns, email cupe3903chairperson@gmail.com so that you can be connected to a member-organizer!

We had a great time discussing and working together; this is only the beginning. There’s a lot of work to do, but the good news is that there’s a willingness to do it! To be part of future events, make sure to subscribe to the union’s newsletter and attend Stewards’ Council on June 25th at 1PM.

Committee Elections took place during the June 14th Annual General Meeting.

Click here to see a list of acclaimed and elected positions.

The new committee members will be contacted directly by Alie Hermanutz, VP Unit 1, over the next week.

Some positions remain vacant, please stay tuned for the by-elections to fill the remaining seats.

Congratulations and thank you to our newest committee members!

Nominations closed on June 9 at 5pm.

Click here to see a list of acclaimed and contested positions.

Any committees with more nominees than positions open will be voted on at the AGM on June 14th. Otherwise, nominees will be acclaimed to their position.

Nominees will be notified if their candidacy will be voted on at the AGM and the short written candidate statement submitted through the jotform (max 150 words) will be included in the AGM package. There will also be time at the AGM (Friday, June14th) for nominees to briefly speak about their candidacies if they want to.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Alie Hermanutz, VP Unit 1, at cupe3903vpu1@gmail.com.

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).