The following bargaining team positions are still vacant and need to be filled:
i) Bargaining Team Representative Unit 4 (1 position)
ii) Bargaining Team Recording Secretary Unit 4 (1 position)

The nomination period for these positions has been reopened on September 21, 2021. Members interested in nominating themselves should fill out the nomination form. Here is the link: (https://form.jotform.com/cupe3903/election-nomination-form).

If contested, 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) – September 21 – October 5
Campaign period (2 weeks) – October 6 – October 19
Voting (5 days): October 20 – October 25

The CUPE 3903 Executive Sent The Following Letter to President Lenton:

Dear President Lenton,

We write to express our great disappointment that the Council of Ontario Universities (COU), on which you sit as York University’s representative, has been lobbying the Ford government to exempt universities from indoor capacity limits designed to protect against COVID-19 risks. As our colleagues at the University of Toronto Faculty Association argue, there is no justifiable scientific reason for this action.

Our members expect that their employer will act in the interests of their health and safety at all times, and that protecting both our members, the wider York community and their loved ones from COVID-19 must take precedence over any other goals that the university has. As we have stated many times, we want to return to in-person teaching, but we must be able to do so safely. 

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We are hosting a General Membership Meeting via Zoom on September 21st from 12:00pm to 3:00pm! All members are encouraged to attend.

Please register in advance for this meeting here.

In order to register, you will need to provide your employee number, which will be kept confidential. Your employee number is on your monthly pay stub. If you don’t know your employee number, please click here for instructions.

Keep reading for the tentative agenda, accessibility information and more.

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If you are at high risk of serious outcomes from COVID-19, immunocompromised, or live with someone who is at high risk or immunocompromised, you may be eligible for a work-from-home accommodation based on disability or family status. To increase the likelihood that your request will be granted, we strongly encourage members to contact the union for support before making a workplace accommodations request. You can find out more about disability-based workplace accommodations, family status-based workplace accommodations by contacting the CUPE 3903 Equity Officer, Nadia Kanani, at cupe3903equity@gmail.com.

While your medical/disability-based accommodation request is being processed we do not recommend that members go on campus. In the interim, the equity officer can help you arrange, when permitting, remote teaching or a leave of absence.

The nomination period for the vacancy on the Unit 2 Job Stability Committee closed on Friday, September 17, 2021. Kevin Reynolds was acclaimed to the position. We congratulate and wish Kevin the best on this important committee, along with other members of this committee.

The first meeting between the Job Stability Committee and the Employer will take place on Wednesday, September 22nd from 5:30–7pm. Members are invited to attend this meeting. Zoom link (TBA)

In the bargaining round that concluded this summer, we negotiated a 1% across the board increase to all wages for 2020-2021. Since this increase is retroactive, members will begin to see it appear on paycheques and in student accounts. Retroactive Grant in Aid (GIA) was applied to student accounts of members who are also graduate students on or around September 15th. It should be labelled “Suppl. Grad Assistance (Grant-in-Aid).” If you see a GIA amount that is much lower than your regular monthly GIA, this is your retroactive amount. For example, if last year you held a 1.0 Tutor 1 (tutorial leader), the amount is approximately $40. The regular GIA amount should be posted on schedule with your September pay.

York University has outsourced our members’ accommodation requests to a third party, OSI, an unaccountable, privatized company. This malicious transaction implemented by York University’s senior administrators is yet another jaw-dropper.

If you have never heard of Organizing Solutions Incorporated (OSI), you would not be alone. Few had heard of them until they started denying, to our knowledge, every COVID-related family status accommodation by members of CUPE 3903.

Faculty and instructors seeking a COVID-related accommodation based on their family status are being directed to send requests to their manager/academic leader.

However, CUPE 3903 is not aware of a single request being granted. We strongly encourage all members not to talk to OSI without union representation present. 

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Several CUPE 3903 members have come forward to inform us that the Dean’s office of LA&PS has been sending unannounced representatives of the employer into classrooms, presumably to check if the classes are running in-person. These visits are being followed up with threatening emails sent to our members.

CUPE 3903 strongly condemns this practice of unannounced classroom visits by the employer’s representatives, which is a form of surveillance of members’ work, and illegal. Surely the employer has better uses for its resources during this busy time; this form of surveillance is a clear violation of the principle of academic freedom.

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On September 9th, 2021, the Department of Social Science passed a motion affirming the right of course directors and teaching assistants to determine the format and mode of delivery of their courses.

Soon after the motion was passed, members within the Department of Social Science received threatening emails from the University administration warning of penalties and other disciplinary actions should members adhere to this new, democratically approved departmental policy. Through both the emails sent to members of the Department of Social Science and the memos sent to other departments and hiring units (in what will be a failed attempt to prevent similar motions), the University administration continues to pursue a chilling effect and dismantling of collegial governance at York University. The actions taken by the Department of Social Science should be applauded, as they display a clear desire to protect and defend the interests, health, and safety of their colleagues and students.

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This coming week, many CUPE 3903 members will face the difficult situation of having to return to in-person teaching without a clear, robust safety plan from the administration. As some YUFA members and departments explore their rights to refuse unsafe working conditions and to choose the mode of delivery of their courses, senior administrators have threatened disciplinary action against them and against 3903 members who do not comply. The situation has understandably created a lot of stress and confusion for our members.

CUPE 3903 seeks to re-assert and inform members about their rights to seek accommodations and to refuse unsafe working conditions, as well as the union’s duty to protect members who face disciplinary action.

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