Please find the written version of the Bargaining Team’s response to the Employer in the January 28th meeting. This written version has now also been sent to the Employer.
This is a report back for the ninth bargaining meeting with the Employer on January 28th (Noon–3pm).
The Centre for Human Rights, Equity and Inclusion (REI) will be hosting its special REDI Anti-Racism Workshop Series during Black History Month, on every Tuesday in February.
The online sessions will cover the fundamentals of what racism is, how it manifests and what its impacts are, as well as offer tools to intervene and opportunities to work with others on overcoming barriers to using those tools in real-life situations, with the ultimate goal of promoting belonging.
As the second wave of the pandemic hits Canada more and more workers are getting sick. But far too many workers don’t have paid sick days. 58% of all workers in Canada don’t have access to any paid sick days and for workers making $25,000 or less that number jumps to 70%. The lack of access to paid sick days disproportionately impacts Black, Indigenous, workers of colour and women workers. The Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit is far from adequate and is the wrong approach to addressing the health of workers and the public. An effective response to the pandemic is for the government to legislate employer-paid sick days. This is a question of good public health policy as well as a matter of racial and gender justice. Every worker during and after the pandemic should be able to access paid sick days. Continue reading
The following letter was sent by the Employer to the CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team on January 25, 2021.
Employer’s Letter
The Bargaining Team met for the second time this year on January 25th. We reviewed our last bargaining meeting with the Employer on Friday, January 22nd and the Employer’s counter proposals presented at that meeting. An update from the joint meeting of the Bargaining Team and Executive Committee, to discuss communication strategies regarding the anti-racism proposals, was also provided. We spent time preparing for our upcoming bargaining meeting with the Employer, scheduled for Thursday, January 28th. This included putting together a response to the Employer’s proposal framework. We also spent time planning our January 26th General Membership Meeting, and discussed improving security measures for our Zoom meetings.
Next Meetings – Registration and Zoom links can be found on our Calendar here
January 26, 2021 – 1:00PM – January General Membership Meeting
January 28, 2021 – 12:00PM – Bargaining Meeting with Employer
January 29, 2021 – 1:00PM – Bargaining Meeting with Employer
In order to register, you will need to provide your employee number, which will be kept confidential. Your employee number can be found on your monthly pay stub. If you still don’t know what your employee number is, please click here for instructions.
After registering, members will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.
In order to apply for work for the September–August 2021–2022 academic session, all members should submit their blanket applications. Blanket applications for Units 1 and 2 are due on January 31st. The online application link can be found here.
Directions:
Click on the faculty you will apply to, then on the “Blanket/CSSP” tab, and then check the department(s) you will apply to in that particular faculty. When you check the department(s), a red link will appear on the top right-hand side, which will read, “Review and Submit Application.” Click on this link and follow the instructions on submitting your application to the various departments in that faculty.
Follow the same instructions to apply to another faculty.
On Friday, January 22nd, the CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team met with the Employer. The Bargaining Team would like to thank members in the room for attending as observers, as per our open bargaining practice.
In this meeting, the Employer presented their counter to the Union’s Extension Framework from December 14, 2020. Read below for more information on the Employer’s response.
Employer’s Proposals
The Employer began with an opening statement in which they emphasized their desire for an expedited process, and argued that adding more proposals to the table will extend the bargaining process. The Employer also reiterated their commitment to a joint committee model. The Union’s position remains that these issues can and should be dealt through the bargaining process; the Employer, despite claiming they do not necessarily disagree, maintained that some issues (including some Unit 2 job security provisions) would benefit from a committee approach, where outstanding issues could be bargained in 2023.
Message sent by York University:
As a follow up to the December 11th 2020 communication (Community Update #21 – Claiming Work from Home Expenses due to the COVID-19 Pandemic), the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has confirmed two new COVID-19 specific options for employees to claim a deduction related to home office expenses.
In our December 17, 2020 meeting with the employer, CUPE 3903 asked the employer about their understanding of Bill 124. On January 19, 2021, we received their stated response. Please read this letter here.
**Please note before that the union does not agree with the employer’s interpretation of Bill 124.