We will be having our next Stewardsâ Council Meeting on September 11 from 12pm-2pm. The meeting will be held at the union office (143 Atkinson Building). The agenda will include:
ï Orientations
ï Remediation Updates
ï Department Outreach
ï Back to School Actions
ï Preparations for CUPE Cares/ CUPE3903 BBQ
If you have any questions, please email Tyler at cupe3903csu1@gmail.com. All members of CUPE 3903 are welcome to attend and participate.
The next TFAC meeting will take place on Monday, September 17 from 11:30 am – 2:00 pm in the Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson College. Food and tokens will be provided. The agenda for this meeting is to determine the process for the election of the Trans Fund Committee. This discussion will be led by trans, gender queer and gender variant TFAC members.
All trans, gender queer, gender variant, and woman identified CUPE 3903 members are members of TFAC and are welcome to join our meetings. If you have any questions or would like something on the agenda, please contact the TFAC co-chairs at tfac.cupe3903@gmail.com
We will be having our next General Membership Meeting on September 20 from 12pm-3pm. The meeting will be held at the Harry Crowe Room. A tentative agenda will be posted to the CUPE 3903 website soon.
Please contact Sheila Wilmot at cupe3903.equity.officer@gmail.com or at 416.736.5154 ext3 if you require any of the following: ASL interpretation, reimbursement for childcare/caregiver/attendant care, and/or transportation costs for members who are unable to secure Wheeltrans, or other requests for accommodation.
CUPE 3903 won an increase to daycare subsidies at Lee Wiggins Childcare Centre in the latest round of negotiations. The subsidy is now at 30% for CUPE 3903 members whose children use the Centre, and there are still full- and part-time spaces available for the fall term. Lee Wiggins Childcare Centre also provides occasional care for CUPE members who need childcare in order to attend on-campus meetings, appointments, etc. that do not fit in with their regular childcare routines. CUPE 3903 subsidizes childcare expenses incurred for members to attend all Union-related meetings. If you have any questions, please call (416) 736-5959 to talk to staff or stop by at Room 201 of the Student Centre.
Voting in the Vice-President Unit 2 election closed at 5pm on Wednesday August 22. Sharon Davidson has been elected to the position, and will enter office on September 1.
Neil Braganza: 56 votes
Sharon Davidson: 67 votes
Spoiled: 1 vote
Voting for the position of Trans Feminist Action Caucus (TFAC) Co-Chair closed at 4 pm on Friday, August 17. Tanya Da Sylva and Siobhan Saravanamuttu will be the TFAC Co-Chairs starting on September 1.
An Associate Dean of the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies (LAPS) is directing Course Directors to cap their Teaching Assistantsâ remediation hours to 22 hours, regardless of how much work is outstanding to complete the term. This is a decision that is clearly punitive against Unit 1 members, while indirectly punishing students, who need help and feedback in order to finish their term following the strike. The union is planning to address this with as many grievances as necessary — please see below to report your individual situation.
The LAPS directive goes contrary to the workload forms signed by Course Directors, who are best equipped to judge how much remediation is necessary in their course. In many cases, the directive goes against the remediation plan submitted by the Course Director, which had already been approved. Course Directors are being encouraged to police and micro-manage their Teaching Assistantsâ work, thus unfairly increasing their own workloads, all in the name of âreasonableâ allocations. Yet, what is being claimed as reasonable is in fact an affront to academic freedom, academic integrity, and sound pedagogical methods, as well as the spirit of collegiality and reconciliation with which York University claimed our members would be welcomed back.
Our members are dedicated to providing our students with the best possible education, and ensuring that the integrity of painstakingly planned-out courses remain intact. This cannot happen when it is deemed âreasonableâ that Teaching Assistants should have a mere 6 hours total preparation for radically revamped courses, or that they are expected to constructively grade sometimes an entire termâs worth of papers and tests in 8 hours, or that they only provide their students, who have remained dedicated to furthering their education after a lengthy strike, with only 8 hours of actual contact (including lecture time).
Our students deserve better than this. Our members deserve better than this. We will fight to ensure that our members receive remediation pay that mirrors their actual labour, and is in line with the existing contracts our members have signed. Thus, we are calling upon all members who are presented with unacceptably âcappedâ or otherwise unworkable remediation hours to fill out this form so that we may begin amassing suitable policy and individual grievances.
In the meantime, discuss your workload form with your Course Director to ensure that you can justify the hours required to complete the term. Keep detailed records of hours worked. Logging every hour will be necessary if a grievance is filed. Be sure to keep good records even if you do not teach in LAPS, as the problem might be more common than currently reported.
If you have any questions about remediation, get in touch with your Chief Steward:
The following bylaw amendments were passed at the Annual General Meeting.
Most committee elections were held at the Annual General Meeting on August 15. New committees take office on September 1. The results are below.
Vice-President Unit 2 is the only contested position in the general elections. Voting will begin at the August 15 General Annual Meeting and continue for five days on both Keele and Glendon campuses at the following polling stations:
Keele Campus (9 am – 5 pm):
Glendon Campus (11 am – 3 pm):
As Vice-President Unit 2 is a unit-specific position, only members of Unit 2 may vote in this election. Statements for both candidates are available below.