(1) Picket Shift Update
(2) Nominate Yourself for Elections Officer
(3) CUPE Carnival: Celebrating 20 Weeks of Resistance: NEW TIME TODAY
(4) Bargaining Team Meeting: July 23
(5) Strike Committee Meeting: July 23
(6) Executive Committee Meeting: July 24
(7) Strike General Membership Meeting: July 25
The general elections will have to be held soon after the strike ends. This means that the two Elections Officers positions need to be filled, as there is one vacancy and the other EO will be out of town for the rest of the summer.
Nominations are now open, and the positions will be filled on a pro tem basis at the Friday August 3 Executive Committee meeting. Elections Officers come up for yearly re-election at the GMM immediately following the conclusion of the general elections. Therefore, this nomination period would be to supervise the general elections only.
To nominate yourself for the position, email Dan O’Hara at recsec.cupe3903@gmail.com by 5 pm on Thursday, August 2. A description of the position is below.
The role of the Chief Electoral Officers is to organize the elections as per the bylaws. The work includes accepting the nominations, arranging for members to scrutineer, arranging and setting up tables for voting, and alongside the executive, communicating the details of the elections to the membership. Current members of the executive are ineligible for these positions. Additionally, election officers may not run for executive positions in the election for which they serve.
Honorarium:Â $750 per year
The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903 (CUPE 3903) has been on strike since March 5, 2018. It is now the longest strike in the post-secondary sector in Canadian history. The strike has been marked with an intransigent employer that has agreed to negotiate only two days out of more than 130. This is a struggle against precarious employment and for the very right of the union to exist and represent workers on campus (as seen with the unilateral cutting of over 800 jobs for graduate students). It is also a struggle that heavily features women and their rights under precarious employment.
Data from Statistics Canada indicates that women are disproportionately impacted by precarious employment, and that this phenomenon is compounded for racialized women, immigrant women, LGBTQ women, and women with disabilities. When we fight for better job security and working conditions, women reap the benefits.
CUPE 3903 has been making gains on issues of harassment at York, with strong anti-harassment language introduced in the 2005 bargaining round. The language was further strengthened in 2011 and again in 2015. In this current bargaining round CUPE 3903 has several bargaining proposals to address the ways in which women are especially confined to and impacted by precarious work: lactation facilities, gender and sexual violence leave, access to childcare, and support for survivors of sexual violence.
Lactation facilities and gender and sexual violence leave are two big wins from this round of bargaining. We also neared agreement on an increase to our Childcare Fund, an increase to the operating funds of childcare centers on Keele Campus, and a commitment to explore childcare at the Glendon and upcoming Markham Campuses. The availability of childcare, especially part-time childcare to accommodate part-time, precarious employment, as well as lactation facilities, helps to lessen the effects of precarity on women, for whom childcare and pregnancy present serious impediments to stable employment.
CUPE 3903 makes a point of including fighting for rights that are already guaranteed by law but which the employer has failed to independently provide. Our demands for lactation facilities are an example of our willingness to hold the employer accountable for its own failure to comply with Ontario Human Rights Law.
CUPE 3903 is also instrumental in demanding funding for the Lee Wiggins Childcare Centre, one of only two daycare spaces across all York campuses. The centre is constantly under threat of closing due to insufficient funding. CUPE 3903 has consistently included funding demands for Lee Wiggins in our bargaining. We also routinely ask for more childcare funding than other unions at York. Supporting our members with children, as well as parents campus-wide, is a priority for CUPE 3903.
One of our bargaining proposals that also remains outstanding after more than four months on strike is funding for a Sexual Violence Survivor Support Fund. In response to sexual violence at the university and within our union, in 2015 CUPE 3903 established a Sexual Violence Survivor Support Fund, which helps cover the costs associated with surviving sexual violence, whether they be medical, legal, or incidental. In this round of bargaining, we have asked York University to contribute financially to this fund so that it can keep doing the work it had successfully initiated three years ago. Sexual violence can have serious impacts on employment for women when there are no supports in place. This proposal is a large part of why many members of CUPE 3903 are still on strike.
CUPE 3903 is a sector leader and sets the tone for contract negotiations in the post-secondary sector across the country. Many unions have been able to point to our Trans Fund to get their own employer to fund one of their own. A win against precarious employment and the ways in which women are specifically affected can be leveraged by unions across the country to win similar provisions.
(1) Back to Work Legislation Update and Picketing Shifts
(2) Executive Committee Meeting: July 20
(3) CUPE Carnival: Celebrating 20 Weeks of Resistance: July 22
(1) Projected Timeline for Back to Work Legislation
(2) Picketing Shifts for the Week of July 16
(3) CUPE 3903 Hotline Hours
(4) Bargaining Team Meeting: July 16
(5) Emergency Strike General Membership Meeting: July 16
(6) Days of Action at Queen’s Park: July 17 & 18
(7) CUPE Carnival: Celebrating 20 Weeks of Resistance: July 22
(1) Arbitrator Appointed for Unit 2
(2) CUPE 3903 Hotline Hours
(3) Executive Committee Meeting: July 10
(4) Bargaining Team Meeting: July 11
(5) Joint BT-Exec Meeting: July 11
(6) **NEW DATE** Strike General Membership Meeting: July 12
James Hayes has been appointed as the arbitrator for the settlement of the Unit 2 collective agreement.
On June 15, 2018, contract faculty ratified a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) which included arbitration for several proposals. On the first Executive Committee meeting after this ratification, our legal counsel was instructed to work with the employer to find an arbitrator. As per the terms of the MoS, Kevin Burkett was empowered to name an arbitrator if the parties were unable to agree. Burkett has selected James Hayes after conferring with both sides.
We will learn more soon about the timeline for the settlement of the Unit 2 collective agreement, as this will be set by the arbitrator, in consultation with legal counsel for both the union and the employer.
Following the post with mental health resources in Toronto, here is a list of resources in the Greater Toronto Area.
(1) Reminder: Pick Up Your Strike Pay
(2) Bylaw Amendment Results
(3) CUPE 3903 Hotline Hours
(4) Anti-Racism Committee Meeting: July 9
(5) Strike Committee Meeting: July 9
(6) Executive Committee Meeting: July 10
(7) Bargaining Team Meeting: July 11
(8) Joint BT-Exec Meeting: July 11
(9) Strike General Membership Meeting: July 12
The following amendment to the bylaws was approved at the July 5 General Membership Meeting.
Further to article 14 on elections, the executive committee shall not have the authority to remove from office any executive committee member elected by the general membership. However, by a two-thirds majority, the executive committee may censure any one or more of its members for specific reasons, and any such decision, along with the names of the executive committee members voting for and against shall be recorded in the minutes as an executive committee motion. Abstentions will be recorded but will not count in the calculation of the two-thirds majority. By a similar vote, the executive committee may direct that a special membership meeting be called (as per article 15) to consider the recall of any executive committee officer except the chair(s) of the Trans Feminist Action Caucus. If the recall of the chairperson of the executive committee is at issue, a chief steward shall chair the special membership meeting. Recall of any executive committee member, except the chair(s) of the Trans Feminist Action Caucus, can also be initiated by the membership if a petition is signed by 150 members of the unit or units that elected the position in good standing or 25%, whichever is lower, calling for such action. Signatures will consist of name, department, unit number, employee number, and signature. Then, at a special membership meeting to consider the recall of an executive committee member, a two-thirds majority of those present (not counting abstentions) would be required to remove the member from office. In the event of a recall, nominations for the position would be opened and an election held as per article 14. Any officer elected in this manner would hold their position until the regular election in March.
Like all bylaw amendments, it will be sent to CUPE National for final approval.
Yes: 55 votes
No: 19 votes