Hello all,

After the Special General Membership Meeting on Thursday, June 24^th, we will be holding a Town Hall meeting at 6:30pm to discuss your concerns about an in-person return to learning in the Fall term. To date, members have raised issues, such as:

• How will seminar rooms, labs, and lecture halls be cleaned & sanitized effectively between classes?
• What will be done to ensure proper social distancing in these spaces?
• What will be done about the existing overcrowding of seminar spaces?
• What will be done to about shared office spaces where sometimes 20 TAs & Graders share a space?
• What safety and containment measures will be in place if an outbreak occurs (a variant), given the risk of exposure is heightened with more in-person classes being run?

The Administration has been releasing statements that they are planning for the Fall, but the array of options that they are presenting – full in-person, hybrid of in-person and online, and all online – are the only options. It is clear that there hasn’t been a decision on what the Fall term would look like. This is understandable, given that it has been almost impossible to make any planning during this pandemic.

While we can’t make a decision about what the Fall term will look like, we can have a discussion about what our concerns are, and how to make sure that they are on the table in the planning for the Fall. The Town Hall will seek to get input into concerns and to plan how to present these concerns to the Administration and to the broader community.

The Town Hall will begin after the SGMM and it will be held on the same Zoom link!

Please register in advance for the SGMM & Townhall here:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvcO2oqDIpH9BUUTz8Racm6JbLT6hFZsBO

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

[a quick note: **We will be conducting voting via Zoom polls during the SGMM. Members who call in over the phone will not be able to vote**].

In solidarity,
Nathan Cecckin, on behalf of the Executive Committee

Workers at Wine Rack stores in Toronto are on strike: low-wage wages and refusal to implement a fair hour scheduling system that respects seniority.

CUPE 4207 President Nathan Cecckin showing support and solidarity on our behalf!  #WineRackStrike – SEIU Local 2 Wine Rack Canada.

Since 2004, the Provincial Government has continued to invest less and less money into eye health. That was the year that adults 18 – 64 years in Ontario could no longer access an OHIP covered eye exam.

Now, OHIP covered eye exams for children, senior citizens, and those folks with eye diseases are in trouble due to chronic under funding by the Provincial Government.

Please consider signing this petition and help stop this from happening. https://www.saveeyecare.ca/

Every day optometrists take pride in helping our patients see clearly and preventing blindness. But today we need your help.

For over 30 years, the Ontario government has refused to formally negotiate with optometrists.

In 1989, the Ontario government paid $39.15 for an eye exam.

In 2021, 32 years later, they pay an average of $44.65.

This amount does not come close to covering the cost (including rent, staff, utilities, equipment, taxes and supplies) to provide an eye exam.

This is not sustainable and yet the Ontario government continues to ignore your care.

They have left optometrists with no choice. If they do not prioritize eye care, as of September 1, 2021, access to eye care for millions of Ontarians will end. 

Tell Premier Ford and your local MPP that not properly funding eye care hurts you and your family.

Register for Incorporating Naloxone & Harm Reduction into our Activism happening Tuesday June 29th at 2pm!

Registration link: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/incorporating-naloxone-harm-reduction-into-our-activism-tickets-159522824061 (clickable link available in the @opirgbrock bio linktree)

In partnership with OPIRG Brock, the Niagara District CUPE Council, and CUPE 4207, this training will provide a Niagara context for substance use and overdoses, education on addictions, debunk myths and stereotypes about substance use, Narcan training! This training will also provide tangible tools for improving the accessibility of your activist and organizing spaces, rallies, and events.

For questions please contact Claire at claurie@positivelivingniagara.com. If you have any accessibility needs to attend this webinar, please email info@opirgbrock.com

Co-hosted by @positivelivingniagara, @opirgbrock, @cupe4207, and the Niagara District CUPE Council.

#PositiveLivingNiagara #OPIRGBrock #NiagaraDistrictCUPECouncil #cupe4207 #harmreduction #communitysafety #communityalternatives #PWUD #SupportPWUD #opiods #opiodoverdose #opiodepidemic #safesupply #SupportNotStigma #webinar

From the Council of Canadians:

Across the country, a movement is growing to protect the Rockies and its headwaters from open-pit coal mining. Eight new coal mining projects have been proposed on the Eastern Slopes – and we need to stop them before they start.

Grassy Mountain, the project that’s closest to moving ahead, is currently being assessed by a joint federal-provincial review panel. That panel’s report will be delivered to Jonathan Wilkinson, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, on June 18th.

Join us for a digital rally on June 25 to learn more about the status of Grassy Mountain, hear from those on the ground about why we must continue the fight against coal, and come together to take action.

You will be invited to call Minister Wilkinson and ask that he and the Cabinet make the right decision and say no to coal in the Rockies by first saying no to Grassy Mountain. We will provide you with the link to call and a simple script to follow.

Date: Friday, June 25, 2021
Time: 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. MT
RSVP here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YWauoJadRXKSJ5GojJQQqg

June Special GMM 
Date: Thursday, June 24, 2021.
Time: 5:30 pm

Townhall Gathering:  6:30pm
Location: Virtual Meeting Online (via Zoom)

Please register in advance for this meeting:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEvcO2oqDIpH9BUUTz8Racm6JbLT6hFZsBO

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

**We will be conducting voting via Zoom polls. Members who call in over the phone will not be able to vote.

Agenda
1. Call the Meeting to Order
2. Roll-Call of Officers
3. Reading of the Equality Statement
4. Acknowledgement of Indigenous Territory
5. Minute of Silence
6. Voting on New Members and Initiation
7. Presentation – Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) Brock
https://www.opirgbrock.com/
Guest Speaker: Kerry Duncan
8. Elections:

a. Election of an Applied Health Sciences Steward
(term ending March 30, 2022)
b. Election of a Unit 3 Vice President
(term ending March 30, 2022)
c. Election of a Unit 1 Bargaining Research Committee
(3 members)

9. Adjournment

Townhall will follow at 6:30pm. Join us and share your concerns, insights, ideas about the F/W term.

Join CUPE Ontario Pink Triangle Committee on June 9 at 6:30pm for a special pride month webinar where panelists will discuss the history of pride, the meaning of the Pink Triangle symbol, and the work of the CUPE Ontario Pink Triangle Committee.

Guests:

o Fred Hahn – a former Pink Triangle Committee member and the first out gay President of CUPE Ontario
o Susan Gapka – the first out trans member on CUPE Ontario’s Executive Board
o Yasmeen Persad – the trans program coordinator for TPOC (trans people of colour project) @ the 519 and research coordinator for TWIRI (the trans women Hiv research initiative) @Women’s College Hospital.

REGISTER HERE.

Just a reminder that the Exec Committee is holding their monthly meeting next week. Registration is required if you would like to attend.

Join long time 4207 Instructors Tracy Kennedy (Outreach Officer teaching in IASC) & Nadine Brundett (Instructors Steward teaching in Classics) at our first virtual gathering for Unit 1 Instructors.

Part-time Instructors are an integral part of the teaching staff at Brock University. As such, Nadine & Tracy are working on several initiatives for Instructors in the coming year, offering instructors ample opportunity to share their teaching experiences at Brock. We hope to network, build community, share teaching resources, and to offer support for new and long-time Instructors. Watch your email for updates.

Join us Tues, June 15th at 4:00pm via Zoom for our first Virtual Drop-In and gathering for Instructors. If you are currently teaching or have taught at Brock in the last two years – why not stop by? You’ll need to register for this gathering first. We hope that you’ll stop by to say hello and introduce yourself, and let us know how things are going for you.

We look forward to meeting you!

Dear 4207 Members,

Last week, the bodies of 215 children were discovered on the grounds of the former residential school in Kamloops. Some of the children were as young as three years old when they were buried. The residential school system was designed to separate children from their families and to destroy Indigenous cultures by prohibiting their language and culture – an act of genocide by the Canadian government that sought to eliminate Indigenous peoples from their own land.

This is also not something from a distant past. Rather, the same approach continues to inform how the government behaves, including the failure to honor treaties, to negotiate over unceded territory, or to properly investigate the thousands of missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Our hearts go out to the survivors of the residential school system and we stand in solidarity with Indigenous peoples.

Please also see this statement from the Office of the Chief of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.

In solidarity,
Nathan Cecckin,
CUPE 4207 President
On behalf of the Executive Committee