OUR ANNUAL GENERAL MEMBERS MEETING is on 

Thursday, APRIL 20

4:00 PM IN AS 203 

One more additional election that is not on the agenda on the poster:

Four delegates to CUPE National Convention October 2 – 6, 2017 in Toronto.

The local is offering a temporary job that includes scanning and processing of grievance files into a software called LabourWare. While an asset, no experience with LabourWare is necessary (training will be provided). The objective is to have grievances digitized, easily accessible and searchable.  A degree of experience with the grievance process is required for the job. See the call by clicking on the link below.

CUPE4207 Grievance Scanner Job Posting

Unit 3, instructors in ESL Services,  is preparing for bargaining. At this special general membership meeting Unit 3 members will be discussing the results of a recently conducted survey on improvement of their working conditions.

The U3 Bargaining Committee has compiled the results of the survey and will be presenting them at this Special GMM. Unit 3 members will then identify a list of issues that would be the priority focus in bargaining. The priorities will be ratified by a vote at this meeting.

The meeting is open to all members. Only members of Unit 3 can vote.

AGENDA:

1. Update – Joint U2/U3 Labour Management Meeting, Feb. 24

(including upcoming Academic Program Review of ESL Services)

2. English-Only Policy for IELP Students

3. Unit 3 Bargaining Priorities Meeting

The membership spoke. Seventy six per cent votes were cast in support of the tentative agreement. This means that the deal is in effect until September 6, 2019.

We still have the alternate strike office at 319 Merritt. The Strike Preparation Committee is having a meeting tomorrow to discuss returning things to their usual places and resting all the traffic safety equipment in storage until it is needed again.

In addition to wrapping up and to close, the SPC is going to plan a social at the 319 Merritt building. Stay tuned and of course, as always, members are welcome to plan or just to show up at the union office, tomorrow, Friday, March 17 at 2 pm for the social planning!

There will be two general membership meetings for Unit 1 members to vote on the tentative collective agreement reached in the early morning hours of March 3rd.

About the ratification process:

Once the terms of the newly negotiated agreement are singed by members of the negotiating teams, the document must be presented to the respective governing bodies for a vote. The employer will present the tentative deal for ratification to a Board of Trustees committee on March 9th. We will wait for the employer to conduct the ratification vote first, given our negative experience in 2012  when they intended to remove an article from the tentatively signed deal and ratify thus conditionally. This illegal move pushed Unit 3 to go on a 10-day strike to force the employer to adhere to the Labour Relations Act.

Members of Unit 1 will be presented with the new language of the tentative collective agreement  on

Wednesday, March 15,  5:00 – 7:00, Room: Academic South 204

Thursday, March 16 , 12:00 – 3:00, Room: Thistle 240

At each meeting members will be free to ask questions and engage in a discussion. The meetings will conclude with a secret ballot vote. The question on the ballot simply asks members to indicate by ‘yes’ if they accept the terms of the tentative collective agreement, or to signal by ‘no’ if they do not accept it as is.

If a majority of votes (50% plus one) accept the terms of the tentative agreement then it is ratified and becomes a legally binding document.  Only members of Unit 1 can vote.

The UNIT 1 Bargaining Committee has reached a tentative agreement.

There is NO strike.

Ratification meeting will be set up to vote on it.

THURSDAY, MARCH 2 at 5 pm in Thistle 255

On agenda: bargaining update and potential strike.

Unit 1 legal strike position is one minute after midnight (12:01) am March 3. On March 1st and 2nd the bargaining team will be in mediation with the employer.

By now members should have signed the Strike Pay Application form. If you haven’t done so yet, print it out and drop it off to the union office (or the mailbox next to MC C 402). It is super important that you sign it so CUPE National approves strike pay for you. If the strike is called and you show up at the picket line for your regular 20 hours a week of picketing without having the form signed, you may experience serious delay in pay.

Sign up for your picket shifts. See how on our bargaining website’s page.

Venceremos! Let’s win better working conditions for workers and better learning conditions for students!

For #BetterBrock #BetterUniversities!

Ministry of Labour’s ‘no board’ report arrived this morning with a strike deadline set for March 3. This means that Unit 1 of our local would be in a legal position to strike one minute after midnight on March 3 (on the night from March 2 to March 3). This does not mean that the union will call a strike but it indicates that a permission is granted to withdraw our labour from that time on until a mutually agreeable collective agreement is reached. 

In the 17-day period leading to the strike deadline the two parties still can negotiate. There will be a mediation before March 3.

About the major issues on the table read here.

We need to build a strong union especially in exceptional times like this. For a successful resolution please consider joining one of these committees:

Strike Preparation Committee

Strike Benefits Committee

Communications Committee

cupe4207@brocku.ca

February 13th at 5 pm in Sankey Chamber

Agenda:

The Election of the Recording Secretary position advertized on our posting boards will be elected at our March GMM.

• Bargaining, strike deadline, Strike Preparation Committee
• Election of Unit 1 Bargaining Team Member (to fill in vacancy, duration from Feb 13 to ratification of new collective agreement)
•  Election of 2 Delegates to the Canadian Labour Congress Convention, May 8-12, Toronto.
• Bylaw amendment 16.3 Election of Delegates, amendment in bold.

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