CUPE Local 3913

Posts Tagged ‘sessionals’

Featuring Articles by the Executive, including:

• ‘Working To Assignment’ – Jaime Brenes Reyes
  
• ‘Women’s Council Invite’ – Mope Ogunbowale
  
• ‘A Sad Success’ – ‘Banji Akinola
• ‘TA Work Log Sheet’ – The Exec
  
• ‘Your Health & Safety Matter’ – Reza-Sepehr Esfahani
• ‘End It Already!’ – Alexander Legwegoh
  
• ‘Intro To Your Stewards’ – Departmental Stewards
  
• ‘Sessional Lecturer PDR Fund’ – Deidre Rose
• ‘No Accounting For Simplicity’ – Mykhaylo Sheremet
  
• The Good of the Union Crossword Puzzle # 14 for your chance to win $100 at the upcoming GMM on February 2nd!

Look for your copy in your mailbox, or
Click Here for Your Local News (Jan./Feb. 2012)

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Featuring Articles by the Executive, including:

• ‘Your Local Is What You Make it’ – Andrew Tersigni
  
• ‘Women In Full Action’ – Mope Ogunbowale
  
• ‘UHIP: Who Gets What and Why’ – ‘Banji Akinola
• ‘Never Give Up The Struggle’ – Nino Scavello
  
• ‘Your Health & Safety Matter’ – Reza-Sepehr Esfahani
• ‘What’s In A Name?’ – Alexander Legwegoh
  
• ‘The 2011 CUPE National Convention: A Family Reunion To Remember’ – Jaime Brenes-Reyes
  
• ‘Cyber-Bullying’ – Deidre Rose & Reza-Sepehr Esfahani
• ‘Grateful To Serve Our Local’ – Mykhaylo Sheremet
  
• The Good of the Union Crossword Puzzle # 13 for your chance to win $100 at the upcoming GMM on Nov. 24th!

Look for your copy in your mailbox, or
Click Here for Your Local News (Nov./Dec. 2011)

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Featuring Articles by the Executive, including:

• ‘Its Your Local After All’ – by Andrew Tersigni
  
• ‘Welcome to ITAs & UHIP Reimbursement’ – by ‘Banji Akinola
  
• ‘Cause The Good Times Are Over…’ – by Nino Scavello
  
• ‘Your Health & Safety Matter’ – by Reza-Sepehr Esfahani
• ‘It’s Not Just About Ethics’ – by Alexander Legwego
  
• ‘How To Read An ‘Offer Of Appointment’ & An ‘Assignment Of Work Agreement’ – by Jaime Brenes-Reyes
  
• The TA Work Log – (to log  your hours of work)
• ‘Dos & Don’ts For Safe Lifting’ – CALM
  
• The Good of the Union Crossword Puzzle # 12 for your chance to win $100 at the upcoming GMM on September 22nd!

Look for your copy in your mailbox, or

CLICK HERE for a copy of Your Local News (Sept./Oct. 2011) 

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Dear Sisters & Brothers,

We would first of all like to welcome you all back, and we welcome all our new members at the same time.

While we wish you all a good, productive and safe Fall semester, we also would like to provide you with some important information in response to the number of questions you have sent us about the ongoing negotiations between the Employer and the Sisters and Brothers of the United Steel Workers (USW) – Local 4120 – representing Support (Clerical and Administrative) Staff on campus.
__________________________
As a CUPE 3913 member, how do I deal with picket lines in case of job action by either the Employer or the USW 4120?

• While CUPE 3913 Members are expected to report for their regularly scheduled duties as per their contract with the Employer – please see Article VII of your Collective Agreement here: http://www.cupe3913.on.ca/category/bargaining-updates

• Should you have any concerns about crossing a picket line (e.g. for personal safety reasons), you are entitled and have the right to request that a Member of the University Administration or your Supervisor provide safe escort across the picket line;

• No CUPE 3913 Members can be asked or required to perform the duties of a striking or locked out worker; your duties remain the same as those described in your “Assignment of Work Agreement” (if you are a TA or GSA1), or as inscribed in your “Work Agreement” as per Article X, Clauses 10.02 (a) & (b) (if you are a Sessional);

• Should you wish to join a picket line in solidarity with locked out or striking workers, you are free to do so (and we encourage you to support and respect the workers) provided this is not done during your regularly assigned duties or hours of work;

• Members have the right and obligation to ensure that any labs and other facilities in their care or under their supervision remain safe workplaces; should the loss of support staff create a situation deemed to be unsafe, CUPE 3913 Members are required to report such situations to the appropriate Chair or Supervisor as per Article XVI of the CUPE 3913 Collective Agreements.

Should you have any further questions about the potential impact of work stoppage arising from the ongoing USW negotiations with the Employer, please feel free to contact the office.

In Solidarity,
Your Executive

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Featuring Articles by the Executive, including:

• ‘What Can I Do?’ – by Andrew Tersigni
  
• ‘Your Local At CUPE O’ – by ‘Banji Akinola
  
• ‘At Your Service’ – by Mopelola Ogunbowale
  (Welcome Aboard Mope)
• ‘Your Health & Safety Matter’ – by Reza-Sepehr Esfahani (Welcome Aboard Reza)
• ‘Fellowship Opportunities And The New Collective Agreements’ – by Dee Rose
  
• ‘A Unionized Environment’ – by Nino Scavello
  
• The TA Work Log;
• The Good of the Union Crossword Puzzle # 11 for your chance to win $100 at the upcoming GMM on July 7th!

Look for your copy in your mailbox, or
CLICK HERE For ‘Your Local News‘ July/August 2011.

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The Provost’s office is pleased to announce a new Fellowship, developed in cooperation with CUPE 3913.

This fellowship is offered in recognition of the scholarly contribution of long-serving Sessionals to teaching and pedagogy.

The fellowships are available to eligible Sessional Lecturers at the University of Guelph. The aim of the pilot project is to support their continued learning and evolution as teachers.

Eligible Sessional Lecturers are invited to submit applications that outline a plan of scholarly activity related to the further development of their teaching skills, and to the creation of innovations in pedagogy.

Deadline for applications for Fall 2011 & Winter 2012 is July 1st, 2011.

For more details on how to apply please CLICK HERE.

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Featuring Articles by the Executive, including:

• We Are Not Alone – Coordinating Bargaining in the University Sector;
• Your Right to File a Grievance;
• From Your Undergraduate TA Rep. (Welcome Aboard Brother Mark);
• You Fight – You Benefit;
• Make the most of your application package;
• Are you logging your TA hours?; and of course,
• The Good of the Union Crossword Puzzle # 10 for your chance to win $50at the upcoming GMM on Feb. 3rd!

Look for your copy in your mailbox, or
Click Here To View It Online.

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As you all know we have now been in negotiations with the employer since August, and the Collective Agreements (CAs) expired on August 31st, for both Unit 1 (TAs) & Unit 2 (Sessionals). We are still far away from a decent CA for either Unit, an agreement you can live with and, maybe more importantly, an agreement you can live on and work with.

We cannot do this alone.  Without the support of our members (your predecessors) over the last 15 years, there wouldn’t be the kind of CA that you currently work under.  It is now your time to step forward and provide the support and the encouragement needed by your Executive and your Bargaining Team. This is the only way to come out of this round of negotiations with language in the CA that addresses and fixes the issues we encountered over the last two years.

Our surveys have shown the issues you want addressed and how you want to see things shape up – now your voice and your participation must stand behind those issues. Over the last 15 years our Local has managed to get settlements without having to resort to any kind of job action – but not before our members told the employer that they were willing and able to put down their tools for what they believed in.  There will be a full update on how negotiations are going at our next GMM (February 3rd). At that time, the motion to authorize the Executive to hold a strike mandate vote will come to the floor (it was given as a notice of motion at the last GMM on November 25th).

We would like you to join us there and help us chart a way through these negotiations.  Keep your eyes open for email updates.

It is now your turn.  Join us and help yourself and your colleagues.

In Solidarity
Your Executive & Bargaining Team

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Sessionals, teaching, research and graduate assistants will be celebrating Fair Employment Week on campuses across the country – Oct. 25 to 29.

The event is meant to raise awareness of the challenges non-tenured academic workers face, which include achieving liveable wages and basic benefits, having sufficient appropriate workspace, and fighting privatization of education services.

Recording Secretary for CUPE local 3909at the University of Manitoba Ana Vialard says that while students and professors typically appreciate the work of non-faculty academics, it often goes unacknowledged by university administrators.
“We are terminally labeled part-time or contract workers, even when we work full time hours” says Vialard. “This label affects everything: office space, resources, tools, benefits and, of course, wages.”
To coincide with Fair Employment Week, CUPE is launching a new online survey aimed at gathering information on the working conditions of contract, contingent faculty workers.
“The survey will be extremely valuable in filling a serious gap in our understanding of the working conditions for this sector” explains CUPE national research representative Margot Young. “We’ve long heard that these workers are under tremendous pressure in their workplaces. We’re hoping to document it.”
CUPE is encouraging all members who are part of this employment category to take 10-15 minutes to fill out the survey.
•    Take the survey: Working Conditions of Contract Faculty Workers in Canadian Universities

Margot Young
CUPE – Research
(613) 237-1590 ext 233
myoung@cupe.ca

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Having retired from a tenure faculty position at Guelph, I recently served as a Sessional instructor for a semester.  I had no particular need for the money.  I took the job to help my department.  However, as the semester progressed I began, for the first time, to think about the terms under which Sessional instructors labour.

Our university prides itself in being a societal leader as a place of civility, and it occurs to me that a good index of civility is the manner in which we treat our most vulnerable community members.  Obviously our Sessional instructors qualify for consideration here.  How well are we doing for them?  I have some thoughts about that.

The pay scale for Sessional instructors strikes me as a disgrace, and I found myself wondering how many courses a Sessional would have to teach… Click here to read the full article.

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