1. Upcoming CUPE 3903 GMM with Paul Moist On Tuesday January 26, CUPE National President Paul Moist will be coming to York University to speak to our membership. This comes ten weeks into the administration of our local and also marks the one year anniversary of Back-to-Work legislation. A year after we were legislated back-to-work, York University has already announced plans to abolish the minimum funding guarantee which would drastically reduce Unit 3 membership and head us in the direction of a two-tiered graduate education system. Meanwhile, our local has yet to see the commencement of an audit, or be given explicit benchmarks we need to reach in order to end administration. We encourage all 3903 members to attend this meeting and raise their questions and concerns and we ask the 3903 administration to release details of the meeting as soon as possible so that there is lots of notice for members to attend. Time and Location: 1:30-3:30pm, Osgoode Hall Moot Court (101 Osgoode Hall) 2. Rally to mark anniversary of back-to-work legislation CUPE 3903 MEMBERS MARK ANNIVERSARY OF BACK-TO-WORK LEGISLATION Teachers to York: Invest in the Classroom, not the Boardroom Members of CUPE 3903 will be holding a special rally to mark the one-year anniversary of being legislated back to work after 85 days on strike in 2008-09. Despite claiming that there was no more money to put into teaching, the last year has seen York spend millions on the ‘York 50’ advertising campaign and celebrations; its senior administrators have been identified as some of the highest paid public servants in the province; it is developing elaborate but pointless re-decoration projects; and has announced plans to abolish the minimum funding guarantee- a particularly dangerous move that will bring graduate school further out of reach for low-income and marginalized students. This demonstration will serve as a reminder to York University that the issues raised by the strike have not yet been resolved and that CUPE 3903 will continue to fight to give teachers the resources we need to do our jobs effectively. We call on all students, educators and community members to join us. Friday January 29 1 pm Vari Hall 3. Report back from January 19 all-units meeting On January 19, 2010 there was an “all unit's meeting” held on campus. For those who were unable to attend, here are some brief notes to give an idea of what was talked about. Some of what was discussed at this meeting will also be discussed at the meeting with Paul Moist on Tuesday January 26, 1:30 PM-3:30 PM, at Osgoode Hall Moot Court. The report has been divided into specific sections. Financial Update: * All outstanding debts which were threatening legal action (with staff, lawyers, arbitrators etc) have been settled * Outstanding dues to CUPE National from Oct/08-Feb/09 have been paid in full * From now on, all union dues will go directly to CUPE National, and then CUPE National will send the balance back to 3903 * The forensic audit will probably start next week, though this has not been confirmed. * A budget will probably be presented at next month’s information meeting * PDF cheques have been signed and are available to be picked up, though members might want to call first to see if there is a cheque for them (especially if you have to make a special trip to campus) Website Update: * Problems continue with the website, though what the problems are is not quite clear * Communications committee will gut the website and make it more interactive, with surveys, room for campaign advocacy etc. * Lynn is looking at Labourware (sp?), which specializes in building websites for unions * All Flying Squad information has been permanently removed from the website Committee Updates: * Ways and Means Committee will be looking at streamlining the application forms and to set up criteria for qualifying; looking at having a confidentiality agreement signed by members of the committee; Lynn is currently adjudicating the applications * By-Law Committee will be meeting Feb 1/2010 at 10am in the CUPE office. * Everyone who applied to be on a committee should have been contacted by now as to whether or not they are on the committee Stewards Council Discussion: * It was stated that all members are not stewards – stewards should be elected, held to a higher standard, take an oath to uphold and enforce the collective agreement, and should be helping members through the grievance process. Though it was stated that stewards should take an oath, it is not clear where this oath comes from. * There seems to be a desire to separate political action/activism from the SC, and it was suggested there could be a Political Action Committee which operates in a different capacity from SC (though we were reminded that membership in the union is itself a political act). * Lynn is planning to discuss with SC (or the general membership – the distinction becomes unclear) how the roles of stewards could be more structurally supported by the union e.g. training (which one member thought should also include anti-oppression training) and she will discuss what ‘we’ want to do with SC. * The question of U2 representation was raised in terms of perhaps having both junior and more senior contract faculty act as stewards due to our different concerns. It was suggested having two U2 members (one junior, one senior) might carry over into all elected positions where currently there is simply one U2 rep. Upcoming meeting with Paul Moist: * A member plans to raise their concern with Paul Moist that the local’s stand on Israel contradicts our equity statement 4. Reportback from December 17 National Executive Board Meeting in Ottawa Members of the 3903 Decmoractic Membership Committee travelled to Ottawa last month to address the National Executive Board before its decision to ratify placing CUPE 3903 under administration. Paul Moist's executive assistant read out the rationale for putting us under administration and Xavier Scott, a member of the former executive, responded from the 3903dmc, describing the steps taken to deal with the issues mentioned as reasons for putting us under administration prior to the take-over and some of the problems that had already cropped up due to administration (lack of dues change that was already in the works, discontinuation of anti-O training and member to member harassment proceedure etc.) and concerns about the role of the former executive in the current administration (no U3 have any representation, rotation out of temporary workers means they get no voice despite being the largest component of the union). Although continued administration was approved, we came there with several points that about how administration would take place and called for an elected interim-executive to work with Lynn McDougall, elected membership to the committees, and clear outline of what needs to be achieved under administration and how long it will take, and what the plan is to get us out of administration as soon as possible. These are points that resonated with those at the meeting and that we hope Paul Moist will respond to when he speaks to the membership.