First Meeting with Employer: Discussion of Bargaining Parameters and Logistics
On June 29, 2023, the CUPE 3903 Bargaining Team for Units 1, 2, and 3 had its first meeting with the Employer. There are early indications that nothing will come easy this round; our straightforward requests for the provision of refreshments and technological support to facilitate meetings are already being met with pushback by the Employer who expressed a desire to download those responsibilities and costs onto us. We hope they heard our concerns and we will be able to enter into bargaining quickly and without any further logistical problems.
Hybrid Meeting Format
In keeping with CUPE 3903’s adherence to open bargaining, we presented our request for a hybrid bargaining format (where the primary meeting takes place in person, but with options for the membership and Bargaining Team to join remotely via Zoom). The hybrid format presents technological challenges and requirements (the need for outlets, extension cords, projector, microphone, etc.); there were some technological difficulties during the first meeting which we will work to remedy. Thank you to the members who attended online and in person!
Contentious Meeting Logistics
CUPE 3903 proposed to entirely facilitate the online portion of the meeting, and that the Employer take responsibility for room bookings, including ensuring adequate equipment and IT support is available to make hybrid bargaining possible. The Employer would not commit to ensure the necessary equipment or that hybrid rooms would always be available.
Against past practice and our expectations as indicated in our bargaining parameters, the Employer indicated that no food (only water, coffee, and tea) would be provided during meetings and no parking passes would be provided (since “the world of parking has changed” from previous bargaining rounds). The Employer showed eagerness for longer bargaining days but appears unwilling to provide the food or parking reimbursement that would make those long days more humane and feasible.
While no major decisions or substantive discussions took place, the first meeting with the Employer demonstrated that they wish to download as many of the costs and responsibilities as possible onto CUPE 3903 to carry out the logistics of the bargaining process.
Get Involved: Bargaining Surveys and Upcoming Bargaining Meetings
CUPE 3903 is committed to open bargaining, which means all members are welcome to attend bargaining meetings (either in person or via Zoom). Specific dates and times are still being finalized (stay tuned to our website’s calendar), but here are tentative dates for upcoming bargaining meetings with the Employer:
- Thursday, July 27 from 10:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
- Tuesday, August 1 from 10:00 a.m. to noon and 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
As always, we encourage members to participate in our regular weekly bargaining team meetings (without the Employer). Here are the next few meetings:
- Tuesday, July 4 at 2 p.m.: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83497452796?pwd=RWVCVTN5bUJlTTNac1k2eUk2UUFJZz09
- Thursday, July 6 at 11 a.m.: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83173103795?pwd=WVdXUzNLYzNpTTkxSUZZbUhqODFiQT09
There is still time to share and fill out the Bargaining Surveys! The surveys will be live until July 9. If you have yet to fill out the bargaining survey, please take a few minutes to do so here:
- Unit 1 Bargaining Survey – Full-time graduate students who work as Teaching Assistants, Marker/Graders, Lab Assistants, Tutors, and more.
- Unit 2 Bargaining Survey – Contract faculty who are not full-time graduate students.
- Unit 3 Bargaining Survey – Full-time graduate students with a graduate assistantship.
Accessibility of Bargaining Meetings
For the regular weekly bargaining team meetings, Zoom captions will be enabled. For the bargaining meetings with the Employer, CART will be available. If you require ASL interpretation or reimbursement for childcare/caregiver/attendant care or have any other requests for accommodation, please contact our Equity Officer, Nadia Kanani, at cupe3903equity@gmail.com.
Due to the high demand for ASL interpreters, we encourage members to provide, when possible, two weeks’ notice if ASL interpretation is required.
Once we have finalized the meeting schedule and location with the Employer, we will provide the following access information for the room and building where the meeting will be held:
- location of power doors/accessible entrance to the building
- location of all gender, single user, accessible washroom nearest to meeting room
- masking protocols