Originally Posted by dsahota

The chair of Political Science has just written and confirmed ALL tutorials in Political Science courses WILL be cancelled in the event of a strike. Please see attached email.

Hey I just wanted to point out that last link says:

Electronic Mail Confidentiality Statement

This electronic mail message and any attachments may contain confidential and/or privileged information and is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please re-send it to the sender and delete the original and any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you.
- Sept. 2009




Sooooo you're doing prohibited action by posting it here i think

That's a good point to generally think about, but the email was sent to a public distribution list and so is essentially public. Blanket disclaimers in emails don't generally hold any legal weight, unless the information is clearly intended to be confidential, and this information clearly isn't. Of course, I am not a lawyer, but I am very confident Dr. O'brien isn't going to come after me for posting his public email to the poli-sci email list.

Originally Posted by micadjems

Hey I just wanted to point out that last link says:

Electronic Mail Confidentiality Statement

This electronic mail message and any attachments may contain confidential and/or privileged information and is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please re-send it to the sender and delete the original and any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you.
- Sept. 2009




Sooooo you're doing prohibited action by posting it here i think

So, anyways, for the OP: I guess the question has been answered... the email is not legit.

Originally Posted by micadjems

Hey I just wanted to point out that last link says:

Electronic Mail Confidentiality Statement

This electronic mail message and any attachments may contain confidential and/or privileged information and is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please re-send it to the sender and delete the original and any copy of it from your computer system. Thank you.
- Sept. 2009




Sooooo you're doing prohibited action by posting it here i think

not legaly binding, i think there's a precedent somewhere, too lazy to look

Originally Posted by ramirez.a

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000105 EndHTML:0000010422 StartFragment:0000002 300 EndFragment:000001038 6 I never realized how much commotion an email with CAPS LOCK sentences would generate.

To clear the record for all of you who are wondering, I sent the email because myself and several other students 2 weeks into the school year decided to establish an independent undergraduate support committee.

Most of the responses I’ve read on the discussion board regarding this topic is rather amusing. I can understand why some of you believe it was a scam or a ‘covert committee’… I appreciate the level of critical thinking.

But to set the story straight, I – along with the Undergradaute Support Committee – are not out to make enemies or install any fear mongering, we are simply trying to get the McMaster community to inform themselves on what is going on. I chose to CAP- size specific sentences to illustrate their importance and significance.

We established the committee on September 23rd when we conducted out first meeting. Since then, we have been attending regular meetings with CUPE along with attending SRA general meetings to observe if this issue was given any priority. To our surprise, this negotiation process was shockingly given minimal attention. When CUPE’s bargaining team delivered a presentation to the SRA assembly back on September 20th regarding updates on the circumstances, I was shocked – and personally very disappointed, to witness that SRA members passed a motion to place a 25 minute time CAP on the presentation and discussion period.

…For an issue that affects the entire McMaster undergraduate and graduate community, it is beyond my comprehension as to why this issue would be given a time limit. Personally, I believe an entire meeting should have been dedicated to discussing the issues and constructing an outline to facilitate a solution. But instead, it is to my surprise that the MSU have not made this as a top priority issue, until maybe last Friday when the committee began circulating flyers around campus and the undergraduate/graduate community was finally talking about the potential likelihood of a strike.

At the SRA meeting on Oct 18th, VP Education Chris Martin made an official statement saying “there is no deadline set for a strike… the possibility of a strike is not likely”

Considering that myself and the USC have been well informed and up-to-date on the conditions and circumstances of negotiations, I could not believe hearing the VP of Education declare a statement to the entire SRA assembly that was 100% incorrect and misleading.

I’m sure he did not do this intentionally and I do not hold anything against him personally, however the fact of the matter is: a no-board report had been request by CUPE as of October 7th (nearly 2 weeks before this statement), setting the deadline for around Oct. 30th- 31st. Moreover, the university administration continues to refuse to address any of the key issues CUPE has listed, and CUPE has made it very clear that if they are not address, they will exercise their strike mandate.

… what people have to get clear is that CUPE is not joking around and should stop being taken lightly.

Im not going to spend an eternity explaining the conditions – that can be arranged in another discussion board – however for the sake of this thread:

We are legitimate, and we have done more than the university and the MSU combined in attempting to inform the McMaster undergraduate and graduate community regarding the strike – all of this being done voluntarily. I am not saying that their hasn’t been any attempt by the MSU or the university to inform the students, however my personal experiences demonstrated that their approaches have been nothing short but a failure.

I personally have handed out over 2500 flyers within the past week– which most of you have probably heard about. Out of the 2500+ students, no more than a dozen of them actually knew what was occurring… less than 2 weeks away from a potential strike. And ironically enough, every single one of the dozen or so students that were informed of what was going on were actually giving me words of encouragement because they knew that the actions of university throughout this entire negotiation process has been unethical and irrational.

What I am trying to highlight is the inefficient and practically inexistent attempts by the MSU and university admin. to go out of their way to advise the student population of what has been going on.

I was enrolled in summer courses at McMaster and have been keeping up-to-date with the negotiation process since the beginning. CUPE wanted to reach a negotiation by the end of August to be able to carry out an uninterrupted start to the academic year… yet, 3 months, 1 conciliator, 6 cancelled mediation days later, CUPE is still waiting for a legitimate response from the university… and nearly the entire McMaster student population were completely unaware of these circumstances up until last week had it not been for the time and effort the Undergraduate Support Committee has put into attemping to get students informed.

If you read the email I sent to all of you earlier closely, I made it very clear about our stance on the issue, but I also made it clear that our overall ambition is to get students informed and directly involved regardless of their political or philosophical beliefs or perspectives towards the issue.

I’m actually glad to see the response this email generated, at least it got some of you talking.

Once again, we are not out to make enemies. I am not out to make enemies, but contrasting point of views always generate tension. We must take them with a grain of salt and try to find a solution. We do not want a strike. All we ask is for the university to negotiate fairly with our money and education.
- In solidarity and co-operation
- Alex Ramirez

Are you a TA?

Originally Posted by ramirez.a

I personally have handed out over 2500 flyers within the past week– which most of you have probably heard about.

That's a lot of flyers. Where did you get the money to print them all?

Well, Im going to take a wild guess that the Union takes the money from all the fees they collect and spends it on printing this scare tactic.