McMaster Walks Away from the Bargaining Table: CUPE 3906 On Strike 8am November 2nd - MacInsiders - Student-run McMaster University Help Forum

dsahota

McMaster Walks Away from the Bargaining Table: CUPE 3906 Will be on Strike November 2nd

Dear CUPE 3906 members and the McMaster Community,

As you know from our consistent blog updates and from the McMaster Daily News, the CUPE 3906 bargaining team received a “best offer” package from the employer at 4:14 am, Saturday morning. Inexplicably, the “best offer” is actually several backward steps removed from the offer that they presented less than 10 hours shy of the strike deadline. On monetary issues, the most significant retreat was resetting benefits funding to 2006 collective agreement levels. This was countered by a paltry 5 cent per hour increase to the wage rate. In short, they made no effort to address the core issues of workload, benefits and access to positions for fifth-year doctoral students.

Since the strike deadline has passed and with the employer walking away from the table without acknowledging any of the issues our members clearly have identified as priorities, the bargaining team has had no choice but to ask the mediator to inform the employer that TAs are ready to withdraw their labour until a fair settlement is reached. Job action will begin at 8:00 am on Monday, 2 November 2009 and at that time, CUPE 3906 Unit #1 will be on strike.

The bargaining team has prepared a position document which reflects the current status of its proposals. To be sure, this document represents, in substance and in detail, the framework for the ultimate collective agreement. We invite members to study the document and compare it to the skeletal script the employer advertises. In order to give all members the fullest sense of the situation we anticipate an
information meeting for members will be held on Sunday, 1 November 2009. The time and the location of the meeting will be announced on our website, on our blog and via email as soon as the space is finalized.

Sincerely,

The elected CUPE 3906 Bargaining Team

micadjems · 10-31-2009 at 09:49 AM

That's what you get for being whiny little b****s

malycknm · 10-31-2009 at 09:51 AM

I agree.

_____________________ _____
Nestor Malyckyj
Engineering I

PTGregD · 10-31-2009 at 09:55 AM

I wonder what it feels like to be scum.

The offer they tabled at the deadline was more than fair.

DannyV · 10-31-2009 at 09:58 AM

Would you look at that
http://unit1bargaining.wordp ress.c...able/#comments
People are asking to vote on the proposal...

reeves · 10-31-2009 at 09:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PTGregD

I wonder what it feels like to be scum.

The offer they tabled at the deadline was more than fair.

C'mon Greg. You didn't really think that a modern union was going care about what you thought, did you? You're only a member, after all.

PTGregD · 10-31-2009 at 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by reeves

C'mon Greg. You didn't really think that a modern union was going care about what you thought, did you? You're only a member, after all.

A forced member at that.

AlchemistX · 10-31-2009 at 10:18 AM

And that ladies and gents is fail.

PTGregD · 10-31-2009 at 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlchemistX

And that ladies and gents is fail.

Well, on the bright side, your classes will most likely not be affected.

Marlowe · 10-31-2009 at 10:55 AM

"The union also rejected the University's request to take the offer to the union membership for a vote."

-McMaster Daily News

The full article is here: http://dailynews.mcmaster.ca /story.cfm?id=6453

Reading both that and the Union statement gives you a somewhat better idea of what happened.

PilotMal · 10-31-2009 at 11:04 AM

FFS.
This is BS.

*harumphs*
Way to screw over a bunch of students, CUPE. What did WE do to deserve this?

brendanp · 10-31-2009 at 11:06 AM

its funny how both sides just try to make themselves look like the good guy instead of actually trying to reach a fair settlement.

AlchemistX · 10-31-2009 at 11:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PTGregD

Well, on the bright side, your classes will most likely not be affected.

True but I still think its unfair. From all the threads ive been reading about the strike, most TAs dont seem to agree with it at all. The one thing that i dont like at all is the fact that they didnt let the TAs and RAs vote when the called the strike which seems pretty important, especially if a large majority of union members are against the strike. From the side of the university, I think their final offer was lame. Compared to the previous offers it seems like they went backwards which is odd. Anywho, i guess that means no more tutorials for me. I'm going to miss my accounting tutorial. It was REALLY helpful.

PTGregD · 10-31-2009 at 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlchemistX

True but I still think its unfair. From all the threads ive been reading about the strike, most TAs dont seem to agree with it at all. The one thing that i dont like at all is the fact that they didnt let the TAs and RAs vote when the called the strike which seems pretty important, especially if a large majority of union members are against the strike. From the side of the university, I think their final offer was lame. Compared to the previous offers it seems like they went backwards which is odd. Anywho, i guess that means no more tutorials for me. I'm going to miss my accounting tutorial. It was REALLY helpful.

See that's why I said your classes would not be affected. I'm an accounting T.A. and I'm still working, and I believe all the others are as well.

AlchemistX · 10-31-2009 at 11:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PTGregD

See that's why I said your classes would not be affected. I'm an accounting T.A. and I'm still working, and I believe all the others are as well.

Cool. Im in your Monday accounting tutorial, so will it be held in the same place?