Haha, sorry, I didn't catch that.

Originally Posted by lawleypop

So um...

What's the problem with this deal?
Sounds pretty ****ing sweet to me.

As just posted on our blog:

Human Resources sent out a message to all TAs and RAs this morning. In the interests of transparency, our bargaining team would like to address the misleading statements made in the email.

Wages
Master says:
You will get a raise of $1.30 per hour: Class A = $ 39.30, Class B= $22.05.
TAs will be eligible for the Class A rate once they have their 1st undergraduate degree.

The truth:
*The actual increase for Class A TAs is $0.80 (2%) in year one and $0.50 (1.3%) in year 2
*This proposed wage increase still doesn't even begin to cover the money taken off our paycheques due to McMaster's 8% tuition hike-- and the situation is likely to get even worse in year 2 when the administration follows through on its plans to hike tuition rates yet again.
*TAs with an undergraduate degree should ALWAYS have been eligible for the Class A rate, the only reason they weren't was a wording loophole that existed in the contract and that McMaster realized they could exploit.
*Instead of inadequate wage increases that are worth less and less with each tuition hike, we've proposed to put moderate increases in total compensation towards addressing the erosion of take home pay, working conditions and class sizes, and benefits deficits.

Benefits
McMaster says:
McMaster pays $150,000 each year into your benefit plan, that’s an increase of 50% since 2005. The number of TAs has remained stable during that time.

The Truth:
*McMaster does contribute $150,000 towards your benefits, this was an increase negotiated in the last collective agreement which expired on August 31, 2009.
*McMaster has proposed to freeze these funds and "not put a single penny more" into benefits.
*In other words, that's an increase of 0% since September 2008.</li>
*We're proposing to eliminate the deficits and continue the tradition of small, incremental increases to benefits that the university cites in previous contracts.
*Without increases there will be benefits CUTS.


McMaster says:
McMaster also pays two-thirds of your monthly dental plan.

The Truth:
*McMaster pays about 2/3's of the single dental coverage if and only if you are a class A TA with a contract for 130 or more hours.
*For a significant portion of our members (about 35%) absolutely NO contribution to dental coverage is provided by McMaster.
*McMaster only contributes about 25% of the cost of dental coverage for TAs with families.
*We've in fact proposed that the University contribute about 2/3's of the dental coverage for the majority of our members, including those with families.
*If McMaster really is ready to cover 2/3s of our member's monthly dental premiums, they should propose it at the bargaining table, rather than through an email.

Workload
McMaster says:
New protections so you won’t have to work past the end of the academic term and a better way to assign your work hours.

The truth:
*Class sizes continue to increase dramatically and TAs continue to be overworked. Its common for TAs to work 20-50% more hours than they are paid for
*McMaster's proposed contract does absolutely nothing to address any of these issues.
*McMaster has gone so far as to say at the table that an increase in the paid hours of work is "non-negotiable" and that proposals to address class size and overwork are "non-starters."

Job Security
McMaster says:
Better job guarantees and improved flexibility.

The truth:
*We have no idea what this refers to.
*McMaster has not proposed an increase in the guarantee for graduate TAs.
*As for flexibility, McMaster has a history of being completely inflexible for TA assignments, they unilaterally move TAs to other departments and require them to teach courses they have no background in.
*Our bargaining team would appreciate to know what increased flexibility for our members is available in the currently draconian top-down system.

Continue to think critically and be informed, read our blog at: http://unit1bargaining.wordp ress.com

I think it's a very fair offer to be honest. You can't expect them to give an 8% wage increase to "match the cost of tuition". That's like saying every job in the world held by students needs to account an 8% wage increase to afford them the ability to pay tuition.

will the tuition hike affect all universities or just Mcmaster. If its a substantial hike im probably going to transfer.

Originally Posted by PTGregD

I think it's a very fair offer to be honest. You can't expect them to give an 8% wage increase to "match the cost of tuition". That's like saying every job in the world held by students needs to account an 8% wage increase to afford them the ability to pay tuition.

One of the things that's weird about tuition and TAs is that the employer (McMaster University) both gets to set the cost of living (through tuition) and the wage rate. So effectively they can give money with one hand, and take it back with the other. This practice makes it pointless for us to negotiate a wage increase (one of the reasons why we've proposed a freeze) and instead requires we tackle the issue differently. What we've actually proposed is a bursary like pay out each year that covers a flat dollar amount of the tuition increase for each graduate student TA.

Another thing that is weird about graduate school is that they actually restrict you from working on/off campus beyond your TA. If actually do go and work a part-time job or something else, McMaster will actually take away all or part of our funding. Because of this and the fact that graduate students are required to be on campus through the summer,. the only way graduate students can possibly make up for increases in tuition is through increases in scholarship / bursary or the compensation from their TA.

Why can't Grad Students rely on OSAP like the majority of students?

If you need money past that, just do what other students do, and pick up Poker or start playing the Stock Market/Forex.

Originally Posted by fasailuddin

will the tuition hike affect all universities or just Mcmaster. If its a substantial hike im probably going to transfer.

There's tuition increases being put in place at a lot of universities around Ontario (and Canada for that matter). There are legislated limits for how much tuition can be increased per year in Ontario. For undergraduate tuition the limit is 4% / year, for graduate tuition, the limit is 8% per year. Its always worth taking a look around to check the cost of your education, as it varies widely across Canada. Tuition fees at Ontario Universities are, on average, the highest in Canada.

Originally Posted by PTGregD

Why can't Grad Students rely on OSAP like the majority of students?

If you need money past that, just do what other students do, and pick up Poker or start playing the Stock Market/Forex.

We're not generally eligible because of our TAship and the fact its paid out during the school year :|. I did try applying last year just for kicks .

Originally Posted by dsahota

Another thing that is weird about graduate school is that they actually restrict you from working on/off campus beyond your TA. If actually do go and work a part-time job or something else, McMaster will actually take away all or part of our funding. Because of this and the fact that graduate students are required to be on campus through the summer,. the only way graduate students can possibly make up for increases in tuition is through increases in scholarship / bursary or the compensation from their TA.

That's not exactly true.

Full-time graduate students are allowed to work up to a maximum 10 hours / week outside of graduate school. Any more than that, and you are classified as part-time.

This isn't some draconian McMaster policy either. This comes from the Ontario Council on Graduate Studies.

http://ocgs.cou.on.ca/_bin/home/employment.cfm

As someone who doesn't get OSAP or benefits and makes less than $50 a week, making over $20 an hour sounds amazing, I don't understand why they're so upset about the amount of money they're making - I would take that offer in a heartbeat

Derek,

How are we supposed to trust your biased information over the University's biased information - especially when, as I outlined above, CUPE has already shown tactics of deception in this contract negotiation. I just don't understand how you can speak with any credibility when your organization turns around and lies directly to students to try to scare them.

Originally Posted by McIntyre

Derek,

How are we supposed to trust your biased information over the University's biased information - especially when, as I outlined above, CUPE has already shown tactics of deception in this contract negotiation. I just don't understand how you can speak with any credibility when your organization turns around and lie directly to students to try to scare them.

I of course take issue with our bargaining team being called deceptive in this bargaining round, as I believe there is significant evidence to the contrary. I missed your earlier comment, and I will write a response up on it as the issue has been addressed I believe. In short, we do have lots of people who want to get information out, some who aren't members, and there was definitely some communication problems.

In any case, it is always good to have access to as much first-hand information as possible so here's some places you can look.

There are a couple of sources of truly factual information, one of the most complete sources of information are the actual proposals packages:

http://unit1bargaining.wordp ress.com/proposals/

I just realized the packages from mediation aren't up there in electronic format yet. That will be done in the next 30 minutes.

From those packages you can re-run the numbers yourself as well as read the changes to language.

Tuition increase numbers can be gleaned from the internet archive:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://...uate/fees.html

The benefits deficits are part of our budget process, that I can't post that document online, but if you're interested you can talk to our treasurer. His name is Nghi and his email is: [email protected] g.

As I said in my earlier post, I initially thought that the bargaining team was acting with integrity, and I would like to hear your response to these actions. The only reason I could see such an individual lying is to try to scare students - I even approached him and asked him to use factual information and he refused.

Originally Posted by McIntyre

I have to say, as someone who has been very engaged in this whole process, I lost all faith in CUPE today. For a Union, they have been approaching this contract negotiation reasonably compared to other similar Unions across Ontario. I'm not saying I agree with the fact that they are threatening a strike, but they are communicating well with the population, are making a significant effort in their bargaining and haven't done anything malicious as often seen in these negotiations.

However, today really pissed me off. One of their goons (and I normally wouldn't use this word, but he was extremely rude and was lying to students...so I feel as though it's fitting) was handing out their pamphlets...so far everything's fine. Except he's lying by telling students you can go on strike as early as the Friday. I understand there is a fine line between 11:59 on the Friday and 12:01am on the Saturday, but considering 3600 first year students have their Psych midterm that Friday evening, CUP is unnecessarily trying to induce panic in the students. I even approached the man to ask him politely to use factual information and he turned and said what's the difference?! Yelling out to the public that you may start striking on the Friday is misleading and not factual at all considering you actually can't start until the Saturday. I know this may seem minor, but as the Senior TA for Intropsych, I received many e-mails today from concerned students because of the way these "goons" were falsifying information.

We have a large group of volunteers who have come forward who are interested in getting the word out about the status of negotiations to people. One of the larger more focussed groups is actually of undergraduates who are independent, but we email them all of our bargaining bulletins and presentations so they have access to information to they can create their own materials. We do try to take a hands off approach to people who want to get involved and spread their own message, and instead just make sure they have access to the latest information. Of course one of the risks of this is that any incorrect information put out by any affiliated group will reflect poorly on our team.

Originally the deadline had been talked about for on or about October 30th, when it actually got set for October 31, I didn't get this communicated quickly and clearly to some of the volunteers (including the undergrad group). So in short, the guy saying there was a possible strike on the 30th was wrong, he had outdated information he thought was still correct. We definitely had a communication lapse after the 3 days of mediation, which was my responsibility to maintain. I have now spoken with all of the volunteers to make sure they make it clear that a strike can only occur AFTER Oct 31 12:01am.

I can't undo the wrong things that were said and the angst I'm sure students feel whenever they hear about a potential strike. I apologize for the lapse in communication and certainly will make sure that during and after the next two days of mediation, we get news out quicker and clearer to everyone.

Originally Posted by dsahota

We have a large group of volunteers who have come forward who are interested in getting the word out about the status of negotiations to people. One of the larger more focussed groups is actually of undergraduates who are independent, but we email them all of our bargaining bulletins and presentations so they have access to information to they can create their own materials. We do try to take a hands off approach to people who want to get involved and spread their own message, and instead just make sure they have access to the latest information. Of course one of the risks of this is that any incorrect information put out by any affiliated group will reflect poorly on our team.

Originally the deadline had been talked about for on or about October 30th, when it actually got set for October 31, I didn't get this communicated quickly and clearly to some of the volunteers (including the undergrad group). So in short, the guy saying there was a possible strike on the 30th was wrong, he had outdated information he thought was still correct. We definitely had a communication lapse after the 3 days of mediation, which was my responsibility to maintain. I have now spoken with all of the volunteers to make sure they make it clear that a strike can only occur AFTER Oct 31 12:01am.

I can't undo the wrong things that were said and the angst I'm sure students feel whenever they hear about a potential strike. I apologize for the lapse in communication and certainly will make sure that during and after the next two days of mediation, we get news out quicker and clearer to everyone.

Fair enough, but if the guy who said "what's the difference" legitimately thought he was giving out factual information, he would have said, "I AM giving out factual information" and not, "what's the difference?"

He clearly knew what he was saying...