Subscribe to RSSFirst Tentative Collective Agreement – June 03, 2010
Dear Members,
TAUMUN has reached our first tentative Collective Agreement! Now it’s time to VOTE. Gail Lem, our lead negotiator, will be here next week to provide TAs, GAs and RAs a brief overview of the highlights of the agreement before you vote. There will be four ratification meetings held to accommodate as many of you as possible. They are as follows:
Thursday June 17th, 2010- 1:30pm
Thursday June 17th, 2010 – 6pm
Friday June 18th, 2010 – 12pm
Friday June 18th, 2010 – 5pm
Room: UC2001 (MUNSU Council Chambers)
Thank you for all your support during this process and we look forward to seeing you all next week!
In solidarity,
TAUMUN
TAUMUN AGM May 1st, 3:00pm, UC2001
Dear TAs, RAs, and GAs,
The Teaching Assistant’s Union of Memorial University of Newfoundland
gladly invites all members to the Annual General Meeting on May 1st at
3:00pm in room UC2001 (MUNSU Council Chambers, 2nd floor University
Centre). Please forward this information to your fellow TAs, RAs, and GAs.
Regards,
Juan Acevedo
President of TAUMUN
Executive Update 30 March 2010
In accordance with Article V Section 11 of the TAUMUN Constitution, we have appointed Jay Kumar Shah from Biology to the position of Secretary-Treasurer. Jay has been with us from the beginning and we are very pleased that he has graciously accepted this appointment. Together we will continue working hard to improve the working lives of our graduate student population.
Welcome to the team, Jay!
Bargaining Update 25 March 2010
Dear TAUMUN Members:
Your Bargaining Team has just concluded three days of negotiations with our Employer. Much of this session, from March 22 to March 24, focused on the important issues of Health and Safety, Appointments, and Union Recognition and Security.
We are pleased to report that we have reached tentative agreement on Health and Safety language, and we are optimistic that we will be able to sign off on both the Union Recognition and Union Security articles during our next bargaining session in early April.
After sometimes intense discussions about appointments, however, we acknowledge that there is still considerable distance between the parties on this critical issue.
Since exchanging proposals last December, we have managed to sign off on 14 articles, representing about half the number of articles in a Collective Agreement. This is good progress for a first contract; we hope that we will soon be able to table a wage proposal.
Our next round of bargaining is tentatively scheduled for April 6-8th. Please check back soon for updates.
In Solidarity,
Your Bargaining Team
BARGAINING UPDATE #2
Dear TAUMUN Members:
Your Bargaining Team has had two negotiating sessions with MUN this month, once on February 3rd and 4th, and again on February 17th, 18th and 19th, 2010.
Despite sometimes difficult discussions across the bargaining table, we continue to make good progress toward a first Collective Agreement for Teaching Assistants and Research Assistants at MUN.
In addition to Articles signed off during our first full bargaining session in January, we have reached tentative agreement on the following:
No Discrimination, No Harassment
Representation on University Bodies
Discipline and Dismissal
Technological Change
Designated University Holidays
We have had extensive discussions about Health and Safety issues at the University and hope that we will soon be able to reach tentative agreement on contract language dealing with these important issues.
Finally, in accordance with the provisions of our Local Union bylaws, the TAUMUN Executive has chosen Juan Acevedo to replace Jessica Huber as President. Jess resigned for personal reasons earlier this month. The TAUMUN Executive and Bargaining Team wishes to thank Jess for her hard work and commitment to TAUMUN.
Arvindh Viswanathan from the Faculty of Engineering, who was elected Alternate to the Bargaining Committee at our membership meeting in November, has now replaced Jess on the committee.
Our next bargaining dates are in mid-March. Please stay tuned for further developments.
In Solidarity,
YOUR BARGAINING COMMITTEE
Juan Acevedo (Engineering), President
Tracy Winters (Anthropology), 1st Vice-President
Arvindh Viswanathan (Engineering), 2nd Vice-President
J. L. Matchim (History), Member at Large
Gail Lem (PSAC), Lead Negotiator February 19, 2010
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Bargaining Update 15 January 2010
Your Bargaining Committee met with the University in a two-day negotiating session on January 14th and 15th, after exchanging initial proposals last December for a first Collective Agreement for TAUMUN members.
We are pleased to report that we were able to reach agreement on a number of articles and are confident that we will continue to make good progress at subsequent meetings.
Despite our long journey to the bargaining table – after five years of struggle TAUMUN was finally certified in August 2009 – we are nevertheless developing good rapport with the employer’s bargaining team.
MUN is represented by Chief Negotiator Morgan Cooper and Ian McKinnon from the Department of Faculty Relations. They are joined by representatives from the School of Graduate Studies, Departments of Engineering and Biology, and the Office of Research.
In this productive first negotiating session, we have reached tentative agreement on the following articles:
* Preamble
* Official Employee File
* Grievance Procedure
* Arbitration Procedure
* Reports and Resolutions of the University
* Union-Management Committee
* Management Rights
We have two more rounds of bargaining scheduled for February and we will keep you posted as we progress.
We are disappointed that we do not yet have office space on campus; we are still discussing this with the employer.
We are available via email at info@taumun.ca. Please bookmark this page and watch for frequent updates.
In Solidarity,
YOUR BARGAINING COMMITTEE
Jess Huber (English) – President
Tracy Winters (Anthropology) – 1st Vice President
Juan Acevedo (Engineering) – Member at Large
John Matchim (History) – Bargaining Team Member
Gail Lem (PSAC) – Lead Negotiator