We are pleased to announce that the Unit 2 bargaining team will be sitting down with the employer and a conciliation officer on Monday, March 3rd for a bargaining meeting and are expecting a new offer from the employer for Sessional Faculty. We will keep the membership in the loop about whether things escalate at this meeting and whether a No-Board report is filed, which would trigger a 17-day countdown until a legal strike or lockout.

The big issues still on the table are wages and job security. The base rate for McMaster Sessional Faculty is significantly below other major research Universities in Ontario and the bargaining team is insistent on catching up to peer institutions. Regarding job security, Sessional Faculty work in extremely precarious conditions and the bargaining team is pushing for significant increases in guarantees for future work.

We are demonstrating that we are prepared to strike and the employer has come back to the table. Preparations will continue and scale up to in the event that a fair deal is not forthcoming. In order to demonstrate our readiness, we are asking all members to sign up to commit to withdrawing your labour by stopping all in-person and online work if a strike is called and let us know what times they will be available to picket in the event of a strike. Both of these can be done on this form:

https://forms.gle/JHXTZXdc37J9yKar9

Members can also indicate if they require any accommodations in the event of a strike and we are gauging interest in child-minding services while picket lines are up. Please fill out the form above if any accommodations are required or if you would like child-minding services provided and which times of the day would be most critical for child-minding. The Benefits Committee has also passed a motion budgeting $600 per month in reimbursements for striking members who need to pay for child-minding services.

If you have any questions, please direct them to Mason Fitzpatrick at president@cupe3906.org and keep an eye on bettermac.ca for updates.