There is an online Special Membership Meeting to discuss proposed amendments to our bylaws (check your email for the proposed changes).
Monday, August 21, 2023, at 5:00 p.m.
Please RSVP to Kim Robinson, our Membership Officer, to receive the Zoom Link.
Effective June 20, 2023, our CUPE 3912 Vice-President Dalhousie University Part-Time Instructors role became vacant.
Expect a 2023 by-election for completing this term which concludes in the spring of 2024.
If you might be a potentially interested Vice-President candidate, please contact CUPE 3912 President, Cameron Ells.
We are happy to announce that Teaching Assistants, Research Assistants, and Independent Course Appointees employed by the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) have joined us in Local 3912. These are artists working in an educational setting.
Some of these workers had gone more than 20 years without an increase in compensation. They chose to join our union because they were inspired by the Dal strike and by our big wins in bargaining. They reached out to CUPE in November 2022, and the campaign went public in January 2023. Of those who participated in the certification vote, an unprecedented 100% voted in favour of joining our local!
Unionisation is about respect, fairness, equity, and mattering. Our institutions work because we do. Collective action works. The efforts of the Dal strike team paid off, not only in securing a much better deal for our Dal members, but also because Employers at SMU and MSVU followed suit. Our successes inspired others to join us and strengthen our collective power.
We are growing. If you know of others who would like to join our local, please direct them to office@cupe3912.ca.
If you have questions, comments, or would like to discuss any other issue, please reach out to communications@cupe3912.ca.
On Friday, May 26, 2023 at 6:00 p.m., a Special Membership Meeting (SMM) will be held online to:
determine the number of delegates we send to the CUPE NS Convention held in May 2023 in Sydney, NS;
elect delegates for the CUPE NS Convention held in May 2023; and
elect up to 3 delegates to attend the Atlantic Week Long School for Executive Members in Holyrood, NL.
The SMM is being called at the request of the Executive Board, which passed a motion to that effect on May 22, 2023.
Pursuant to Section 16 of CUPE 3912’s Bylaws, delegates to conventions and conferences are eligible for reimbursement for expenses (registration fee, accommodation, transportation, child and dependent care) and a per diem allowance of $86.00 per day, as per Sections 14-15.
Nominations of delegates will take place at the SMM. If you would like to be nominated in your absence, please forward to us a brief email before the meeting, confirming that you agree to be nominated.
Please RSVP to Kim Robinson, our Membership Officer, to receive a Zoom Link and Agenda.
If you have questions, comments, or would like to discuss any other issue, please contact our communications officer, Tanya Bilsbury.
On April 13, 2023 our CUPE 3912-MSVU Negotiating Committee team and the MSVU employer signed the new September 2020-August 2024 Collective Agreement.
For members employed by MSVU during the September 2022-April 2023 academic year no action is required. Expect to automatically receive retro pay on May 19, 2023 for all courses taught from September 2020 to date.
For members who were employed at least once by MSVU for course assignments between September 2020-August 2022 but not afterwards, some action is required to receive retro pay.
To receive retro pay on May 19, 2023, the MSVU employer must receive an email from you before May 10, 2023 to vpacademic@msvu.ca that identifies
Last evening, Tuesday April 25 we held our in-person/online General Meeting.
The CUPE 3912 Executive and Committee membership has a new look. At our General Meeting last evening, we filled seven Vice-President and Officer roles. None of these were contested elections. For each election, there was a single candidate. Thank you to those who have contributed in the past and to those who are part of our new team for 2023-2024. We will go through some transitions and orientations.
Our Executive includes:
Our Labour Management Committees have as additional members:
Our external delegates include:
Joining Vice-President Lauren MacKenzie and President Cameron Ells, we confirmed as additional SMU The Language Center (TLC) Negotiating Team Members
Kameron Steves-Vigneault became a new Trustee.
Expect a Special Membership Meeting or two this summer for the topics:
This evening, Tuesday April 25 at 7:00 pm, we will hold our next in-person/online General Meeting.
Please RSVP to Kim Robinson, our Membership Officer, to receive a Zoom link.
Patrick J. Martin Council Chambers, 2nd floor of the Dalhousie Student Union Building.
The proposed agenda is available here.
The Agenda document has links to some other related documents.
At the General Meeting we can look back on successfully signing three new Collective Agreements in 2023 with three different employers, and be taking action to prepare for future negotiations that will begin in 2024.
We are working to develop a network of CUPE 3912 Stewards, with an initial effort and focus on Dalhousie University. These people may be on a faculty or department basis, and be involved in some initial information gathering for potential member Grievances.
At the General Meeting we will look to identify or confirm members for some committees (e.g. the Labour Management Committees with Collective Agreement), and as CUPE 3912 delegates and representatives (e.g. Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT), and the Halifax-Dartmouth and District Labour Council).
In 2023 the Negotiating Committee for our members at The Language Center at Saint Mary’s University, will be bargaining for their next Collective Agreement. We will look to confirm the committee membership at the General Meeting.
Among other things, proposed Bylaw changes will be discussed which reflect a broadening of CUPE 3912 membership (e.g. a new members from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD)). There will be a Special Membership Meeting later this summer after an appropriate review period.
CUPE 3912 seeks candidates to be potential Trustees. These people review and report on the quality of our financial record keeping. There are financial audits due by September 2023, so there would be some summer of 2023 activity. There will be more information on the CUPE 3912 website. Please consider being a potential Trustee candidate, and contact the CUPE 3912 President.
There will also be elections for various roles on the CUPE 3912 Executive.
We seek potential candidates for the following roles:
Much has been accomplished over the past year, and there are opportunities in 2023 for you to contribute to our efforts in a variety of ways.
Please add to our successful efforts to improve workplace conditions for both ourselves today and for others in the future.
The Collective Agreement with Saint Mary’s University has been signed.
Highlights of the deal include:
We are happy to announce that 96.5% of CUPE 3912 MSVU members that voted supported the February 10, 2023 Tentative Agreement. There will be no 2023 CUPE 3912 strike at Mount Saint Vincent University. With the employer, we will confirm the wording of the new Collective Agreement, sign it, and post it on our website. At that point, we will also provide an update on when members may receive retroactive pay.
On Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 7:30 p.m., we are holding a hybrid information session about the February 10 CUPE 3912-MSVU Tentative Agreement.
The in-person location is the MSVU Faculty Lounge in the Seton Building Room 403/404.
If you want to attend online, please contact outreach@cupe3912.ca for the zoom link.
The Tentative Agreement consists of two (2) documents:
For your convenience, a summary of the agreed to changes is also available online.
Language that is bold is new to the articles.
Language that is struck through is being removed from the article.
Members will have the opportunity to participate in the Ratification Vote on the agreement from 00:05 Thursday February 16, 2023 to 23:55 Friday February 17, 2023. Anyone who has held a CUPE 3912 contract at MSVU since the winter 2020 term is eligible to vote.
The ratification vote will take place online, using Simply Voting. You will be receiving an email with a unique link to cast your vote by Thursday morning.
If you have not received an email to vote by Thursday morning, please first check your spam folder and then email voting@cupe3912.ca.