Discuss:

A Progressive and Fair Offer to A Highly Valued Group of Employees and Students

Hello everyone,

This is a brief but very important message from CUPE 3902 and UTMAGS:

1) At tonight’s General Meeting the CUPE 3902 membership voted yes to go on strike starting February 24th if the university does not come back to union with a better collective agreement.

2) CUPE 3902 will be holding a meeting at UTM this Thursday, February 2nd from 12-1pm in IB 245. We hope that all UTM TA’s attend if possible. Please RSVP to utmags@utoronto.ca so we can have an accurate count for lunch.

Below is a message from CUPE 3902 concerning the meeting. Thanks, and we hope that you can all make it to the meeting Thursday.

Dear UTM TAs and educational workers,

As you are no doubt aware, CUPE3902, your union representing educational workers at UTM, UTSC and St. George, and the university administration have been bargaining over a new collective agreement.  Several weeks ago, the university administration filed for conciliation with the Provincial Government.  With this stage of the bargaining process complete, a lock out or strike situation, though still not imminent, is increasingly likely.

This Thursday, February 2, 12-1pm, there will be a Strike/Bargaining Info Session for members based at UTM campus in IB 245 (Instructional Centre, by UTM Shuttle drop off).  All members are encouraged to attend.  Lunch and refreshments will be provided.  Please RSVP with any dietary restrictions.

At the Info Session, your UTM steward, UTM Strike Coordinator and a member of the bargaining team will be available to discuss questions related to:

-what are the sticking points in negotiations?

-what are the merits of the university’s offer (if there is one to present to the membership)?

-what will a strike look like at UTM?

-will a strike affect my ability to complete my research?

-what counts as strike breaking?

-what can I do to help (and receive strike pay)?

-what is the history of strikes at U of T?

I hope to see all of you there, and I look forward to meeting you.  If you cannot make the meeting, feel free to email me any questions/concerns you have and I will try to get the answers for you at the meeting.

Best,

Troy Lundblad

UTM Steward, CUPE3902

GRADUATE STUDENTS Networking Night
In collaboration with the Office of the Vice Dean, Graduate and UTMAGS

Wednesday, January 18

6 pm – 8 pm
Faculty Club, Davis 3140
Register & learn more @ http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/careers/pop_ups_1201/nn_grad.html

Wondering what career paths you can take with your graduate degree? Not sure how to apply your graduate-level skills in the workplace? Questions on making the transition into industry with educational background?

Attend this event to network with leading industry professionals with a diverse range of graduate degrees. Learn about their experience, develop a network of contacts, and gain valuable insight from professionals.

Featuring Professionals from:

·         GlaxoSmithKline

·         MaRS Innovation

·         Sanofi Pasteur

·         Technical Standards & Safety Authority

·         Hoffmann-La Roche Limited

·         Lunanos

·         Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board

A big ‘Thanks!’ to everyone who voted in the CUPE 3092 Strike Vote last/this week! Over 1,600 TA’s voted, with 91% voting Yes!

Stay tuned for more information as negotations with the university continue.

Cheers!

As you probably have heard, CUPE 3092 Unit 1 (the union representing all University of Toronto TAs) will be holding a strike vote next week.

We, the officers of UTMAGS, would like every UTM graduate student to go to the polls next week and vote YES.

Why?

By voting YES on a strike provision, we are actually **less likely to go on strike**. A strong YES vote shows the university that we are serious about the negotiation issues, and that if they do not start cooperating we will go on strike. Often (12/15 times in the history of the union) the university cooperates and we **do not** go on strike.

If negations continue to break down, then we will go on strike. Due to the structure of the bargaining process, and if we were to strike it would not occur until *next semester*.

 The Issues

We know that you’ve all received lots of material from CUPE lately about the negotiations concerning our Collective Agreement (aka. our contract). Here’s a condensed version of some of the big issues:

1) The university wants to eliminate all graduate student guaranteed funding packages. If you are in a funded cohort (research stream), then bye bye funding.

2) The university has eliminated the Doctoral Completion Grant. This was money distributed to 5th and 6th year PhD students on the verge of completing their degrees. If you take more than 4/5 years to complete your degree, then you are completely out of luck and have to pay tuition out of pocket. The union wants to reinstate this fund, in the form of a 50% tuition waiver for 5/6th year PhD students. 

3) The university wants to decrease fellowship money, and increase the number of TA hours we have to work to complete our funding packages. This means we will have to work more than 140 hours, but still receive the same amount of funding in the end.

4) The union wants to cap tutorial size at 50 students. Sick of how giant tutorials are decreasing the quality of education? We are too.

Vote

Polling stations will be set up in the Meeting Place, from 12:00-2:00 pm from November 23rd-29th.

To vote all you need to do is show up (CUPE has a digital list of all TA’s, so no member card is necessary).

 Questions?

There will be a general CUPE meeting on Tuesday, November 22nd from 5:00-8:00 pm in the Hart House Debates Room. If you have any other questions, feel free to email the union at bargaining@listserv.cupe3902.org, or us at utmags@utoronto.ca.

Cheers, and vote YES!

Greetings from the UTMAGS!

And now from our news desk…

***Flu Shot Clinic**

Flu clinics for UTM students will be held on November 16 from 10am to 4pm in Coleman Commons for residence students, and for all students on November 22 from 10am to 2pm in the Student Centre Presentation Room and Friday, November 23 from 11am to 3pm in the Davis Bldg in the old library space just off the Meeting Place.  Students should bring their t-card and their health card.

**Grad Pub Quiz Challenge**

Good news, everyone! The Grad Pub Quiz Challenge has returned. Your team of up to 6 people can compete for prizes and eternal bragging rights in a general-knowledge trivia contest. Graduate students can get FREE beverage tickets, but ONLY if you RSVP to kyla.ercit@utoronto.ca before November 25. Here are the vitals:

Where: Blind Duck Pub

When: November 29, starting at 6pm

Who: All UTM graduate students, UTM staff and faculty, and their guests

Why: Great prizes, great company, and a great cause

How much: Suggested donation of $2 or 2 food items per person for the Mississauga Food Bank

**Campus Working Groups**

Want to get more involved on campus? The following working groups will be holding meetings during November. We encourage all interested graduate students to attend and voice their opinions!

Working Groups (meeting dates)

– Health & Counselling , November 14 at 1:00pm (room tba)

– International Centre, November 10 at 2:00pm in room 3129 (Ante Room) Davis Bldg.  Next meeting November 23 at 2:00pm in room 3129, Davis Bldg

– Shuttle Bus, November 10 at 10:00am in room 3131, Davis Bldg

– Career Centre, November 9 at 1:00pm in the Council Chamber (3130 Davis)

–  Child Care – meeting to be scheduled shortly

**Mad Students Society**

Mad Students Society (MSS) is meeting on Saturday, November 12 from 3:30pm to 5:30pm in downtown Toronto. (North York and Hamilton locations coming soon!) MSS is a group of students who are attending institutions of post-secondary or adult education and have past and/or present experiences with the psychiatric and/or mental health systems. MSS members meet monthly to support each other and talk about concerns we share. We also communicate through an email discussion listserv that is open to members from anywhere in the world. New members are always welcome. For more information on meeting location, joining the listserv, requesting brochures, or about the group, please email Elizabeth at outreach@madstudentsociety.com. Our website is being updated but can be found at www.madstudentsociety.com.

Cheers all!

UTMAGS

Fun fact of the week: In a pack of playing cards, the king of hearts is the only king without a moustache. He apparently did not participate in Movember…

Come get your spook on this Friday, October 28th at the UTMAGS Halloween Party! Awesomeness starts at 5:00pm, in the Grad Lounge (DV 1100).

There will be tons of pizza, pop, and hopefully enough candy to satisfy your inner child.

And…did we mention that there will be a costume contest? Prizes will be awarded to the best female, male, and group costumes.

Welcome back to the UTMAGS Weekly Newsletter!

Only about 25% of all of the graduate students at UTM are signed up for this listserv, so get your labmates/classmates signed up! Just have them send a message to utmags@utoronto.ca with the subject line “Listserv”, and we’ll add them to the list!

Let’s see here….

**Events**

We have LOTS of events coming up, including…

*Halloween Haunt at Canada’s Wonderland*
- Tickets are $15 each and are yours to use during any Halloween Haunt day (Cheap tickets, yay!).
- A minimum of 20 must be sold so please RSVP to utmags@utoronto.ca by Sunday, October 23rd.

*Pumpkin Carving Contest*
- Draw your blades people and battle it out with our pumpkin carving contest.
- Form teams or go solo and show off your jack-o-lanterns at UTMAGS’ Halloween Party (Details below).
- To enter RSVP to utmags@utoronto.ca by Sunday, October 23rd.
- Each team gets 2 pumpkins. Pumpkins will be delivered on Monday, October 24th.
- PRIZES!!! The winner gets a $20 gift card to Pizza Pizza.

*UTMAGS Halloween Party*
- Free food*, free candy, cool pumpkin-carving and costume contests!
- When: Friday, October 28th, 5pm.
- Where: Grad Lounge, DB1100.
- PRIZES!!! $20 to Pizza Pizza for the pumpkin contest, and $20 to Starbucks for costume winners.

*In exchange for free food, candy and fun, UTMAGS will collect donations of 2 canned food items or $2/student for the United Way.

*Paintball*
- Shoot your lab mates with little pellets of paint on November 4th (we know you want to…)
- 24 spots are available for $5 each, so hurry and RSVP to utmags@utoronto.ca.
- We will be organizing carpooling from campus, leaving at 5pm. Need a ride? Let us know!

*Awesome Trivia Night*
- Week of November 17th.
- Form a team and show off your nerd skills (and your ridiculous amount of pop culture knowledge)
- There will be FOOD, and PRIZES! (More details to come…)

*Laser Tag*
- December 2nd.
- Shooting beams of lasers at each other. Need we say more?
- RSVP to utmags@utoronto.ca.

Cheers!

UTMAGS

Fun fact of the week: In 1675, the King of England banned coffee houses, claiming they were places where people met to conspire against him.

(fact stolen from the hilarious Matthew Inman of theoatmeal.com)