Our General Meeting was held on March 11, 2020 and we conducted the following business.
Elections
We elected two delegates and an alternate to represent Local 4879 to attend the CUPE BC Super Conference being held in Nanaimo in June (June 23-25, 2020). Stacy Pena and Cindy Ozouf were the two delegates elected, along with Melissa Schuurman as the alternate.
Vacant Trustee position and a huge “Thank you” to Linda McAbee
Congratulations go out to Navin Jain who was elected to fill the 3-year term Trustee vacancy. Linda McAbee has resigned from the position of Trustee. We would like to extend our sincere appreciation for Linda’s many years of service as our Trustee extraordinaire. We are so grateful for her expertise, her activism in our union and her on-going support over the years. Linda will be retiring at the end of April and we would like to wish her all the best for a well-deserved retirement. She will definitely be missed.
Online streaming and voting
In other news, the executive committee shared an exciting initiative to provide an opportunity for members to attend the General meeting in May via online streaming using Blue Jeans Software. More details regarding instructions for logging in will be provided closer to the meeting date. There will be a unique code provided to members with a requirement to send an email to cupe4879@shaw.ca in order to ensure participation. In addition, they are also looking at online voting providers to accommodate our substantial elections and voting. Once we have completed our fact finding process, our hope is to incorporate these new procedures in our by-laws.
By-law committee update
The By-Law Committee has had one meeting so far and scheduled to meet again in April. They are working hard in reviewing the current by-laws that have not been updated since 2011.
Grievance update
Our president, Lois Rugg gave a report on outstanding grievances. Currently, there are five active grievances with the majority filed in 2019 for excessive discipline or selection process. We settled and resolved a grievance for a member that was scheduled for arbitration in January. Lois also reported that our union and the employer are working hard to resolve four grievances that have been slated for arbitration. So far, we have had one new Grievance filed in 2020 for excessive discipline.
Open discussion
We had some extra time for member questions and conversation and it was nice to get to know some of you.
Door prize winners
Thanks to all those that came out. Door prizes winners were Tony Kuczma (the coveted CUPE 4879 mug), Cindy Ozouf and Karl Fultz receiving $20.00 each.
COVID-19 Update
As you are aware, our union is continuing to monitor information concerning the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. We have been in contact with the University regarding their response to the situation and the impact on our members and others at our Williams Lake and Kamloops location.
To keep current, we encourage you to visit https://www.tru.ca/current/wellness/covid-19.html for further information, updates and communications from the University.
We will keep you updated with further information as soon as they become available. Please also check the CUPE staff email list regarding any union updates.
Hope to see you at the next meeting on April 8, 2020 at 4:35 in room OL 127.
Stay healthy!