Bradburn House, Room 106, Traill College, Trent University
310 London Street, Peterborough, Ontario, K9H 7P4
phone: (705) 748-1011 ext 6070 email: [email protected]
www.cupe3908.org
Local 3908 Contract Faculty and
Student Academic Workers at Trent University
CALL OUT FOR STEWARDS!
CUPE 3908 Unit 2 wants to reach out to all student academic workers at Trent and let
you know that there is a dynamic and vocal organization promoting your rights as
working people! An important part of this outreach involves building a stewards’
network.
Each university department with a graduate program should have at least one steward
who acts as a point person and liaison with the rest of the union. Stewards play an
important political role by disseminating information to members and mobilizing within
departments, both around specific issues with the employer and also in relation to other
social justice struggles within the community as a whole. With some critical reflexivity,
we hope that the stewards’ network will help further our union’s strengths, and work on
our weaknesses, in order to make us even more active in our next round of collective
bargaining (summer term 07-08).
If you would like to be a CUPE steward contact Sarah Kardash, Chief Steward Unit 2 at
[email protected]. More information about what it means to be a steward is listed
below. This is a new initiative so there is lots of room for incoming stewards to be
involved in decision making about how the network is organized and what roles or issues
will be prioritized.
¾ Stewards Protect the Collective Agreements
All stewards will be trained with the current collective agreement to assist
members in their department. Stewards play an important role in helping to gather
information on collective agreement violations and ensuring that all members are
protected. Stewards can organize and mobilize support for campus-wide
initiatives that aim to fight back against breaches of our collective agreements as
well as on basic worker and human rights.
¾ On a departmental level, stewards can be expected to answer questions from
members in their department; pass on reminders about union meetings and other
information about issues in the local; follow through on member’s grievances;
inform members about the ways they can participate in and help shape the
important political work of the local including struggles in the community;
encourage member participation in the union’s day-to-day functioning; keep
members informed about issues in the local and important struggles in the
community.
¾ At the union level, the role of the steward can include attending regular stewards’
network meetings and general membership meetings; participation in stewards’
network committees; participation in union political campaigns
¾ Stewards Build our Union’s Relationship with the Community
Through the stewards’ network we can make links with the social justice
community and social allies around issues that affect all of us, such as: silencing
of dissent; increasingly rampant racism and racial profiling; growing systemic
poverty; heteronormativity; transphobia; Eurocentrism; ableism; sexism; ageism.
We can foster a collective goal to integrate the stewards’ network with larger
social justice struggles that operate both within our local workplace and union and
beyond them.
¾ CUPE Steward Handbook
This handbook is an introduction to stewarding. It is available online at
http://cupe.ca/updir/stewards_handbook.pdf
¾ CUPE 3908 Unit 2 Collective Agreement and Bargaining
This document outlines the specifics of your working conditions and is vital to
making sure your rights as workers are upheld. The current Unit 2 Collective
Agreement expires in August 2008. The steward network can play an important
role as we mobilize our membership for collective bargaining. Hard copies of the
collective agreement are available at the CUPE office. Electronic copies can be
found at http://www.cupe3908.org/forms/U2 CA 2005-2008.pdf.
¾ Inquiries
If you have any questions about stewards and stewarding, or if you are interested
in getting involved, please contact: Chief Steward Unit 2, Sarah Kardash at
[email protected], or VP Unit 2, John Rose [email protected]. Or stop
by our office Monday through Wednesday for a chat with our amazing Office
Manager, Pamela Brown ([email protected]). Contact information for the
office is posted on our website at http://www.cupe3908.org/contactingus.html.