Most if not all members of CUPE 1615 and the broader University Community by now have heard of the recent announcement regarding the budget update. The Office of the President of Memorial University has communicated via the Gazette significant and upcoming budgetary and fiscal challenges and changes.

Budget update –  A message from President Neil Bose [Memorial University Gazette]

The President of CUPE 1615 has written a letter to President Bose, respectfully and urgently requesting a meeting on these matters in order to express concerns as well as to engage in constructive conversation about how things will proceed going forward and to help contribute to problem solving the situation in which the University finds itself.

There are plans upcoming for members of CUPE 1615 to discuss these changes.

CUPE 1615, alongside other labour unions and student unions, has already publicly been participating in the fundmun.ca campaign directed at the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador with the audience being the general public and the university community with a goal to invoke change to address the budget and fiscal constraints that face the University and thus the community as a whole.

While the University’s administration has made a commitment to transparency and collaboration throughout the upcoming process as well as the seeking of ideas and input is welcomed, a preliminary concern is that these first steps were not conducted in that way.

Preliminary questions that pertain to the members of CUPE 1615 are as follows.

• A reference was made to staff positions such as instructional assistants, lab demonstrators, and lab assistants being exempt from the limited hiring program; does this exemption cover all non-academic and CUPE 1615 staff, and if not, could a more comprehensive list of classifications be provided?
• Has it yet been determined the means of collaboration that will be used throughout this process, and if so could more information be shared on that front?
• There were stated outcomes, one definitive, of Memorial being a more focused institution as well as others, as being likely, of becoming a smaller, well-funded, culturally rich institution; could more information be provided on particular impacts on non-academic staff?
• Does this limited hiring process affect replacing positions where personnel have left due to retirement, etc, or just the creation of new positions?

Members will be updated once more information is obtained or a response to the meeting request is received.

It is acknowledged that members of CUPE 1615 are already experiencing stress and anxiety, and will be conferring in the coming days this week.

More information will be provided to members regarding meetings, discussions and next steps.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour will be holding it’s Mid-Term Convention. Below you can access both the Convention website, and the convention call.

The Power of Solidarity – NLFL 2024 Midterm Convention (see/click below for Convention Call)

Convention Call Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour

To express Interest please complete the following form.

Conferences, Conventions, Schools and Seminars – Information & Expression of Interest

If you are expressing interest, you are asked to do so by noon on Thursday, October 31st.

Realizing the importance of Post-Secondary education the members of CUPE Local 1615 will award up to ten (10) awards, valued at $1,000.00, each year. The selection of these awards will be on a competitive basis and open to the daughters, sons and spouses of current members and the members themselves of CUPE Local 1615.

To learn more, or to submit an application please select the link below:

• CUPE 1615 Award Application Form

The deadline is Monday April 22, 2024. Late applications will not be considered.

Hello all,

Here are the most recent seniority lists that we have.  As usual, one is sorted by name, while the other is sorted by date.  The information on both SHOULD be the same!

If there are any errors, we have only 30 days to let HR know, so kindly advise the office as soon as possible if you notice any discrepencies. Before that timeline is up, one master list of all received issues will be sent to HR for verification and correction if needed.  Due to the cyber incident at Grenfell, we’ve been given a bit more time, but don’t delay and then forget to check.

Let Natalie know of errors by emailing nwebber@cupe1615.ca

CUPE SENIORITY REPORT- January 2024 – DATE

CUPE SENIORITY REPORT- January 2024 – NAME

The CUPE Cares Committee sends flowers or a fruit basket to the CUPE 1615 members who are in hospital or confined to their home due to illness for periods of two weeks or greater, or who are celebrating the birth/adoption of a child.

The committee will also extend the Local’s condolences to the family of a deceased Local member, or to the member upon the death of an immediate family member. Either flowers or a charitable donation will serve as an expression of condolences. For non-immediate family members, a card will be sent to the member.

The Committee is looking for members.

The CUPE 1615 Executive Board has decided to make changes as to how meetings are conducted.

These changes originate from feedback and requests by members. The changes are as follows.

1. Regular Meeting Dates Set and Accessible
2. Move Towards Hybrid Meetings
3. Discontinuation of Oral Reading of the Minutes

Read below for more details.

Regular Meeting Dates Set, Available for 2 Year Term

In compliance with article 4.1 of the CUPE 1615 By-laws, the Executive Board has decided to set the date for all Regular Meetings from now until the end of 2025. Advance notice will be given if a meeting date will be changed.

It was decided that these dates set are to be available on the CUPE 1615 Calendar on the CUPE 1615 Website. Those dates are now available and can be synced to your calendar if you so choose.

Move Towards Hybrid Meetings

Upon review of the CUPE 1615 By-laws and CUPE National Constitution and consultation with CUPE 1615’s CUPE National Representative as well as outside by-laws experts, the union local President along with the Executive Board have deemed that hybrid meetings are in order with the following important distinctions.

1. In Person meetings with the requirement for paper ballots will remain for the following.
   • Ratification Meetings (of a new Collective Agreement)
   • Election of Officers
   • Meetings that Involve other types of Secret Ballot Votes (until such time as the union local is able to ensure that votes are able to be “conducted electronically provided secrecy can be maintained, where mandated”)
2. Votes that don’t require paper ballot occurring at a Hybrid meeting, will be conducted by way of a show of hands. Those opting to cast a vote who are remote/virtual will be required to ensure their camera is engaged and raise their hand. (In the case where more than one person are in the same remote location all raised hands need to be visible.)

Given that CUPE 1615 Committees shall be elected at the next regular monthly meeting following the Biennial General Meeting, and the need for time to prepare for a proper method for Hybrid meetings, the February Regular Meeting of members will be In Person ONLY with link-up amongst campuses and satellites.

Further updates on commencement of hybrid meetings will be provided to members when available.

Dispensing with Meeting Minutes

The Executive Board has decided to adopt a modernized method of dealing with Meeting Minutes consistent with Parliamentary procedure as well as the CUPE 1615 By-laws, CUPE National Constitution as follows.

1. Advance copy of Meeting Minutes from previous meeting(s) will be provided as securely as possible digitally, and by paper copy upon request, and are to be kept confidential to members of CUPE 1615 ONLY.
2. Upon commencement of the required rubric Agenda item of Reading of the Minutes, with the provision that the meeting minutes were provided in advance, the Meeting Minutes shall be deemed read, meaning the minutes will not be read orally at meetings.
3. Members, by way of motion, shall be empowered to amend and adopt the official version of the Meeting Minutes.

Update as of 2023/11/16 8:08 PM

The following is an update from the employer.

The issue which caused delays in payroll being deposited for some Memorial University employees today has been identified. The vast majority of employees should now have received their payroll deposits. We anticipate any outstanding deposits will occur over the next few hours. We recognize the concern and inconvenience this situation has caused and we are working with our banking partner to ensure this does not happen again. If any employee has an outstanding issue, please email myhr@mun.ca so that that someone can look into your particular case.

If you still have not yet been paid, please contact stewards@cupe1615.ca as soon as possible.

—

Update as of 2023/11/16 9:21AM to 9:48AM

The union local has been provided a further update from Memorial University’s Payroll Manager that should soon be communicated to the broader University community as follows.

• The source of the problem is the Employer’s financial institution transacting of the payroll payout as was requested by the Employer. Payroll had compiled its payroll “file” as per usual and that was approved days ago. However, when the Employer’s financial institution implemented it, it did not payout as per usual.
• The Employer was told that everyone should get paid today.
• Some employees who were originally affected are already seeing pay come in.
• The timing of payout today will likely vary across financial institutions of the payee. For example: TD and CIBC usually process faster whereas NLCU is slower.

Please continue to monitor the Employer’s Newsline for further updates, and/or check back on this post.

—

Original Post

The union has become aware that several members have not been paid this morning for the current pay period.

The employer has provided the following statement.

Memorial is aware of an issue processing the last payroll between some financial institutions and Memorial, which has resulted in some employees not receiving their deposit into their bank accounts overnight. Memorial’s departments of Financial and Administrative Services and Human Resources are working with financial institutions to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Memorial understands the urgency to resolve this issue and will provide an update when available.

This is consistent with reports from many members to our Team of Stewards, whereby some folks that use certain financial institutions to receive their pay (e.g. RBC) were paid this morning and others (e.g. CIBC and subsidiaries) have not.

Please monitor the Employer’s Newsline for further updates, and or check back on this post.

CUPE 1615

Hello all,

Here are the most recent seniority lists that we have.  As usual, one is sorted by name, while the other is sorted by date.  The information on both SHOULD be the same!

If there are any errors, we have only 30 days to let HR know, so kindly advise the office as soon as possible if you notice any discrepencies. Before that timeline is up, one master list of all received issues will be sent to HR for verification and correction if needed.

Let Natalie know by emailing nwebber@cupe1615.ca

CUPE SENIORITY REPORT – May 25 NAME

CUPE SENIORITY REPORT – May 25 DATE