Committees

Section 14. Committees

14.1   Negotiating Committee

  1. The Committee is selected at a membership meeting at least six (6) months prior to the expiry of the Local‘s collective agreement and automatically disbanded when a new collective agreement has been signed.
  2. The function of the Committee is to prepare collective bargaining proposals and to negotiate a collective agreement.
  3. The Executive Board shall issue the notice for the election of the Committee. The notice for election will be published in the Local’s newsletter and posted on its web site. The election may take place during a regular monthly meeting or at a special meeting called for that purpose.
  4. The Committee shall consist of seven members (six members from St. John’s and one member from Corner Brook), all elected at a membership meeting. All reasonable efforts will be made to enable the Corner Brook representative to participate in Negotiating Committee meetings and discussions, and actual negotiation sessions with the Employer. From its members the Committee shall elect a Chair and Secretary. The CUPE representative assigned to the Local shall be a non-voting member of the Committee and shall be consulted at all stages from formulating proposals, through negotiations, to contract ratification by the membership.
  5. All Committee members will have attended CUPE Bargaining Committee training prior to negotiations. If the CUPE Bargaining Committee training is not available in a timely manner then other forms of training will suffice. All training will be arranged by the Education Committee as approved by the Executive Board and follow the standard practices the Local uses for sending members to attend training.
  6. The first task of the newly elected Committee shall be to issue a call for proposals. This call for proposals shall be published in the Local’s newsletter and posted on its website.
  7. Well in advance of the first bargaining session between the Committee and the Employer, a special meeting will be scheduled with the membership to discuss the Committee’s list of proposals. If any previously submitted proposal is not included in this package, the Committee can be requested to explain their rationale for its exclusion. Any member wishing to have an excluded proposal included in the Committee’s list of proposals may make a formal motion and those attending that meeting shall decide by majority vote. At this special meeting, discussion and debate will also be permitted concerning monetary issues. However, the Committee shall have the privilege of non-disclosure of its monetary final proposals.
  8. During the course of negotiations it is the Committee’s duty to report back to the membership regarding the progress of negotiations. Whether information on a specific issue can be reported back will depend on the speed at which negotiations are progressing and the complexity of the issue. However, the committee will be guided by their duty to report to the membership and the membership’s right to be aware of all information.
  9. The Negotiating Committee shall be entitled to a per diem of $35 per day when meeting with the Committee and/or when in negotiations with Memorial University.

14.2   Standing Committees

Members of each standing committee shall be elected at the regular monthly membership meeting immediately following the biennial general meeting. The term of office for standing committees shall be two (2) years. To be eligible for election to a standing committee a member shall be in good standing. The members of each committee shall elect a chairperson. The Chairperson and the Executive Board may, with the concurrence of the membership, jointly appoint other members to serve on a committee. An Executive officer shall be appointed ex-officio, to each committee, to act as a liaison between the committee and the executive board. These appointments will be made at the Executive meeting following the committee elections. There shall be seven standing committees as follows:

a. Grievance Committee

This Committee shall process all grievances not settled at the initial stage and its reports shall be submitted first to the Executive Board, with a copy to the CUPE Representative, and then to a membership meeting. Grievances must be in writing on the forms provided by the National Office and be signed by the complainant or complainants, as provided for in the collective agreement. The Committee shall be composed of the Local’s shop stewards and the President, who shall be known as the chief shop steward and shall serve as the committee’s chairperson. The Committee shall appoint a secretary from among its members.

b. Education Committee

1. It shall be the duty of this Committee to:

  1. review all material received by the Local regarding schools, conferences, conventions or any other sessions that may educate the membership;
  2. make recommendations for all aspects of education for the Local at each monthly meeting;
  3. inform the executive board of its recommendations concerning education related items which, due to untimely notification, need to be dealt with before the next membership meeting. In the absence of a membership meeting the Board shall approve, amend or reject such recommendations and implement them. The executive shall report all such decisions at the next scheduled regular monthly membership meeting;
  4. review all education activities periodically keeping in mind the finances of the Local and the education budget, if such has been approved by the
    membership;
  5. co-ordinate with the Union Development and Communications Departments of CUPE, and with the regional Education Representative, in implementing both the Local’s and CUPE’s educational policies and communications needs.

2.

  1. The Committee shall be composed of five members, including at least one member from Grenfell Campus. The Committee shall appoint a secretary from among its members.
  2. The secretary of the Education committee shall maintain, at all times a list of all approved conferences, conventions, schools, seminars and any other education sessions which members of the Local have attended. The list shall also contain the names of the members who attended and the location of each session. A copy of this list shall be furnished to the Recording Secretary and the Trustees committee upon request.

c.  CUPE Cares Committee

1. It shall be the duty of this Committee:

  1. to send flowers or a fruit basket to any member who is in hospital due to illness or confined to their home due to illness for periods of two weeks or greater;
  2. to send flowers or a fruit basket to members celebrating the birth/adoption of a child;
  3. to extend the Local’s condolences; (i) to the family of a deceased Local member and (ii) to a member upon the death of an immediate family member. Flowers or charitable donation in accordance with the custom or wishes of the family shall express the Local’s condolences. (Immediate family members shall include stepparents and stepchildren but not grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins). For non-immediate family members, the Local should send a card of condolence to the member and;
  4. to maintain a record of all gifts (flowers or otherwise) and to whom they were sent. As well a record of all charitable donations to all organizations and on whose behalf they were made.

2. For the purposes of this clause all floral and fruit arrangements shall be limited to $80.00, excluding delivery charges; gifts and donations to organizations shall be limited to $50.00.

3. For this Committee to fulfill its duty, it will be the responsibility of Local members to notify the Committee when one of their fellow union members is affected by either of the above situations.

d. Occupational Health and Safety Committee

It is the function of this committee to investigate perceived and proven violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act for the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It shall perform site inspections with or without management representation, stemming Memorial’s Health and Safety Director, the Joint CUPE/MUN Occupational Health and Safety committee and/or the Occupational Health and Safety Branch if necessary. It is also its function to investigate any work related accident in which a member has been involved, at the request of that member. All members of the committee will have CUPE training courses or approved outside courses as approved by the Executive Board.

e. The Grenfell Campus Administrative Committee

1. It shall be the duty of this Committee to:

  1. act as an advisory board to the Third Vice-President (Corner Brook, Grenfell Campus);
  2. accompany the Third Vice-President (Corner Brook, Grenfell Campus) to any meetings with the employer and;
  3. perform any other duties that are asked of it by the Third Vice-President (Corner Brook, Grenfell Campus).

2. This committee will consist of two members from Corner Brook, both elected at a membership meeting, and the Third Vice-President (Corner Brook, Grenfell Campus). The Third Vice-President (Corner Brook, Grenfell Campus) will be the Chairperson of this committee.

f. Social Committee

It is the function of this Committee to arrange and conduct all social and recreational activities of the Local either on the Committee’s own initiative or as a result of decisions taken at membership meetings. The Committee shall submit reports and proposals to the Executive Board or to the membership as required. A ceiling for the Committee’s net expenditures shall be fixed annually by the membership, but, other than that, all social and recreational events and activities should be self-supporting.

g. Award Committee

1. It shall be the duty of this Committee to:

  1. notify all members in a timely manner, by newsletter, listserv, and social media of the deadline for receiving applications for award;
  2. supply and receive award applications;
  3. review all applications and award ten (10) $1,000 awards based on the criteria set forth in section 17 of these by-laws;
  4. notify the executive board of the ten (10) successful applicants and the name of their parent or spouse who is a member of the local one week prior to the May membership meeting;
  5. notify the ten (10) successful applicants and their parent or spouse, who is a member of the local, that they have been awarded a CUPE Local 1615 award. Also, to extend an invitation to come to the May membership meeting to receive their award and;
  6. notify unsuccessful applicants they may reapply in the future.

2. This committee shall be composed of five (5) members, at least one of which shall be from Grenfell Campus. The committee shall appoint a secretary from among its members.

3. It shall be the duty of the secretary to maintain a file of all award applications from each year, to be kept in the local’s office. It shall also be the duty of the committee’s secretary to keep a list of all award winners for the past seven (7) years.

14.3  Special Committees

A special ad hoc committee may be established for a specified purpose and period, by the membership at a meeting. The members shall be elected at the same or
another membership meeting or may, by specific authorization of the membership, be appointed by the President or the Executive Board. Two members of the Board may sit on any special committee as ex-officio members.

14.4   Joint Union/Employer Committees

  1. Memorial University has a number of employer/employee committees (such as benefits, pensions, occupational health and safety, etc.) on which CUPE Local 1615 has members. Members to these committees shall be elected or may, by specific authorization of the membership, be appointed by the President or the Executive Board.
  2. To be eligible for election to a joint committee a member shall be in good standing and is an employee of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
  3. Election to these committees shall coincide with elections to the standing committees.
  4. Members elected to joint committees shall have a term of office of two (2) years.
  5. The National Representative assigned to the Local and/or the Local’s Labour Relations Officer may be appointed as a member of a joint committee by the President or Executive Board with the membership’s approval.
  6. Members of joint committees shall attend all committee meetings and make regular reports to the membership in person or in writing in the Local’s newsletter.
  7. Any member of a joint committee who is absent for three consecutive meetings or 50% of the meetings held in a twelve (12) month period without sufficient reason will be considered to have resigned and a by election shall be held.

14.5   No member(s) or committee(s) shall be empowered to represent or cause changes to any benefits due to, or derived by the membership without consent
of the membership. All facts pertaining to the anticipated changes will be presented in writing to the membership at a regular or special meeting.

14.6   In the performance of a committee member’s duties, remuneration shall be given for distance traveled and out-of-pocket expense. Any such remuneration shall be reviewed by the Executive prior to payment.

14.7   Due to the expense incurred all committees will be composed of members from St. John’s, unless otherwise specified in these by-laws. However, sub-committees can be established by Corner Brook members to deal with and act upon issues from that area and to make appropriate recommendations to the parent committees in St. John’s.