Upcoming News and Events
Retroactive Pay for TAUMUN Members
Great news! TAUMUN member's will get their retroactive pay for recent collective agreement. TAUMUN member will see their retro pay on November 30th 2023 payroll.
Please note that, this payment date is for active Memorial employees only. Those who are on a leave of absence or who have left Memorial have to email us at MyHR@mun.ca to request their retroactive pay.
Bargaining update #9
Meeting Date: April 11, 2023
The TAUMUN bargaining team has reached a tentative collective agreement with Memorial University of Newfoundland. The full details of the agreement along with dates for union ratification information sessions will be made available in the coming days. The team will answer all your questions about the tentative agreement during those sessions, and you will have an opportunity to vote.
In solidarity,
Your TAUMUN Bargaining Team
Etc.
TAUMUN Bargaining Update #8
TAUMUN agrees to suspend talks pending results of MUNFA negotiations
Bargaining between the Teaching Assistant Union (TAUMUN) and Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN) resumed on January 26th and 27th. As we reported after the last bargaining session, TAUMUN had tabled its monetary demands and was awaiting a response from MUN. While the union team received a response from MUN on the first day of this bargaining session, it quickly became evident to the union that it was in our members' interests to await the results of MUN Faculty Association (MUNFA) bargaining before proceeding. As a result, the Union team and MUN's team agreed to suspend bargaining pending the results of MUNFA negotiations.
In solidarity,
Your bargaining team,
Keif Godbout-Kinney
Rita Onah
Auchib Reza, TAUMUN Executive Liason
Silja Freitag, PSAC Researcher
John Eustace, PSAC Negotiator
TAUMUN Bargaining Update #4
TAUMUN Begins Non-Monetary Negotiations
On Thursday and Friday, November 4th and 5th, TAUMUN's bargaining team met virtually with MUN's bargaining team to begin negotiating non-monetary demands. This two-day bargaining session followed an exchange of non-monetary proposals on October 28th. While TAUMUN and MUN were able to reach agreement on some small items during two days of bargaining, we remain far apart on many important issues.
The first day began with agreement on housekeeping issues and a TAUMUN proposal to extend grievance timelines in cases of discrimination and harassment. The union team also tabled counters on joint union management committee meetings and provision of printed copies of the collective agreement, to which MUN eventually agreed. To determine whether there might be ways forward on other matters, the parties discussed the rationales behind our respective proposals in more detail.
At this point, MUN has rejected most of TAUMUN's proposals to create fairer, more transparent and consistent processes within the collective agreement. They have also rejected our proposals to create an Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion survey and action plan and to provide an extension of eligibility for Graduate Assistantships in light of delays and disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The union team, for its part, has rejected concessionary demands to increase MUN's right to make discretionary appointments and to delete Appendix H (Joint Committee on Compensation) and Appendix I (Joint Committee on Class Size and Undergraduate Assistants).
While your team hopes to make progress on the outstanding non-monetary issues in the next bargaining session, we expect progress to be slow based on this first session. We will provide another update after our next bargaining session.
We thank you for your support. You are our strength at the table!
In solidarity,
Your bargaining team
Shivam Arora
Keif Godbout-Kinney
Rita Onah
Alley Doyle, PSAC Representative
Silja Freitag, PSAC Researcher
John Eustace, PSAC Negotiator