Dear members,

We are now less than a month away from our union local’s first election. On October 26th at 4:30pm in Neatby-Timlin Theatre, Arts 241, we will be holding elections for both our local first LOCAL EXECUTIVE and for our BARGAINING TEAM. These elections are a crucial first step in building our local and preparing ourselves for the negotiation process. Your participation is essential in ensuring that our local has strong leadership, bargaining team, and bargaining committee who are committed to advancing our interests as academic workers. Below are the descriptions of each body.

Please consider running for these positions, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the process.

If you would like to run for a position on the local executive, please submit your NAME, DEPARTMENT, POSITION (e.g. TA, RA, etc) and a brief description of why you would like to be on the executive to usask.age@gmail.com by October 21. We will also call for nominations from the floor at our meeting on October 26th.

Please forward this widely. We don’t have the most up to date contact information for new members. If you have any suggestions about how to best reach the membership in preparation for this meeting, please get in touch.

See you in October!

In Solidarity,

USASK AGE – Organizing Committee

Local Executives

– President is responsible for chairing all union meetings, and supervising daily affairs and procedures of the union.

– Vice President is responsible for assisting the President and replacing them in their absence or they are unable to perform their tasks. VP is also responsible for assisting any officers of the union when necessary.

– Recording Secretary is responsible for attending all executive meetings and taking all facts and minutes of their proceedings, and giving all required notices to members and officers. They also act as a custodian of all documents belonging to the union.

– Treasurer is responsible for all financial matters of the union, and required to present a financial statement and budget to membership at Annual General Membership Meeting.

Bargaining Team

Bargaining team consists of five members and represents all members of the union at the bargaining table with our chief negotiator, Hassan Husseini. The bargaining team plays an essential role in the bargaining process. The team members are expected to engage directly with other workers through the entire bargaining process, and responsible for ensuring that the bargaining process helps build the union and advances the interests of all members. They provide important insight and information on the actual working conditions of bargaining unit members in the workplace, and on the rationales for bargaining demands They are also responsible for conveying information about the progress of bargaining to union members at large, explaining decisions made by them at the bargaining table, and reporting back to the bargaining team relevant issues raised by membership. Bargaining team members are compensated for their work.

Bargaining Committee

The bargaining committee consists of non-elected members. The bargaining committee is a broader committee of volunteers that acts as a conduit between the bargaining team and membership. The bargaining committee plays an important role in holding the bargaining team accountable to membership, and simultaneously ensuring that the voices of the members are clearly communicated to the bargaining team. The committee members are tasked with soliciting inputs from membership, and mobilizing them around bargaining demands when necessary.