We have a few vacant positions open on our CUPE 2950 Executive Committee. Joining our Executive can enhance your skills, give you the chance to learn new skills and network across campus as well as work with other union representatives as well as Management representatives. The Executive are members, just like you, elected by you at General Membership Meetings (GMMs) and are responsible for implementing the decisions that are brought up by you, our members. We are looking for members to join us!
Does this sound interesting to you?
Find below a list of our current positions that are currently vacant. Nominations open at our GMMs – you can nominate yourself or a fellow member:
Education Committee Chair
empowers members to know their rights
responsible for educating and keeping the membership informed of various labour and union-oriented courses and seminars available:
may also liaise with other committees to organize workshops, seminars and lunch and learns for CUPE 2950 members around the Collective Agreement for example
Job Evaluation Committee Chair
report that Committee’s activities to the Local Executive and membership.
chair Committee meetings and ensure minutes are taken
Sergeant-At-Arms
admits members in good standing, Local office personal, officers and officials of CUPE and guests invited by the Local Executive to membership meetings
assists in maintaining the record of membership attendance at meetings by processing list of attendees during virtual and in-person gatherings
FAQ
How do I join the Executive?
You will need to nominate yourself or have someone nominate you for an open position at a GMM. You can also nominate anyone else during the GMMs. At the following GMM, nominations will close for that position and if there’s no other interest, you will be acclaimed to the position. If there is more than one person nominated for a position, an election will be held at the following GMM and you may be asked to provide a brief note on why you would like to be considered for the position.
What can I expect?
To participate in the leadership of our union and attending Executive meetings as well provide reports at our GMMs (please note reports are not provided for all exec positions i.e. recording secretary and sergeant-at-arms). We also offer training to support member’s interests and you can learn more about labour relations.
Our Executive typically meets every second Tuesday to discuss the business of the local but usually meetings only take place once a month.
What will I learn?
Depending on the position, there’s opportunities to learn many different skills. Do you like organizing lunch and learns and workshops? Join our Education Committee or better yet, nominate yourself for the Education Committee Chair position on our Executive. Want to hone in on your problem solving skills? Become a Steward. Keen advocate for Health & Safety? Join our Health & Safety Committee or take the lead and become our Health & Safety Committee Chair.
Committees and Stewarding
Interested in joining a committee but not chairing? See our committee page here for a list of committees that you can get involved in.
Interested in becoming a steward? Find out more here and contact the office at office@cupe2950.ca for more information.
The Chung | Lind Gallery. Credit: UBC Library Communications and Marketing
Date: Thursday, August 1, 2024 Time: 12:30-1:00pm (approx. 30 minutes – feel free to stay and look around and ask questions) Location: Chung | Lind Gallery, Irving K. Barber Learning Centre L2
We invite you on a tour of the Chung | Lind Gallery to learn more about these two unique collections available in the UBC Library. The Gallery opened it’s doors to the public on May 1, 2024.
The Wallace B. Chung and Madeline H. Chung Collection contains more than 25,000 rare and unique items, including documents, books, maps, posters, paintings, photographs, tableware, and other artifacts.
The Phil Lind Klondike Gold Rush Collection contains over 3,000 items, including books, maps, photographs, postcards, prints, artifacts and more.
A number of CUPE 2950 members expressed their support for the encampment at MacInnes Field at UBC Vancouver and this letter was shared with CUPE 2950 members in advance of the June 27 General Membership Meeting. Since the letter was written, the protestors have decamped; however, their demands to UBC remain the same. These demands are reiterated in and supported by the letter below. A statement was issued about their decision to decamp and the next steps for this movement, which can be read here.
At the June 27 CUPE 2950 General Membership Meeting, the majority of members present at the meeting voted in favour of the motion to pass this letter.
June 18, 2024
We at CUPE 2950 express our support for the student encampment for Palestine at “MacInnes Field” on the UBC Vancouver Campus, located on the unceded territory of the Musqueam Nation. This encampment was set up on April 29 as an act of protest against UBC’s complicity in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians through its unethical financial investments in Israel’s war machine. Students have kept this encampment going for 50 days and counting while enduring bouts of windstorms, heavy rain and cold weather. Their demands to the university have been clearly expressed multiple times, however the leadership and administration has refused to respond meaningfully. Instead UBC has deployed armed police officers and paramilitary units onto our campus to intimidate and surveil its own students. These acts have been justified by the administration by painting students as a threat to workers and other groups on campus. As workers we deny and wholeheartedly oppose the administration’s mischaracterization of students as a threat. We reiterate that the workers of this campus do not view the students as any source of threat. However, we are highly alarmed by the administration’s decision to call armed police forces to our workspace and the growing levels of surveillance at UBC.
We are also appalled that the university has failed to clearly condemn the indiscriminate violence being carried out against Palestinians by the Israeli armed forces. Since October 7th 2023, Israel has escalated its attacks on Occupied Palestine with horrific, indiscriminate bombing, killing at least 45,000 Palestinian civilians,[1] including more than 15,000 children. Over these 255 days we have witnessed Israel’s bombing of homes, schools, hospitals, universities and displaced people in tents. On January 26, the UN International Court of Justice announced their decision to investigate Israel for the crime against humanity of genocide, given ‘plausible’ violations of the Genocide Convention. Despite the scale and horrific nature of these war crimes, and despite the complicity of Canada vis-à-vis its arms trade with Israel, UBC Vancouver has failed to issue an overarching statement decrying this situation and supporting the right of Palestinians to life, land and freedom. As an influential institution it is UBC’s responsibility to acknowledge the ongoing Nakba/genocide against Palestinians, and to call on the Canadian government to instate a two-way arms embargo on Israel. We are disappointed by the administration’s refusal to do so and call on UBC to rectify this error.
We are deeply impressed by the students’ dedication in calling for just demands. Students have legitimately protested our complicity as UBC continues to support the Israeli war machine through investment in companies that fund weaponry and war technologies and partnerships with Israeli universities that are complicit in Israel’s colonial and military projects.[2] These students have shown true leadership, inclusivity, and care as they exercise their right to civil disobedience in protest of the ongoing illegal occupation and genocide in Gaza. Their community guidelines also showcase a true commitment to safety and well-being via community care. UBC claims to cultivate these very values in our students (in our various strategic plans, such as the Inclusion Action Plan and Indigenous Strategic Plan), yet the students’ show of character has been met with increased police surveillance on campus, dismissal of the atrocities that are being actively carried out against the Palestinian people, and fearmongering.
On Wednesday May 15, peaceful student protestors marked the 76th anniversary of the Nakba by hosting a sit-in at the executive offices in Koerner Library. The following morning, an email was sent to all Arts Administrators from the Arts Human Resources Manager with the subject line “Time-Sensitive: Safety Protocol – Protests at Buildings,” suggesting that the “personal safety and wellbeing” of the staff was under threat. This message made a choice to frame the peaceful direct action as aggressive. Videos from the protest show students occupying the office in an organized manner, with coordinated attempts to peacefully assemble. The university’s framing of these protests as threatening is not only inaccurate; it implies that the students organizing the encampment and protests are inherently violent, setting them up to be targeted for police brutality and harassment, and justifying other potential escalations directly enabled by the university administration. It also obscures the fact that students, staff, and faculty have exhausted several avenues of dialogue with the university administration, which has not been meaningfully engaged thus far. We are disappointed that the university instead directed 15 armed RCMP officers and campus security to surround the student protestors. Far from protecting the safety or wellbeing of staff, students, or faculty, this directly exposed them to the possibility of police brutality, arrest, and unjust suspension. This is unacceptable when many of the students are Black, Indigenous, and people of colour, and are disproportionately made vulnerable to state carcerality.
The administrations’ email also suggests that “these incidents may be upsetting” in reference to the student protest. This language further perpetuates tension on campus by implying that the protestors are discriminatory or antisemitic. In actuality, many Jewish students and community members are actively involved in the encampment. Organizers at the encampment have made it clear that discriminatory behavior is unwelcome, that protests may be disruptive but that violence is unacceptable, and that the encampment does not stand against Jewishness but rather for an end to the genocide being carried out against Palestinian people in the name of Zionist imperialism and settler colonial violence. Let us be clear: we as workers are not “upset” about students organizing to exercise their academic freedom and right to protest such atrocities. However, we are upset that UBC, as an institution built upon our collective labour, continues to invest in companies that fund the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, and that the administration continually refuses to meaningfully engage with the students’ demands.
UBC exists because of our students, who are leaders of the future and who act on principles of justice, global citizenship, and integrity. It is irresponsible of the university to endanger these very students. As workers, we stand in solidarity with them and urge the university to not put them in harms way. We workers reaffirm our right to shape the direction of this university as the hands and minds that build and sustain its daily functioning. We add our voice to the students; and urge UBC to follow through on the following demands[3]:
UBC must divest from companies that are complicit in Israeli atrocities
UBC must cut ties with Israeli institutions
UBC must condemn Israel’s genocide and scholasticide in Gaza
UBC must keep marginalized students on campus safe from police
UBC must respect Palestinian right to return as enshrined under UNGA Resolution 194 and the right to resist as outlined under UNGA Resolution 2625
In solidarity,
CUPE 2950 members
M/S/C at CUPE 2950 June General Membership Meeting
