2021/2022 Nominations for Executive Committee
President
Nominee: Astrid Hobill
Department: Department of Art History and Art Conservation
I am PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and Art Conservation where I have served as an active PSAC steward for five years. This upcoming year is an important one for the local as we continue to deal with the impact of COVID-19 on our membership and are in a bargaining year for Unit 1. Taking the lead from members will be important going forward with negotiations. Two major priorities that have already identified are improving worker mental health and equity. These two areas along with ensuring that the university provides a minimum of one-year funding extensions to all graduate students who have been affected by COVID-19, and working towards addressing the increased costs of living in Kingston will be critical points for bargaining this year. By working closely with the rest of the PSAC exec, the bargaining committee, and the departmental stewards and I will fight to get the most for our membership. Going into bargaining I will have a good grasp on the concerns of the local. As well being a long-time departmental steward, I am part of this year’s bargaining committee, the union structure committee and the budgetary committee. Furthermore, I previously served on the 2018-2019 exec as one of the co-chief stewards and therefore am personally aware of the grievance process and the executive operations.
If I am elected president, building on the previous exec’s outreach, I will work to ensure that our membership — teaching assistants, research assistants, teaching fellows, and post-doctoral fellows—all feel like they can be engaged with our union and that PSAC 901 is working in their interests. Beyond bargaining, I want the union to continue be a place where members can organize for their interests on campus and for solidarity with other groups around Kingston and beyond. Both virtually and as we begin a return to campus, I want the union to become a place of community-building for our membership, where graduates and post-doctoral fellows can come together. Thank you for considering my nomination!
Vice President Community Relations
Nominee: Doug Yearwood
Department: Political Studies
I have been working as Vice President Community Relations for a few years and hope to stay in my current position. I am actively involved in our Affordable Housing Working Group, various inter-union organizing around labour issues, housing, and return to campus protocols, and the ongoing bargaining process. I am proud of the work I have done and hope that you will entrust me with another opportunity to serve you and represent your needs as a worker at Queen’s and in the Kingston community.
There are a lot of exciting things that I plan on working on if elected. Most pressingly, with it being a bargaining year, in my capacity as VP Community, I look forward to reaching out to community allies to let them know about our demands, our campaign, and encouraging them to support us when and if their support is needed. Second, with our employer hoping to return to campus in the fall, I am interested in continuing to coordinate with other university unions. We should be in close contact with Queen’s University Faculty Association (QUFA), but also support staff, who are going to be integral in making a safe return possible. As someone who has participated in our Queen’s University Unity Council meetings for the past couple of years, where we meet with QUFA and unionized support staff monthly, I think I am well suited to have these discussions.
Finally, whether it be through the Affordable Housing Working Group, the Katarokwi (Kingston) Union of Tenants, our PSAC Kingston Area Council, or at the Kingston and District Labour Council, there are a lot of discussions occurring surrounding housing affordability in the community that are obviously very important to our members. As VP Community Relations I am happy to vocalize the results of our AHWG survey and advocate for our members in any way I can. We have also agreed to participate in organizing with student workers across the province through a new body called The Housing Organization for Unionized Student Employees, which I helped get off the ground. This group seeks to advance positions and develop a movement reflecting the position of many graduate students and academic sector workers, and is currently in the process of setting up a summer meeting to begin organizing actions for the fall. If elected, I am happy to continue to represent PSAC 901 on the organizing committee.
Vice President Postdoctoral Scholars
Nominee: Ramjee Kandel
Department: Chemistry
Dear PSAC members
I am Ramjee Kandel from the department of chemistry. I have been serving PSAC 901, unit-2 from 2020. I started raising the concerns of Postdoctoral Scholars at Queen’s University as soon as I took the oath. During my term, I have been working actively to help my fellow friends in giving useful information and suggestion as well as solving individual problem in a confidential manner. I have raised concern of post-docs at staying Queen’s housing in Joint Union Management Committee, the issue is being heard. Based on my portfolio, I have been involved internally with the PSAC Executive and attending Childcare Bursary, Postdoctoral Fellow and Budget Committees’ meetings.
Moving forward, I am willing to secure the right of postdocs in the following ways
- Conduct virtual meeting (with lunch) regarding our needs
- Monitor the working hours of postdocs in weekend.
- Accessing the ARC in subsidized fee
- Increase in childcare benefits
- Ensure the rights of applying at the Queen’s housing
- Become eligible for internal applicant status for Queen’s jobs and many more.
So, in achieving the above benefits, I would like to renominate myself for the post of Vice President Postdoctoral Scholars for 2021/2022. I need your support to remaining in this position and serving you in the coming days.
Vice President Research Assistants
Name: Rohit Revi
Department: Cultural Studies
I envision my core responsibility as fighting the misclassification of RA work at Queen’s University. As per our ongoing grievance with the Employer, there are graduate students performing GRA work under different employment codes. Over the course of my tenure, I will work towards developing a culture in which GRA-classification is the norm for work-for-hire Research positions. This year, I hope to create a resource guide for Stewards on research work classification at Queen’s, and make presentations to faculties at department meetings on the need for them to adhere to our CA.
I have been a part of the 901 Executive in two other capacities: first as the Equity Officer, and secondly as the President. I have experience on various committees of 901, and hope that my experience will play a supportive role to the incoming executive team.
Information Officer
Name: Brittainy Bonnis
Department: Cultural Studies
I have been working as 901’s Information Officer for the past 6 months and it has been a busy time. As Information of Officer I am responsible for communications between Executives/Committees and 901 members (also PSAC, Queen’s and the Kingston community). Towards that end I have worked to improve our communication via social media, revamped the newsletter and completely redesigned the website. My communications goals for PSAC 901 have included more equitable and assessable communications and we are well on our way with new communication policies in the works. Over the past few years I have actively attended 901 functions and sat on committees. Last year I served a moderator. This year and I been an active member of many committees including Union Structure, the Budget Committee and the Bargaining Committee. I attended Steward’s Council meetings and did a lot of Health and Safety training. As we come into bargaining for Unit 1 our communications needs are expanding and if re-elected I plan to continue to the work I have begun to expand the outreach and communication abilities of our Local.
Treasurer
Name: Ethan Mitchell
Department: Global Development Studies
Hello everyone! My name is Ethan Mitchell, and I am excited to put my name forward to stand for another term as Treasurer. I have had the pleasure of serving in the position since our last AGM in the Fall, and over that time have learned a lot, and have had the opportunity to get to know and work alongside many wonderful people across the Local. During my time in office, we have dealt with a number of disruptions due to the COVID crisis, but have been able to work through them and emerge with an even better understanding of our Local and how it can be even more resilient, accountable, and effective going forward.
If chosen to continue in the role, I will focus mainly on continuing to make the financial governance process more open and efficient, reorganizing our files and systematizing our ways of approving, overseeing, and recording expenses, and ensuring that members’ dues are put to good use through meaningful organizing and service projects. I would be glad to help with carrying forward the work around collective bargaining, affordable housing, and social justice which the executive and membership have initiated, and to help deliver on the budget proposals put before the membership at this AGM.
My time spent in the position this year has given me familiarity with the Local’s finances, and a clear perspective on what can be further improved and how. If elected, I hope to carry on this work and continue doing my part to make sure PSAC 901 serves its members as effectively as possible. Thank you all for a great year (despite the turbulence)!
Co-Chief Steward
Name: Harshavardhan Thyagarajan
Department: Biology
I’m a 3rd year grad student and TA from the department of biology and I served as the co-chief steward of the local for the year 2020-21. My initial involvement with PSAC901 came through the Social Justice and Political Action committees, through association with the BLM protests and solidarity events for global injustices in early 2020.
In 2020-21, as the co-chief steward, I shared responsibilities with Canan Sahin (co-chief steward) to convene and chair the steward’s council. Besides mobilizing members through the steward network, we worked on creating a shop steward training module, and on expanding the departmental representation on the council. Through the stewards council, we struck the grievance and union structure committees, both of which I have been active on. Independently, I have been a member of the social justice and the bargaining committees, where I have worked on the bursaries instituted this year, the focus group surveys conducted, sectoral comparison research on collective agreements, and general mobilization efforts.
In this coming year, I am extremely keen to work on making graduate life more hospitable through unprecedented times. I identify the following issues as especially important priorities that require attention:
In bargaining:
- Mental health resources on campus, with especial improvements for racialised graduate students
- Financial guarantees to deal with projected overtime graduate studies
- Streamlined processes from the employer for
- Access to accommodations
- Access to employment records of payments, contracts
As a public facing academic labour union:
- Resisting provincial cuts to education
- Resisting paralysis through Bill-124
- Movements against oppression
I believe that I can contribute to further expansions and optimization of the stewards network and mobilization efforts around bargaining and I wish to continue this work if elected.
Co-Chief Steward (Grievances)
Name: Canan Sahin
Department: Political Studies
I am a third year PhD student in Political Studies and have served as the Co-Chief Steward (Grievance Officer) on the Executive Committee since November. I have had the chance of working alongside a great colleague and teammate – Harshavardhan Thyagarajan, the other Chief Steward of the Local. My portfolio included providing support for our members with the grievance procedure, in each stage from the grievance collection to its resolution. I tried my best to offer the most efficient support to our members in this challenging period. With the other Chief Steward, we received training from our Regional Representative and modified that training into a module to be shared with our Stewards and members. Also, I actively participated in multiple committees of the Local, including Bargaining Committee, Grievance Committee, Mobilization Committee, Union Structure Committee and Social Justice Committee. In this process, I always prioritized engagement from our Stewards and members over technicalities and I believe we have developed a robust network, each Steward active in the initial steps of the grievances and in the committees the Local have struck for different purposes. Thanks to the work of the Union Structure Committee, I can proudly say that we now have a better system of honorarium for the Stewards, whose work is crucial to the Local.
I would like to nominate myself again for the same position, thinking that I can contribute to the Local in the same capacity for another term. We are going into bargaining after this AGM and I will be an active member of the Mobilization Committee, making sure that the demands which we will negotiate with the employer are clearly communicated to our membership and supported by them in the most effective way through multiple channels and campaigns.
In addition, I will keep the efforts to offer a better training for the grievance handling to our Stewards. We also have an ongoing grievance related with RA/GRAF classification. If I am re-elected, I will keep supporting the Local in the ongoing arbitration process, whose resolution will contribute to the local immensely in terms of strengthening our bargaining unit.
We are going through a period of radical transformation as a result of multiple pressures the system has faced, be it in the form of strong social movements from Black Lives Matter to Climate Justice and to Decolonization or in the form of growing frustration borne out of exhaustion, rising cost of living and mental distress. As the grievance officer of the local, I will do my best to reflect the spirit of this desire for change in my work. Thanks for all the support the Stewards and membership have provided for my portfolio so far, and I am submitting my nomination with a hope for support for another term as the Co-Chief Steward.
Equity Officer
Name: Prerna Subramanian
Department: Cultural Studies
My efforts as the Equity Officer of PSAC 901 have been focussed towards facilitating bursaries smoothly and timely and also focus on pushing for equity goals as central to our bargaining process. As the chair of Bursary Administration Committee within my role as Equity officer, I was able to create forms, analyse fund disbursal methods and successfully administer three bursaries that were approved in the last AGM: a UHIP refund for migrant members, a hardship bursary for equity-seeking members, and a bursary to financially support gender confirmation procedures for trans members of our union. As the incoming time of bargaining was already being prepared for by the Union, I used my time to research equity concerns for bargaining. I conducted research on multiple academic sector unions in Canada and their approach to sexual harrassment and sexual violence in order to proffer sexual violence leave as one of our demands. I also analysed trends of our bursaries which showed us how Mental health services were woefully inadequate for graduate students and alarmingly, no mental health benefits were being provided to TAS, RAS, TFS. Through my research, I found out that EFAP services are indeed provided by multiple academic institutions to their TA/RA/TF members. I facilitated hiring of a Defund YGK researcher and also a Mental health service researcher in my role in order to create much needed knowledge around inequitable workplaces and also possibilities of solidarity with anti-racist actions like that of abolition and defunding of police. Alongwith Health and Safety Officer, I also conducted a consultation session with our disabled members to understand the need for a better IERP process which I also put forward as an equity concern for bargaining. Alongside our President and Co-Chief Stewards, I conducted multiple equity consultations with anti-racist organisations on campus in order to work towards bargaining demands that include anti-racism as its central anchor. Recently, my efforts went into bringing PSAC 901 and SGPS together for #PivotTheGradClock campaign for graduate funding extensions that has gathered enormous support from faculty and students alike.
If given the chance to continue in this role, I will want to continue to work on Bargaining demands, while my aim is to broaden the scope of “equity” itself. I want to create a “Flying Squad” for PSAC 901 that is committed to collaborative organising across Kingston. This will mean working closely with VP Community to create a group of committed members who work towards defunding the police actions, climate change, housing crisis and international solidarity events, especially in terms of organised disruptions of inequitable workplaces, picketing and supporting striking workers. This could include thinking of alternative ways of political organising in the pandemic: through bannering, sound-projector actions, car-rallies and virtual disruptions. I also want to have an active anti-racist working group that makes PSAC 901 a space for racialised students on campus to feel supported, seen and held. Being able to continue as the Equity Officer will help me not only work on bargaining but also beyond it.
Occupational Health and Safety Officer
Name: Katrina Taibi
Department: Law
I am a third-year law student and TA in the faculty of law. Although I have not previously been involved with PSAC 901, I have worked maintaining union relations with a large transit company. Furthermore, I have a strong grasp on interpreting contracts and legislation, which will ensure that the university is complying with the collective agreement and the OHSA. Additionally, having worked in legal clinics, I have experience addressing concerns and making recommendations.
In the coming year, I would like to address the following, if elected:
- Concerns returning to in-person classes, particularly if courses are run in a hybrid manner; both physical and mental health should be key considerations
- Ensure deadlines are reasonable and accommodations are available as needed
- Ensure that members feel engaged with their local union and represented by a diverse team of executives