Learn more from CUPE BC about your failed relationship with Christy Clark and the Liberal Party of BC at www.youcandobetter.ca!

If you’re a Canadian citizen and have lived in BC for more than six months you are eligible to vote in the upcoming provincial election. Learn how to register here.

How to download your T4 Statement:

• Log-in to the Faculty and Staff Self-Service portal, using your Campus-Wide ID Login (CWL). If you are off-campus, you will need to connect using VPN. (If you can, it is also much easier to just get these forms while you are using the UBC network on campus without worrying about the VPN).
• In the My Pay column of the screen, select Year End Slipsto see the content agreement to receive your Statement electronically for the current and subsequent years.
• Note: Faculty and staff who choose not to accept the agreement will receive their T4/T4A Statements in late February, consistent with the requirements of the Canada Revenue Agency.

Technical difficulties? Visit the Payroll FAQ Page.

How do download your UPass tax credit and other student tax forms:

• Log into the Student Services Center using your CWL here https://www.sscext.cwl.ubc.ca/
• Click on Financial Summary
• In the lefthand navigation pane you will see links to various tax documents. Click on each and save as a PDF or print.

Good luck and happy number crunching!

The B.C. government stiff-armed all levels of education Tuesday with a provincial budget that froze block funding to public schools and pushed ahead with cuts to colleges and universities.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong said the government has made significant investments in education over the years and that spending has never been higher. But critics said students young and old will pay the price for stagnant or decreased investments.

The budget said the Ministry of Advanced Education, Innovation and Technology will receive $46 million less over the next three years, even as the province faces a severe skills shortage.

Universities, which have been calling for more spaces to meet that demand, will have to find savings in administration and discretionary spending.

De Jong noted that the government will add buildings and equipment at colleges and universities to boost skills training.

But that’s one-time money that “won’t create a single new student space,” said Robert Clift, executive director of the Confederation of University Faculty Associations of B.C.

Clift said the ongoing cuts, combined with rising costs, will hurt students and the economy.

De Jong also offered little relief for public schools struggling with rising costs. The provincial budget freezes block funding to districts at $4.7 billion for the second straight year, even as school boards face higher utility bills, medical service plan hikes and pension-fund increases.

De Jong noted that the Education Ministry will get an increase of less than one per cent this year. Most of that money will come from a previously announced $30-million boost to the Learning Improvement Fund, which cannot be used for district operating costs.

“It’s definitely not an education budget,” said Teresa Rezansoff, vice-president of the B.C. School Trustees’ Association.

“I think public school trustees are very concerned about this being a year where the increasing cost pressures are not being funded through government.”

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation said school boards have no place left to trim costs after years of cutbacks.

VANCOUVER – The BC Labour Relations Board has ruled that Simon Fraser University is guilty of bad faith bargaining against its 1,000 CUPE support workers. The decision that SFU breached the BC Labour Code was handed down yesterday afternoon.

The members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3338 have been without a contract for close to three years. SFU is the only university in the province that has not negotiated in good faith to a new collective agreement with its CUPE support workers.

The bad faith bargaining decision refers to university attempts to tie CUPE bargaining for a collective agreement to fixing problems the university has with its pension plan (reportedly more than $64.5 million in the red). The decision by the BC Labour Relations Board concludes that “the university’s attempt to keep the Pension Plan on the bargaining table at this time is a breach of…the Code.”

“In light of this decision, we look forward to getting back to the bargaining table – this time for a contract,” says CUPE BC universities coordinator Tracy Mathieson. “Our calendars are open and we are ready to meet.”

CUPE 3338 president Lynne Fowler says the decision “is a vindication for our members and our bargaining committee – we have waited too long for a contract – that’s the message to SFU in this decision.”

The SFU Pension Plan is a multi-party plan that can only be changed by all the participants, including other unions and staff associations. Those players all pulled out of pension talks late last year saying they would only discuss the pension once they had negotiated collective agreements. CUPE has repeatedly assured SFU that it will do everything it can to help the university out of its pension crisis – but only after collective bargaining has concluded and only with the other plan participants.

CUPE 3338 members at SFU include clerical workers, computer operators, library assistants, technicians, lifeguards, financial aid advisors, building technologists, programmer analysts, buyers, stores clerks, information specialists, control clerks, department resource specialists, maintenance schedulers and programmers.

First of all, thank you for your patience in waiting for the details of our new tentative agreement. As you can see, it is not the deal we wanted – there is no cost-of-living adjustment, no child care fund and no extended preference for Masters students. However, we strongly believe that it is the very best deal we could secure given the current bargaining climate in this province. We also don’t consider this contract an end point – for your CUPE 2278 executive, this is the starting point for the new collective agreement we will negotiate in less than two years’ time.

The major aspects of the tentative agreement with the employer are as follows:

All these gains were hard fought through your bargaining team over more than two years’ of negotiations. UBC TAs are only the second local in Canada to secure fifth-year preference for Doctoral students. Given some more time, we believe we can convince UBC to offer extended hiring preference to undergraduate and Masters students as well. We are the first unit in North America, to our knowledge, to have protection from academic harm written in to our collective agreement. While we were unable to secure literal tuition protection language in our renewed agreement, we now have some small protection against costs related to employment status written into our contract.