Dear friends,
My name is Yagya Paudel and I am a postdoctoral fellow at Donnelly Centre for Cellular & Biomolecular Research, University of Toronto. I would like to express my keen interest for contributing to CUPE 3902 as a Vice Chair (Unit 5). In the past, I worked as a general secretary (2014-2015) for Canadian Union of Public employees (CUPE Local 3905) at Lakehead University where I solved the issues with the rights and related concerns of teaching/research assistants. I organized meetings and disseminated information using social media, maintained the union’s website with the useful and timely information catered to the members and participated in making Local’s bylaws.
At Queens’s university during my PhD, I was elected 3 times as a co-chief steward of Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC Local 901). Working as a co-chief steward for 3 years helped me to be self-organized and boosted my ability to take the initiative for the specified work. As a co-chief steward, I led the restructuring of the Stewards’ Council and liaised with governance committees regarding the general meetings and annual general meetings, bargaining committee, bursary applications etc. I also trained members on health and safety standards and issues and was actively engaged in student wellbeing including counselling, carrier guidance, conflict resolution, maintaining confidentiality and work ethic.
Additionally, I also worked as a ministry certified Joint Health and Safety Committee (JHSC) representative for Arts and Science at Queens. Moreover, I have shown my leadership and communication skills on many occasions while taking different responsibilities such as Mitacs Globalink Mentor (April-August 2019), representative for Queen’s Community Housing Board (2015-2019), Lakehead Biology graduate student representative (2014-2015).
If elected, I would like to make Unit 5 (CUPE 3905) more effective by active participation and interaction with the members. I will be focusing on the current situation of unit 5 members regarding contracts extension and additional financial support. I believe that there might be more issues of our members which they do not want to bring up as the conflict between the member and the supervisor may harm to their entire career. I would like to bring and solve such issues in a friendly environment. More importantly, as we are close to the bargaining, I would like to work effectively using my previous experience in the mobilization of members for enabling the active participation. I look forward to getting your support.
In solidarity,
Yagya Paudel