I’m Clara Chang and I’m a PhD candidate and Teaching Assistant in the English Department, from Unit 1, Division 1, writing a dissertation on how digitally-mediated encounters give rise to mutual aid networks. I’ve served as your Communications and Recording Secretary (CRS) since February, and Acting Chair of our Mental Health Action Committee throughout the pandemic. I’m running for CRS again because it’s deeply important to me that our Local is as accessible and inclusive as possible, and I want to re-emphasize that, in building a stronger organization, we want you to fully express yourselves and direct our political actions; and we want to use the best of our capacity to get to know you, educate you, and fight alongside you to reach better, fairer outcomes in bargaining, the grievance process, and other campus spaces. I’m excited to recap our past year (which you can review in my CRS Report) and share new plans to build long-term capacity.
First, although I’m looking forward to in-person meetings, I pledge that all Local meetings that are now accessible online will continue to be. We won’t ever revert to an exclusively in-person format and claw back accessibility. Further, I’ll ensure that our organizers are in touch with the disability community and well-trained to produce communications that are easy to follow and WCAG-compliant.
We’ve planned an internal review to prepare for a thorough communications overhaul, where we’ll work with a strong partner in the labour movement to revise our branding, websites, and mailouts. Drawing from my background as a web content manager, digital artist, and writer for campaigns in both non-profit and for-profit sectors, I’ve drafted an agenda and I can’t wait to send out a survey I wrote for your feedback. As part of the overhaul, I’ll develop coworking protocols to ensure that our Local produces, revises, and publishes communications in consistently inclusive, transparent, and rewarding ways.
I’ll finally get the chance to make the Newsletter laser-focused on our mobilization, sharing stories about our organizing and updating you about the academic sector and the political climate of our movement. I’ll also post meeting minutes on MemberLink, to connect you to actions we’re taking behind the scenes towards bigger and better gains, and share schedules for previously unannounced meetings, so you can get more involved.
Finally, I want to make every effort to inform you of your rights and negotiating power in a transitioning workplace. Over the summer, as a rank-and-file member, I created the Unit 1 Pandemic Teaching Guidelines for Teaching Assistants, a quick, direct resource explaining procedures like exercising your right to refuse unsafe work, workload review and grievances, and accommodations. I want to produce even more documents, videos, and artwork to clarify new agreements in Unit 1 and other Units, so your workers’ rights are as intelligible and clear as possible in stressful situations, and you know what supports are available and what to expect when reaching out.
I’m looking forward to working together! Visit my campaign website for more details.
Length: 500 words
Link 1: “which you can review in my CRS report”
https://docs.google.com/document/d/14KrZZzkwkdewzIWVhBxZmxMlIgCz5wUitxoZ8mGCZKs/edit#bookmark=id.52dq43ze3ari
Link 2: “Unit 1 Pandemic Teaching Guidelines for Teaching Assistants”
https://www.cupe3902.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/CUPE3902_Unit_1_Pandemic_Teaching_Guidelines_for_Teaching_Assistants.pdf
Link 3: “my campaign website”
http://clarachang.ca