Meet Your GO Candidates!
Nominations for a few positions were held at our February 20 GMM, and the position of Grievance Officer was contested thus will proceed to an election.
Info and how to vote after the statements below.
Here are the candidates and their statements:
Emil Marmol
Hi, my name is Emil Marmol. I ask for your vote for Grievance Officer so I can apply over one decade of combined experience across multiple labor union roles to advocate for your interests as CUPE, Local 3902 members.
I currently serve on the bargaining committee for Unit 3, and have previously served as Grievance Officer, Divisional Steward, and Departmental Steward. When I was Grievance Officer, I streamlined the grievance process to discourage obstructionism by the employer. I am a cofounder and a previous member of Local 3902’s Racialized Workers’ Caucus. Our caucus cosponsored Dr. Angela Davis’ keynote address for International Women’s Day in 2020. Moreover, I served as Chief Steward for CUPE 3907 (which has since merged with Local 3902) for over three years. In 2015, I served on the Bylaws Committee for Local 3907, helping to rewrite our bylaws during a period of restructuring.
In 2016, I was published in a book on resisting academic repression and neoliberal education. The chapter is titled, “On Strike in the Ivory Tower: Academic Repression of Labor Organizing.” It describes and analyses the CUPE, Local 3902, Unit 1 strike that took place in 2015, and concludes with strategies and tactics for waging effective labor actions. As a key rank-and-file member during this strike, I gathered letters of support from international labor unions and world-renowned academics, gave media interviews, and organized community solidarity events to support the strike. In September of 2022, I delivered a guest lecture to a graduate course at Sacramento State University, titled: “Representations of the Working Class and Labor Unions in the Corporate Media.”
I am committed to using my experience to advocate for fair treatment, transparency, and strong representation. Let’s build a stronger CUPE, Local 3902 together—vote for me as your Grievance Officer.
I have no conflicts of interest that I am aware of.
Wynn Martin
My dear colleagues, friends, and comrades, my name is Wynn Martin, and I am a 3rd-year PhD student in Medieval Studies and Unit 1 member. It has been my singular honor and pleasure to serve as your pro tempore Grievance Officer since 1 January. And it is my hope that you choose to elect me to continue this work for the remainder of term!
As a worker and educator in Unit 1 for Medieval Studies and English, I have witnessed firsthand both the joys of teaching and the indignities of poverty wages, claw-backs, the monetary and temporal cost of transit across the tri-campuses, and other such grievances that we all experience daily. As graduate students, post-docs, sessional lecturers, as educators, we spend the better parts of our lives upholding the University of Toronto’s status as a world-class institution. If only the Employer respected and compensated us for our hard physical and intellectual labour!
My journey with the Local began in Summer 2023 when I joined my department’s Contract Action Team and supported our current Steward in mobilizing and agitating our department’s membership around the current round of Unit 1 bargaining. In 2024, I filled said Steward’s shoes and dove headfirst into Stewarding in a busy and electrifying round of bargaining. During negotiations, I trained as a picket captain, attended rallies and info pickets, facilitated joint bargaining info sessions for Medieval Studies and Classics, and mobilized my members around petitions, votes, and membership and ratification meetings. As Steward I also joined the CUPE contingents at rallies for Palestine, in support of the People’s Circle for Palestine, solidarity pickets with striking postal workers, and the annual May Day rally.
In August 2024, I joined the Local’s Leadership Development Program and began shadowing the then Grievance Officer. I attended Grievance Subcommittee, Labour Management Committee, and Step 1, 2 and 3 Grievance meetings, studying the ins-and-outs of the servicing side of our Local. Further, I attended CUPE School in October and completed workshops on Grievance Handling and Legal Research and Investigations and Disciplinary Meetings, among others.
In December, the Executive Committee appointed me as pro tempore Grievance Officer, and since then, I have taken to the whole experience with all my capacity. Beyond the day-to-day care I devote to grievance inquiries, investigations, and the Grievance Subcommittee and to fulfilling my capacity as executive and management of the Local, I have continued to study the grievance process, closely shadowing our Staff Representatives. I am also assisting in the current round of bargaining for Units 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7.
But my work has only just begun, and I aspire to keep building worker power on campus and beyond together with y’all. Therefore, I humbly ask that you elect me as your Grievance Officer. There is still so much to build as a Union.
With love and solidarity, now and forever,
Wynn Martin
I affirm that, to the best of my knowledge, I do not have any conflicts of interest.
Election Date: The election for Grievance Officer will take place on February 28, 2025 and polls will be open between 9:00am and 7:00pm.
How to Vote: Voting will take place by electronic ballot using SimplyVoting. A ballot will be sent automatically by email to all eligible voters at 9am on February 28, 2025. It is possible that this email arrives in your “other” or “junk” folder so please check these folders if you do not receive your ballot in your main inbox.
Voter Eligibility: Members registered as political members by February 27, 2025 at 6:00pm will automatically receive a ballot. If you do not receive a ballot and believe that you should have received one then please email office@cupe3902.org by 1:00pm on February 28, 2025.
You should have political membership if you have done bargaining unit work within the past 12 months and you have signed your Union card.
If you’re not sure about this, log into the Member Portal and check that the field labeled “CUPE No.” has a value. If it does not, then sign your Union card using your Member ID and the form linked at the bottom of this email. For support, email website@cupe3902.org.
