1. I would like to thank all those who came out to protest the Board of Governors (BOG) tuition hike on Tuesday. Though the increase was passed by the BOG, we were able to convince 3 non-student representatives that tuition hikes are detrimental to students and an irresponsible way to increase revenue at the University of Windsor. We were also able to get the attention of major media outlets (example here). No small feat. We must not give up and we must continue to cooperate with the labour and student unions across campus. We must stand in solidarity against an upper administration who is so reckless with its workers and its students.
2. Today is my last day as President of CUPE Local 4580. I have enjoyed this journey with you and thank you all for your support and for attending membership meetings in numbers that surpass the meetings of previous years.
3. Thank-you to Mohammed Almanaseer for his vice presidency as well as Brent Taylor and Jihong Kim for their service through the Summer 2014 months. And a thank-you to the Trustees who stepped up quickly to do the job this past year: Behdokht Rekabdar; Michelle Krieger; Akwasi Owusu.
4. I leave you in the very capable hands of Ashlyne O’Neil (incoming President; outgoing Treasurer) and her 2015-2016 team Robert Powers (incoming Vice President), Joan Craig (incoming Treasurer; outgoing Membership Officer), Lisa Plant (incoming – and outgoing – Secretary), Janer Akkas (incoming Membership Officer), and Amanda O’Brien; Evan Gammon; Chris O’Keefe (incoming Trustees). We are so lucky to have so many executives who are vested in this local and wanted to run another year. They begin their terms tomorrow and I wish them the very best.
It was a pleasure serving you these past 12 months.
In solidarity,
Mia Sisic