Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

PSAC Southern Vancouver Island District Council Minutes, June 20, 2006: Regular General Meeting

PSAC Victoria Regional Office

Members Present:

• Peter Neelands – NRU
• Louise Richard – NAT 20088
• Graham Goodmanson – UEW 20169
• Nick Humphreys – UEW 20169
• Sara Cousins- UTE 20028
• Todd Genereux – UNDE 21011
• Pat Maxwell – UNDE 21008
• Cindy Little – UTE 20028
• Rosemary MacKenzie RO/Admin.
• Janelle Ho-Shing, Organizer

Continue reading below, or download the Southern Vancouver and District Area Council minutes, June 20 2006 (pdf).

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Young, Organizing, Unionizing and Resisting!

YOUR course is a participatory, action-oriented course for PSAC members under the age of 30. It is a unique opportunity for young workers to share their experiences, discuss common struggles and analyze the issues they face at work, in the Union and in society.

Participants will discuss their rights as workers and discuss what it means to be in a Union like the PSAC. They will also share and learn about global issues and discuss the role of young workers in the dynamic movement for social justice.

The course will take place in Vancouver, September 30 to October 1. Members under 30 from across the province are encouraged to apply before the deadline of August 18. Apply on line here and/or download the course poster (pdf).
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Thanks to Nick Humphreys, BC Regional Council member, for forwarding us an update on two of the projects in BC funded by the Social Justice Fund.

The Victoria Street Newz has just published their 13^th issue: July 2006 (available soon on their website), which contains an excellent article about the PSAC’s support of Native land claims. Their mission is to provide a voice and income opportunities for economically marginalized and/or socially disadvantaged people in the greater Victoria area while at the same time offering employable skills training, increased self-esteem, confidence, and pride in accomplishments. Click to visit their website.

Also in Victoria, Liveable Income For Everyone is continuing their Community Education to Make Poverty History project which aims to increase poverty education and to create social solidarity in order to “Make Poverty History” with a universal Guaranteed Livable Income. They also are planning to make a presentation to an upcoming Area Council meeting. Click for a project update.

Here are some photographs of PSAC staff and members taken over the last month. Do you have photos of a Union event or activity? Let us know … send them to Patrick Bragg!

The Nelson Service Canada Office (CEIU 20918) enjoyed a great looking cake during National Public Service Week.

Cindy Little and Christine Walker lobby MPs in Ottawa to support childcare issues while at the CLC National Women’s Conference

(left to right, click for a larger view) Cindy Little-Southern Vancouver Island Area Council President, Jean Crowder-MP for Nanaimo-Cowichan, and Christine Walker-NVP West for CEIU.

PSAC members and staff leaflet Idar’s jewelry store in Victoria, in support of striking PSAC members at the Ekati mine. The ‘Dirty Diamonds’ campaign came to a successful conclusion: workers at the mine are currently voting on their first collective agreement.

(left to right, click for a larger view) Cindy Little, Sara Cousins-UTE, James Little-PSAC staff, and Al Hadvick-PSAC staff, retired

The PSAC table at National Public Service Week focuses on connecting with the members by ensuring good communication.

(click for a larger view) Sam Wiese, Regional Council Coordinator for Metro Vancouver staffs the PSAC booth.

Chinese Head Tax/Exclusion Redress Second Step Subject: BC Coalition Calls Head Tax Families Community Meeting

Vancouver, BC – The BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants will convene a community meeting to discuss the completion of the two stage framework presented by redress groups to Canadian Heritage Minister and Beverley Oda and Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister Jason Kenney at a March 24, 2006 consultation in Toronto.

• Date: Wednesday June 28, 2006
• Time: 7:00 pm
• Place: SUCCESS, Choi Hall, 28 West Pender, Vancouver

The two stage framework calls for an apology and as well as urgent appropriate redress to surviving head tax payers and spouses. This was completed June 22, 2006. The second step is appropriate redress to head tax payer families to be completed by July 1, 2007, the 60th anniversary of of the Chinese receiving the federal vote and 100th of the Chinatown race riots in Vancouver.

The BC Coalition of Head Tax Payers, Spouses and Descendants are today’s Chinese Canadians. We are from different ages, from all walks of life, all having one thing in common. They or someone in their family paid the head tax. We are neighbours, friends and family who have endured journeys of hardship, sacrifice and suffering due to the effects of more than six decades (62-years) of racial discrimination specifically targeted at the Chinese in Canada.

Active Geographies, Embodied Chronologies: Women And Struggle On The Left Coast

How do struggles for place connect to struggles for justice? What connects social and cultural activists across the decades? We invite your creative and critical responses to these questions of how women define our own relations over space and time.

B.C. has a longstanding history of colonization, whether it takes the form of land theft, the uprooting of culturally specific groups and underserved communities, or the effects of globalization on residents in the Downtown Eastside and Strathcona, to name a few examples.

This anthology follows up on discussions which began at a workshop entitled A Walk with Women Warriors: a re-mapping of Activism, that took place at the Strathcona Community Centre in 2004. That workshop opened up a dialogue in an attempt to bridge generations of west coast women activists, starting with but not necessarily limited to “East Asian Canadian” communities on urbanized Coast Salish land, particularly the neighbourhoods now described as Strathcona and the Downtown Eastside. Situated around the idea of space,’place,’ and time, the event acknowledged the role of women of colour and their allies in claiming place and identities in their struggle for a just world.

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Fraser Valley Area Council General Meeting Wednesday May 31, 2006 - Boston Pizza, Mission BC, 5:30 to 8:00 pm

In Attendance:

• Jayne Johns CEIU 20903
• Keith Glover USGE 20054
• Patti Victor CEIU 20903
• Chuck Leech USGE 20054
• Edi Martin USGE 20141
• Heather Warner USGE 20040
• Anne Lee USGE 20091
• Pat Sheaves USGE 20086
• Diane McArthur NAT 20140
• James Little PSAC Rep

Continue reading below, or download the Fraser Valley Area Council minutes, May 31st 2006 as .pdf.

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Yellowknife - The Public Service Alliance of Canada has reached a tentative agreement for striking Ekati diamond mine workers with Ekati owner BHP Billiton and will be recommending acceptance to end the strike that began April 7.

PSAC National President John Gordon said Ekati workers can be proud of their fight to win the first-ever contract at a Canadian diamond mine against BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world.

“When less than 400 union members take on a giant multinational corporation with $7.5 billion in annual profits to try and win a first contract, it’s hardly a fair fight,” Gordon said. “But our members can hold their heads high. They reached a tentative agreement against the odds in an extremely tough strike where the employer did everything it could to defeat them and failed to do so.”

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OTTAWA - Despite feeling that they are overworked and have had no improvement in working conditions, public service workers are still strongly committed to their job of providing quality services to Canadians, according to the latest results of the federal government’s Public Service Employees Survey.

The survey, released today by the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada, found that 90 per cent of federal public service workers admit to being proud of the public services they deliver, and 96 per cent say they are committed to making their organization successful.

• View the results of the survey online at hrma-agrh.gc.ca

“These results confirm what we’ve been saying all along: That our members care deeply about their work and that public services need to be defended from cutbacks and privatization,” says Public Service Alliance of Canada National President John Gordon.

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“Why are so many gays still hiding in the closet? Prominent Persons Need to Come Out for Sake of Young People”

Toronto Pride has chosen the theme “Fearless” this year. Yet the number of gay and lesbian athletes, politicians, business and labour leaders who are still in the closet gives the theme a tinge of irony.

Being out of the closet starts when you stop speaking in the third person about a group of which you are a member.

When I was 16, it confronted me for the first time. A football player made a really denigrating joke about “fags”. Do I defend “us” or “them”?

When my father told me he beat up queers when he was a teenager, do I say “we” or “they” have a right to live without constant fear of being bashed?

When you are rising in Parliament to fight for equal marriage, do you refer to them or us?

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On Thursday, June 22nd at 7:00pm, stars of the international Hip-Hop scene will perform at the Global Hip-Hop Mainstage, a FREE concert celebrating Hip-Hop culture’s massive worldwide appeal and important contribution to positive urban development.

Happening at Earth: The World Urban Festival site tomorrow as part of the youth events for the World Urban Forum, the Global Hip-Hop Mainstage will feature dynamic Hip-Hop and world music artists from Africa, Asia, Europe and Canada’s Indigenous communities.

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Background

The beginnings of the National Youth Anti-Racism Network (NYAN) go back to the UN World Conference Against Racism (WCAR) in Durban, South Africa in 2001, where many of the youth there identified the lack of a strong, unified youth voice on anti-racism and discrimination issues in Canada.

At a post-WCAR symposium organized by the Canadian Race Relations Foundation (CRRF), in Edmonton in 2002, a group of youth, many of whom had been involved in WCAR, convened and developed a vision for a national youth network.

In 2004, the CRRF supported the development of the Network, a Website, and an ad hoc national youth advisory committee. Subsequently, in 2005, NYAN organized a youth conference in Calgary which created a momentum among Canadian youth to mobilize around anti-racism issues. Today, over 170 young anti-racism advocates are members of NYAN and the network continues to grow!

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First Nations, Inuit and Métis people are making important contributions in the struggle for social justice, equality and workers’ and human rights. Their particular struggle is a response to colonialism, domination and the policy of assimilation pursued by the Canadian government.

The fight for access to employment, housing, education, health care and other basic social services continues on a daily basis for many Aboriginal people. While the United Nations Human Development Index rates the majority of Canadian society as having one of the highest quality-of-life scores, Aboriginal peoples in Canada would place 48th among the world’s nations in the same index.

The Kelowna Accord reached between the Prime Minister, the Provincial Premiers, the Territorial Leaders and Aboriginal Leaders in November was an important first step towards improving socio-economic conditions of Aboriginal peoples and communities. The Conservative government, by not committing the funds agreed to by the previous government in the federal budget, has effectively turned its back on Aboriginal peoples in Canada.

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Thanks to all of the PSAC members who visited our PSAC table at the National Public Services Week tradeshow in Downtown Vancouver last Thursday!

Sam Wiese, one of the Metro Vancouver Regional Council members (left) and Monica Urrutia, Regional Representative (below, right), staffed the PSAC table which focused on connecting with the members by ensuring good communication.

If you stopped by you were probably asked if you had received the “Our Union Voice” – the new national publication for the PSAC. In recent weeks we mailed copies directly to members’ homes, so if you haven’t received it please update your address with us.

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As part of the World Peace Forum in Vancouver from June 23 to June 28, the Vancouver and District Labour Council will be hosting a Labour Peace Forum on June 25 and 26.

The Vancouver & District Labour Council is sending up to 10 delegates to the Labour Peace Forum - there are a few seats left.

If you are interested in attending, please contact the VDLC office as soon as possible so that they may register you. By email: office@vdlc.ca or by phone: 604-254-0703.

The World Peace Forum and the Labour Peace Forum will be an important opportunity for the international labour movement to meet to discuss and debate our collective position on the issues of war and peace and the effects on working families. Visit vdlc.ca for more information.

Yellowknife – Supporters of striking Ekati diamond mine workers will be leafleting customers at Brinkhaus Jewellers store in Vancouver and Idar Jewellers in Victoria this Saturday as part of their union’s Canada-wide “Dirty Diamonds” campaign to win a fair first contract.

Brinkhaus Jewellers and Idar Jewellers are two of several dozen BHP Billiton-authorized Canadian jewelers selling AuriasTM and CanadaMarkTM diamonds from Ekati. The Public Service Alliance of Canada says customers will be politely asked to not buy diamonds being produced by strikebreakers behind picket lines in its efforts to pressure mine owner BHP Billiton to reach a first collective agreement.

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On June 21^st, 2006, Canadians from all walks of life are invited to participate in the many National Aboriginal Day events that will be taking place from coast to coast to coast.

June 21^st kick starts the 11 days of Celebrate Canada! which includes National Aboriginal Day (June 21), Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day (June 24), Multiculturalism Day (June 27) and concluding with Canada Day (July 1)!

First proclaimed by the Governor General of Canada on June 13, 1996, June 21^st of every year has become a day in the Canadian calendar that presents Aboriginal peoples with a great opportunity to express great pride for their rich diverse cultures with their families, neighbours, friends and visitors.

Read more about National Aboriginal Day at the Indian and Northern Affairs Canada website. Here is a list of events in BC.

OTTAWA - Due to the lack of transparency by Canada Post in refusing to reveal its development plans for this public service, members of the Union of Postal Communications Employees (UPCE) of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) will support a citizens’ action against the Crown Corporation on Monday, June 19, at noon.

“We hope to obtain answers to the questions we have been asking Canada Post management for months,” explained UPCE President Richard Des Lauriers.

“Unfortunately, instead of getting firm answers as to the impact of the Corporation’s development plan on services to the public, we have received meaningless slogans. The time has come to go over to Canada Post offices and get the answers.”

The UPCE and PSAC are therefore supporting the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) citizens’ search that will take place on Monday, June 19, at noon at the Head Office of Canada Post at 2701 Riverside Drive in Ottawa. This is when union members will peacefully enter the offices of Canada Post and seek the documentation that they have been asking management for but have been unable to obtain.

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Public Service Alliance of Canada says don’t buy trademarked Aurias™ and CanadaMark™ diamonds produced by strikebreakers

YELLOWKNIFE, June 13 /CNW/ - Over 2 million readers of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in the United States will read today about “Dirty Diamonds” being produced despite a strike by Ekati diamond mine workers, as their union runs major ads in the newspapers as part of its growing international campaign against mine owner BHP Billiton.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is asking consumers not to buy Ekati diamonds being produced by strikebreakers under the Aurias™ and CanadaMark™ trademarks behind union picket lines as the union fights to win a fair first collective agreement for nearly 400 Ekati workers on strike since April 7.

“BHP Billiton is going to feel increasing heat around the world until it reaches a fair contract with Ekati diamond mine workers,” said Jean-François Des Lauriers, PSAC Executive Vice-President-North. “We will be telling readers of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that they should not buy Canada’s own conflict diamonds - diamonds being produced despite a labour conflict.” Click here to view the ad (pdf).

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OTTAWA – After the first debate on Bill C-257 – An Act to amend the Canada Labour Code (replacement workers) – Canadian working families feel more confident that Parliament will finally adopt legislation to ban the use of scabs during labour disputes under the Canada Labour Code.

“It’s a matter of fairness and balance,” explains Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress. “The prohibition to use scabs protects the interests of working Canadians and their families against the might of large, often global, employers with no roots in the community.”

Such legislation exists in Quebec since 1977 and in British Columbia since 1993; causing, in both cases, a general decline in the loss of work time due to strikes or lockouts, and marking a diminution of their length and intensity.

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