Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

The delegates to the National Bargaining Conference (NBC) represent over 95,000 workers at Treasury Board and Parks Canada. They were elected and/or selcted from amongst those attending Regional Bargaining Conferences held late last year in Montreal and Vancouver.

Hundreds of members from the PA (Table 1), SV (Table 2), TC (Table 3), EB (Table 5) and FB bargaining units throughout Canada submitted bargaining proposals to their Locals. Following a review by the Components, these proposals were sorted by bargaining unit for analysis by the National Bargaining Conference TB delegates.

One of the final steps in preparation towards the next round of bargaining with the government of Canada, the National Bargaining Conference for Treasury Board and Parks Canada units will start next Thursday, February 1, in Ottawa.

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via Jayne Johns, Fraser Valley Area Council

Great news!

The PSAC is represented at the new Fraser Valley Labour Council. At the inaugural meeting this past Wednesday the Fraser Valley Labour Council obligated their delegates (PSAC has three delegates and three alternates) and elected their President (Brian Harder, Steelworkers 3567), Treasurer (Mike Waldun BCGEU), Secretary and 12 Executive Board Members. I was nominated and acclaimed as one of the Executive Board members.

This is a very exciting opportunity for our union to be involved from the very beginning of this new Labour Council.

• Who is the Labour Council? What does it do?

The meetings are every third Wednesday of the month except December. The next meeting is Wednesday Feb 21 at 7PM. The new Executive will be gathering for the first time at 5:30PM, just prior to the regular meeting.

PSACBC Human Rights Committee Minutes of January 16, 2007 meeting

In attendance

• Vancouver RO: Tracy Shudo (chair), Deanna Wilson (food), Sanda Turner, Carol Pegura, Rhonda Brain, Kim Forster (minutes), Sargy Chima, Jack Seto, Bruce Clark, Monica Urrutia (PSAC staff)
• via teleconference: Floyd Knelsen
• Regrets: Carolyn McGillivray, Val Hargreaves, Sid Wong, Todd Harding, Craig Langston, Steve Houston, Paul Jones, Rodney Hynes
• N.B. Steve Houston, Paul Jones and Rodney Hynes contacted Monica and explained why they were unable to participate in the meeting.

Continue reading below or download the BC Human Rights Committee minutes, January 16 2007 (pdf)

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Advanced Steward Training (AST)

This training will be of interest to members who have some experience representing members on workplace problems. The focus of this course will be on the attitudes, knowledge, and skills required by the effective Union Representative. Topics will include the Duty of Fair Representation; building a case file; communicating with complainants and grievors; case analysis and preparation; and making effective presentations to management.

Prerequisites: TUB and Grievance Handling

Course dates & locations

• Victoria, for members on Vancouver Island - June 1-4, 2007
• Vancouver, for members on the mainland - June 7-10, 2007

To apply: download and mail or fax back to either the Vancouver or Victoria RO.

• Vancouver Island application form (pdf)
  
• Mainland application form (pdf)
  

Representatives of the BC Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights in Canada, an ad hoc coalition of women’s organizations, met with Minister Bev Oda by teleconference for one hour this afternoon. This hastily scheduled meeting was convened as a result of a demonstration and a brief occupation of the Status of Women Canada office in Vancouver yesterday.

Coalition representatives expressed disappointment with Minister Oda’s explanations and defense of the Harper Governments decisions to:

• slash $5m dollars from the SWC budget
• close 12 of 16 regional offices of SWC
• remove women’s equality from the program mandate
• make research, advocacy and lobbying ineligible for funding
• cancel the Court Challenges Program
• refuse to move forward on proactive pay equity legislation
• cancel the Pan-Canadian child-care program
• fail to move forward on its CEDAW obligations.

In the face of Oda’s defense of these decisions, the Coalition is determined to redouble its efforts to have them reversed.

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TO: Executive Officers

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

RE: Count Me In Campaign

The Federation is now seeking candidates for the positions available in our Count Me In program during the upcoming federal election campaign. I would appreciate your assistance to circulate the attached job posting as widely as possible.

Each of these positions is a term position under the Federation’s collective agreement. The starting and end dates for some of these positions will be varied to reflect the actual timing of the election.

In solidarity, Jim Sinclair,President

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PS to probe why minorities don’t get jobs : Despite one-in-five benchmark, only 10% of applicants land posts

The watchdog of Canada’s non-partisan public service is launching an investigation into why visible minorities aren’t landing jobs in the public service in anywhere near the large numbers that apply.

But Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission, said the one-in-five hiring targets for visible minorities that have been promoted since 2000 may be too high, and the study will help determine what the rate should be to ensure their numbers within the bureaucracy reflect the Canadian workforce.

“My preoccupation is how long will it take us to get a more representative public service,” she said in an interview.
“Those benchmarks were set in a very different environment and we have a much higher turnover now, and with that higher turnover, what kind of target should we be setting? … I am not sure 20 per cent is the right number.”

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For Immediate Release - January 10, 2007

Surveys says Central Okanagan schools are unsafe for Gay Students

Kelowna - Results of the recent survey by the Indigo Spirit of Awareness Society revealed it’s not safe for students to be gay in our community.

“Ninety-two per cent of respondents say things need to change to help Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgendered and Questioning (LGBTQ) students to feel safer,” said executive director Paula Miles.

The survey showed that homophobic taunts top the list (59 per cent) of negative comments students hear in the schools. That was ahead of taunts, comments and remarks that were sexist, racist or anti-religious.

“Eighty-five per cent of respondents heard derogatory comments, such as that’s so “gay”, “fag”, “homo”, “dyke”, or “lesbo” while they attended school,” Miles said. “We knew there was a problem in our schools, but we had no idea it was pervasive. If students hear these comments on a regular basis, how can any gay or questioning youth feel safe? Under these circumstances, it would be natural to be fearful of anyone learning about their sexuality.”

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International Women’s Day 2007

Since its inception, International Women’s Day (IWD), March 8th, has been a day of revolutionary struggle for the rights and freedom of oppressed and exploited women in the context of world-wide struggle against imperialism and war. Every year since our founding in 1995, Grassroots Women has mobilized on March 8th. By doing so, we connect with the tradition of working class women who have mobilized on this day for nearly 100 years, from the garment workers of New York City at the turn of the century, to the wives, daughters, and mothers of soldiers and armament workers in Russia who helped spark the Russian Revolution, to the women of movements for national and social liberation in the Third World.

In 2007, Grassroots Women will mark IWD by holding events under the following theme:

• Strengthen Women’s Resistance
• Oppose Imperialism’s Intensifying Attacks!
• Assert Women’s Basic Human Rights!

Please join us for a march and rally on Thursday, March 8th 2007, beginning at 5:30 pm at Chinatown Memorial Square (NE corner of Keefer and Columbia) and ending with refreshments at the Grassroots Women office.

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Theme: Present, where we are today (Feb 20). Past, how we got there (Feb 21)

• February 20,21,22 2007
• Pekw’xe:yles (St Mary’s)
• 34110 Lougheed Hwy, Mission BC

Who should attend? Aboriginal Community Members

Conference Highlights

• Keynote speakers: TBA (Day 1), Dr. Rod McCormick, UBC (Day 2) and Sean Muir, The Aboriginal Network (Day 3)
• Health & Wellness Workshops
• Information Booths and Health Care Clinic
• No fee to attend conference
• Lunch provided, and door prizes
• Dinner and entertainment on Thursday February 22

For more information, please contact

Sto:lo Nation Health Services: 604 824 3200 or 1 877 411 3200

Download the AHWC tentative agenda (.doc) and the AHWC Conference pre registration form (.doc)

It’s time to raise the province’s $8 per hour minimum wage and eliminate the even lower $6 an hour training wage for new entrants to the labour force, says the B.C. Federation of Labour.

President Jim Sinclair wants the government to boost the base wage to $10 an hour.

“It’s time to share the gains of a strong economy,” he said.

Sinclair said a poll conducted last fall shows nearly 80 per cent of those surveyed support a $2 jump in the minimum wage, and 73.5 per cent agree it’s time to eliminate the training wage.

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Grievance file checklist (pdf)
Grievance flowchart (pdf) Includes timelines
Grievance presentation form (pdf)
Grievance transmittal form (pdf)
Steward fact sheet (pdf) Handy form for keeping all grievance-related information in one place
Treasury Board Grievance forms (scroll down to Labour Relations)

Prepared by Megan Adam, Public Service Alliance of Canada

In July of 2006, twelve delegates from four Canadian trade unions traveled to Colombia as part of an ongoing campaign to defend public services and trade union organizing in that country. Over twelve days our delegation visited three major cities and several smaller communities, speaking with dozens of people representing trade union, human rights and indigenous community movements. During our densely-packed itinerary we heard the Colombians’ stories of repression and resistance, saw films about police attacks and murders, and were called on to witness the ongoing degradation of public services and Colombian society. The tour was not only a chance to make stronger links with our southern counterparts, but a wakeup call to our future if global social justice and civil society movements do not continue the struggle to halt privatization pressures by organizations like the IMF and WTO.

• The first portion of the Frontlines Tour took place in 2004 when a delegation of Colombian workers visited Canada: read more at the Social Justice Fund website and the psacbc.com archives.

This report will give a brief overview of our activities in Colombia as part of the Frontlines Tour. The four participating unions (PSAC, BCGEU, CUPE and CUPW) are the major representatives of public sector workers in Canada and we met with many of our counterparts in Colombia as well as their human rights and community partners. This initiative in the PSAC is part of the ongoing work of the Social Justice Fund, and a component of the Make Poverty History campaign, incorporating the fight to defend quality public services such as health, education, welfare, clean water, sanitation and energy around the world.

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Health and Safety Level II

This advanced Occupational Health & Safety Course has been designed to allow workplace Health and Safety committee members, worker representatives and activists to develop tools, resources and strategies to tackle more complex Health and Safety issues in their workplaces. The course will take place March 9,10,11 at the Hilton in Burnaby.

• Apply online for this course (deadline: Feb 9th)
  

The course will explore the general concepts of legislation relevant to the safety field and through a comprehensive review of the Canada Labour Code Part II, will set the tone for introducing the concepts of workers’ compensation, safety regulation, due diligence, consultation and enforcement.

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Visible-minority immigrants are slower to integrate into Canadian society than their white, European counterparts, and feel less Canadian, suggesting multiculturalism doesn’t work as well for non-whites, according to a landmark report.

The study, based on an analysis of 2002 Statistics Canada data, found that the children of visible-minority immigrants exhibited a more profound sense of exclusion than their parents.

Visible-minority newcomers, and their offspring, identify themselves less as Canadians, trust their fellow citizens less and are less likely to vote than white immigrants from Europe.

The findings suggest that multiculturalism, Canada’s official policy on interethnic relations since 1971, is not working as well for newer immigrants or for their children, who hail largely from China, South Asia and the Caribbean, conclude co-authors Jeffrey Reitz, a University of Toronto sociologist, and Rupa Banerjee, a doctoral candidate.

Continue reading at the Globe and Mail.

Promise made.

“Yes, I’m ready to support women’s human rights and I agree that Canada has more to do to meet its international obligations to women’s equality. If elected, I will take concrete and immediate measures, as recommended by the United Nations, to ensure that Canada fully upholds its commitments to women in Canada.” - Stephen Harper - January 18, 2006

Promise broken.

Since coming into office, the Harper Conservatives have

• closed more than half of the Status of Women of Canada regional offices
• have changed the funding criteria for women’s groups and have removed the word “equality” from the SWC’s list of objectives
• eliminated support for equality rights test-cases (the Court Challenges Program)
• refused to adopt proactive pay equity legislation and have canceled funding to the Canada-wide child care program.

The Harper Conservative have consistently dismissed equality rights for women. They will continue unless we speak up!

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Greetings. There are going to be some big chances in the Vancouver Regional Office. Brother Jack Rudd will be retiring in May and Sister Regina Brennan will be going on self-funded leave for six months as of June 2007. Jack’s position has been posted and the deadline for applications is January 29. From that competition we will establish an eligibility list from which to backfill Regina in her absence.

If you are interested in applying in this competition and want to find out more about what qualifications we are looking for and how we assess them, then come to a meeting at the Vancouver Regional Office, 5238 Joyce St., on Wednesday January 24 at 5:45 pm.

Light refreshments will be served so please RSVP to Patrick or Patricia at 604-430-5631 no later than noon on January 23.

Janet Routledge, BC Regional Coordinator

Regional Representative

Duties

Under the general supervision of the Regional Coordinator and as part of a regional team that includes other regional office staff, the Regional Council, and regional union bodies such as Area Councils, the Regional Representative builds the union and fosters membership solidarity by delivering union programs and services in the region.

For more information visit the national website. Note the closing date for PSAC members residing in the BC region is January 29th.

Pinoy Poetiks: a night of poetry and cultural performances by Filipino youth and the community to fundraise for the victims of typhoon “Reming” in the Philippines

• When: Saturday Jan. 6th, 2007 at 7pm
• Where: Rhizome Cafe, 317 East Broadway (near Kingsway - across Kingsgate Mall)
• Suggested minimum donation: $5

Just as we entered the holiday season, another tragedy has befallen the Filipino people –mudflows from the slopes of the Mayon volcano, triggered by heavy rains from typhoon “Reming” (international codename: Durian) buried at least eight villages in Albay province in the Bicol region. As of December 1, the mudflows have killed at least 338 people, more bodies are still being recovered. Local officials have warned that the death toll could hit a thousand.

Please come and support and help us continue to build our direct people-to-people support in the face of increasing hardships and adversity facing the Filipino people.

Organized by Ugnayan ng Kabataang Pilipino sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance-Vancouver

The preliminary education schedule for spring 2007 has been posted on the education page. We have scheduled courses for Vancouver & the Island. The schedules for the Fraser Valley, North and Okanagan will be posted soon.