Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Surrey Delta Langley Area Council March 13, 2007 Meeting Minutes, Held at the Newton Seniors Center

Present: Terry Ruyter (UTE Local 20007), Carol Pegura (UTE Local 20029), Kim Forster (UTE Local 20029), Regina
Brennan (PSAC Area Rep), Dale Odberg (UVAE Local 20029), Johann Ackermann (UTE Local 20029), Jeremy Amour (UTE Local 20029) Earla MacLean (UTE Local 20029), Sharon Palis (UTE Local 20029)
Guest: Kay Sinclair, REVP - BC Region.

Continue reading below or download the SDL AC minutes (pdf)

• Dale/Jeremy M/S to accept the previous minutes – carried
• Kay did an update on anti-scab legislation. The MP’s are in their ridings during spring break. Noted the difficulty the diamond mine workers had during their strike. The legislation will be going to third reading. Stephan Dion is going against it as he said that essential services are not covered but this is not true. Kay asked us to lobby Suhk Dhaliwal. (Kyle Harrietha, Sukh Dhaliwal’s EA asked that his name be taken off the Regional PSAC web as he does support it.) Nina Grewal should be called also. They will probably only be in their ridings until the 15^th or 16^th. The BC labour code has this in its legislation. We are worried about some Liberals and Conservatives backing out.
• Kay - The PSAC National Pride conference is coming shortly to Vancouver.
• Kay - The PSAC Access Conference is happening in Early September in Ottawa.
• Kim asked if a person who sits on another committee can be a voting member of an Area Council. Kay mentioned that Section 14 of the PSAC constitution gives PSAC committees the right to be a rep at an Area Council. Further discussion about how this is done
• Regina mentioned that the PSAC Regional Women’s conference would be held in late September early October. They have a budget $50,000 and it will probably be a Saturday/Sunday. Nothing else has been firmed up but they are looking at several different themes. Delegate entitlement has not yet been finalized.
• Regina brought a poster for a forum called “Building People to People Solidarity”.
• Regina mentioned that an advanced Grievance handling course will be done. Regina and Debbie Seaboyer will be there. Several other courses were mentioned. If there are any questions, please call Regina or Amal.
• Carol (BC PSAC Regional Rep) spoke on the Area Council training. The talked about Political Action and how to do it. She brought a postal code list of members for election contacts. The idea is to call members when an election is called and remind them to go and vote. An Area Council conference call will be done on Wednesday to discuss this. Regina said a phone bank will be done at the RO but some talk was mentioned about doing this from a location in Surrey. The privacy act was mentioned and that they can’t just hand this information to anyone due to this. A discussion on the Area Council doing a phone tree should be on the next agenda.
• Johann will email everyone that was at the meeting with each other’s email addresses and phone numbers.
• Our next meeting will be on Wednesday, April 18^th and the main agenda item will be to talk about what we will be doing about the (possible) Federal election.
• Carol asked if anyone has any agenda items for the Access Conference which will be held on September
  7-9 in Ottawa.
• Bargaining was discussed.
• Terry said that the cost for our previus meeting at the Seniors Centre was waived by them as they made a mistake.
• Sharon made a financial report. Terry asked Kay about the PSAC grant. Sharon asked about funding for Political Action. Regina responded that if the SDLAC wants to put together a project submission they can obtain the funding by submitting this to Kay or Janet Routledge. Sharon/Earla m/s to pay $98.98 for the food. Carried. Carol/Dale M/S to pay for the room rental. Carried.
• Political Action – This will be an agenda item on tomorrow’s BC Area Council conference call. Carol and Kim sit in on the call and then form a PA sub committee with Sharon and possibly Angela Marathon (if she is interested and available) for SDLAC. Jeremy can help out.
• Earla/Jeremy m/s to adjourn 7:00 PM. Carried.