Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

By Dennis Howlett, Coordinator, Make Poverty History

There is little or nothing in the 2007 Federal Budget that will help to make poverty history.

Several measures that appear to address poverty, on closer examination turn out to be inferior versions of previous Liberal initiatives or actually deliver more benefit to rich families and less or nothing to poor children who need assistance the most.

A case in point is the Child Tax /Credit/ announced in this Conservative budget, which should not be confused with the Canada Child Tax /Benefit/ that Make Poverty History has been campaigning to have increased to $5100 per child. The Conservative Child Tax /Credit/ will do absolutely nothing for the poorest children whose families have no taxable income.

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Head Tax Families Society of Canada will mark the 60th anniversary of full rights and the vote for the Chinese in Canada. The Canadian Citizenship Act, which went into effect in the spring of 1947, defined the franchise as part of citizenship status.

• Time: 9AM, Saturday May 12, 2007
• Place: Memorial to Railway Workers and War Veterans Keefer and Columbia (NE corner), Vancouver

The Head Tax Families Society of Canada is today’s Canadians on a twenty-three year struggle for an inclusive redress with justice and honour for affected head tax families. Go to www.headtaxfamilies.org for more information.

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Treasury Board units have exchanged bargaining demands with the employer. You can download the demands at the national website.

The first meetings with the employer will take place next week!

May 14 and 15 for the PA and SV units and on May 17 and 18 for the TC, EB and FB units. At these meetings, the union and employer negotiating teams will review and explain demands and answer any questions about them. Negotiations will start in earnest at the next set of meetings. The PA and SV teams will meet with the employer from June 5 to 8, the TC, EB and FB teams from June 12-15.

Connect with team members…

The following is a list of member negotiators from the different bargaining units who are from B.C., feel free to connect with them regarding your thoughts on the demands and to express your support for their efforts on your behalf!

• FB - Lawji, Karim - klawji@shaw.ca
• FB - McGillivray, Carolyn - cmcg@telus.net
• PA - Adam, Megan - pa.bargaining@psacbc.com
• PA (1st Alternate) - Vaillancourt, Virginia - uvaevictoria@shaw.ca
• SV - Dureen, Melvin - mdureen@uniserve.com
• SV - Sanderson, Randy - sandersonr@telus.net
• TC - McKenzie, Darrell-Lee - starshine@telus.net
• TC - Robinson, Phil - nosnibor_york@yahoo.ca
• EB - no member negotiators in B.C. Please contact urrutim@psac.com for more information.

In Solidarity, Monica Urrutia, TB - Regional Strike Coordinator (BC Mainland)

OTTAWA, May 10 /CNW Telbec/ - An Appeals Officer has ordered Parks Canada to protect its park wardens who are responsible for law enforcement in Canada’s national parks.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the union representing the park wardens, has been fighting this issue since June 2000, when Douglas Martin, one of the wardens, filed a complaint that he was being placed in situations of potential danger on the job without the necessary protective equipment.

“The ruling from Appeals Officer Douglas Malanka has confirmed the original direction from the health and safety officer who investigated the complaint,” says PSAC National Executive Vice-President Patty Ducharme. “Malanka has ordered Parks Canada, after seven years of delay, to finally correct the situation and to protect the wardens from danger.”

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Source: Vancouver Sun, Monday, May 07, 2007

OTTAWA — Parenting by same-sex families is just as good — if not slightly advantageous — for children when compared to heterosexual families, a Justice Department study has concluded.

Commissioned by the then-Liberal federal government in 2003 at the height of the same-sex marriage debate, the academic study was not released until recently when its main author, Prof. Paul Hastings at Concordia University, obtained it by making a request using the Access to Information Act.

Hastings, with the assistance of research students, reached the study’s conclusion after reviewing existing research relating to the impact on children of being raised in different family types.

The report says the strongest conclusion that can be drawn from empirical literature is that the vast majority of studies show that children living with two mothers and children living with a mother and father have the same levels and qualities of social competence.

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“Farmworkers are Canada’s forgotten workers. They work in the fields and harvest the crops that feed us. They work in slave-like conditions for 12-14 hours a day and are paid piece rate. They travel in overcrowded buses to the fields or live in converted chicken coops. Many suffer chronic health problems because of exposure to pesticides during every working day.” - CFU spokesman Charan Gill, June, 1994

When farmworkers in British Columbia’s fertile Fraser Valley started organizing in the 1970s, the main issues were low pay, poor housing, unsafe working conditions, exclusion from labour and safety legislation, lack of childcare and racial discrimination. Those are still the major issues today for the 28,000 workers in the fields.

• Related: New regulations important step to protect farmworkers from employer abuse, says Sinclair, but they remain second-class citizens
• Related:BC farmworkers deserve protection not exploitation

Just outside Vancouver, considered one of the world’s “most livable” cities, farmworkers, mostly immigrants from Punjab, India, and most of those women, work long hours in the open fields harvesting the food we eat. They work in the third most hazardous industry in the province, behind logging and mining. The mortality rate is seven times higher than in the manufacturing sector.

Read (lots) more at www.vcn.bc.ca/cfu/

source: Vancouver Sun, Friday, May 04, 2007

What is it going to take for the managers at Passport Canada to get their act together? Furious people waiting in endless lines, angry letters and phone calls to Passport Canada staff and to newspapers, and media reports and editorials so far seem to have had little effect.

• Related: Passport Offices - Not enough staff, computers, to meet demand

The lineups continue, as does Passport Canada’s practice of telling people that they’re not going to be seen after they’ve waited hours in the cold and rain. In fact, the agency’s arrogance has reached new heights in the past few weeks.

Consider, for example, The Vancouver Sun’s attempts to find out merely who’s in charge of the Vancouver office. Calls to the offices of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day failed to yield an answer.

Letters and phone calls to Passport Canada CEO Gerald Cossette went unreturned, which suggests he has no interest in serving the public or taking responsibility for the mess he’s created. And Ottawa-based Passport Canada representative Fabian Lengelle told a reporter that he wasn’t sure whether he should release the name of the person in charge in Vancouver. Now that’s hardly the right attitude for a government agency that’s supposed to be serving the public.

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Dear PSAC Members:

Please join the campaign to raise the minimum wage! The lowest paid workers in BC need our support.

I’m asking you to support the campaign to boost the minimum wage in BC to at least $10 an hour and to eliminate the $6 ”training rate” for new workers (AKA another subsidy for big business.).

The Campbell government has frozen the minimum wage at $8 since November 2001. The labour movement says five years without a raise is too long. Minimum-waged workers in BC cannot live on their wages. We’re calling for an immediate increase to at least $10, closely followed by regular future increases that are tied to cost of living increases.

A minimum wage of at least $10 would benefit 115,000 workers who earn the minimum, plus another 135,000 workers who make less than $10 per hour.

Please click on the following link to go to the B.C. Federation of Labour campaign site and join thousands of people by signing the $10 NOW petition.

Please forward this link to friends and family who also support the call to raise the minimum wage. Thank you.

In solidarity, Kay Sinclair, Regional Executive Vice-President, BC

This round of bargaining with the Parks Canada Agency began in the summer of 2006, with a call to Local members for bargaining input. A comprehensive Program of Demands package was sent to all Local Executives. The bargaining input you forwarded to your Component was reviewed, reduced to wage demands and 30 non-wage proposals and sent to the union’s national bargaining conference held in February. At this conference, members elected your negotiating team and debated and decided upon the bargaining proposals that would be presented to the Agency.

The demands are a result of broad-based input and debate by members and we thank you for your participation in the process.

Read more and download the demands package at the national website.

The BC Summer Institute for Union Women offers an intensive week of learning within a supportive environment in which union women can develop their skills as workers, activists and leaders.

Sponsored by the British Columbia Federation of Labour, the Institute will be held at the University of Victoria (UVIC), Wednesday July 4, 2007 through Sunday July 8, 2007

Our theme, Strong Women Taking Action, reflects labour’s commitment to providing women with both the skills and strategies to take on the challenges we face in today’s world. We need the world to hear more women’s voices speaking out on issues that matter to women, issues like: pay equity, a higher minimum wage, universal childcare, health care, and violence against women.

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The deadline for PSAC scholarships is July 16th.

The PSAC Scholarship Program is offering the following 15 scholarships to PSAC members and their children:

• one $4,000 PSAC - Groulx National Scholarship;
• one $4,000 PSAC - Coughlin National Scholarship;
• two $3,000 PSAC - Groulx National Scholarships;
• two $3,000 PSAC - Coughlin National Scholarships;
• one $2,000 J.R. (Joe) Power National Scholarship;
• one $1,000 PSAC National Scholarship;
• seven $1,000 PSAC Regional Scholarships; – one for each of the seven regions (Atlantic, Quebec, National Capital Region, Ontario, Prairies, British Columbia, and the North).

Scholarships are available for the children and dependants of PSAC members. As well, three out of the seven $1,000 PSAC Regional Scholarships may be awarded to PSAC members (if applications are received) who are returning to university, college or a recognized institute of higher learning on a full-time basis.

PSAC members (as parents of applicants or as applicants) must be in good standing as of March 31st of the current year.

Visit the national website for more information and an application form.

PSAC has counted the votes cast in the representation vote that has taken place among our members at Service Canada. The vote was to determine which PSAC Component would represent all PSAC Service Canada members at the workplace level.

• View John Gordon’s video message to Service Canada members: High-resolution | Low-resolution

The vote has resulted in the Canada Employment and Immigration Union earning the right to represent you at the workplace level. Here are the vote totals.

• Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) – 3,774 (62.9%)
• National Health and Welfare Union (NHWU) – 2,226 (37.1%)
• Spoiled – 36
• Total votes cast – 6,036

PSAC National President John Gordon will be meeting with the National Presidents of both Components in order to ensure there is a smooth transition process. A key part of the process will be to ensure that there is no disruption of service to members, particularly in the representation of members’ grievances. Another part of the process will be to give voice to the members being transferred from NHWU to CEIU.

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Northwest B.C. Area Council Annual General Meeting March 24, 2007

Attendance:

Phyllis Bortignon USGE 20071

Penny Dickson CEIU 20926

Benilde Gomes USGE 20071

Dale Gueret UEW 20147

Scott MacPhee UCTE 20213

Sean McGovernCEUDA 20042

Nikki McVeyCEIU 20926

Jack Rudd PSAC CULE Regional Representative

Terry Intermala Prince Rupert Unemployed Society

Call to Order: Benilde opened meeting at 7:10pm

Adoption of Agenda: Motion made to accept Agenda as read and carried.

Continue reading below or download the NorthWest Area Council meeting minutes, March 24 2007 (pdf)

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Thursday March 29, 2007 Chilliwack, BC
Attendance:

• Jayne Johns CEIU Local 20903
• Anne Marie McCully CEIU Local 20903
• Chuck Leech USGE Local 20054
• Mel Dureen USGE Local 20054
• Pat Sheaves USGE Local 20086
• Wendy USGE Local 20086
• BeaBurke UEW Local 20147
• Patti Victor CEIU Local 20903
• Guest: James Little, PSAC Regional Rep

Meeting was called to order at 6:40 PM.

Continue reading below or download the Fraser Valley AC meeting minutes March 20 2007 (pdf)

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OTTAWA - The Public Service Alliance of Canada is calling on the Harper government to stop the sell-off of publicly-owned buildings.  The federal government has just announced that it is going ahead with its plan to sell nine buildings, currently owned by the people of Canada, to the private sector.

“This process lacks any accountability and is a very bad deal for the Canadian public”, says PSAC National Executive Vice-President Patty Ducharme. “Canadians would not sell their houses and then rent them back again. Canadians own these buildings. Where is the sense in selling these valuable assets and then having to pay rent for them?”
PSAC members who work in government buildings know from experience that they can expect better conditions if the buildings they work in are owned and managed by the government instead of by investors whose primary concern is reaping a profit.

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via Nick Humphreys, BC Regional Council

1. The certainty of spills
2. The impossible clean-up
3. The local ecology
4. Jobs and communities
5. Global warming

It looks like the Harper government is going to lift the ban on oil tanker traffic in BC’s inside waters.

The tankers would run through Caamano Sound and up the inlets to Kitimat. The likelihood of a spill are high and the results for the environment, including our salmon resource would be catastrophic.

Read more and sign a petition opposing the lift of the moratorium at www.notankers.ca.

This round of Treasury Board bargaining began in the summer of 2006, with a call to Local/Branch members for bargaining input. A comprehensive Program of Demands package was sent to all Local/Branch Executives. The bargaining input you forwarded to your Component was reviewed by bargaining unit. That input was reduced to wage demands and 30 non-wage proposals and sent to the union’s national bargaining conference held in February. At this conference, members elected negotiating team members and debated and decided upon the bargaining proposals that would be presented to the employer.

The demands for each of the Treasury Board bargaining units are a result of broad-based input and debate by members of these bargaining units and we thank you for your participation in the process.

Download the demands at the national website.