Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

On March 11, 2010, the federal government ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at United Nations headquarters in New York City. This ratification also has the support of all provinces and territories.

The ratification is a result of the immense pressure placed on the Conservative government by disability rights activists, organizations and unions. Since the last PSAC National Access Conference in 2007, the PSAC has been lobbying the government to ratify the Convention that provides a comprehensive human rights framework for addressing the rights of people with disabilities in all aspects of their lives and communities.

Read more at the national website.

The March 4 federal budget freezes federal departmental spending. The government has announced they want to balance the budget on the backs of public service workers – a direct threat to federal public service jobs and the important services we deliver to Canadians.

Our federal employers have a legal responsibility to bargain in good faith, and our Union is already preparing for the next round of bargaining. We need to be prepared as Union members to support our bargaining proposals and to fight against any concessions at the bargaining table.

PSAC members working for the Federal Government and Agencies maintain and interpret National and Historic Parks, process and verify EI and CPP claims, provide support for the Canadian forces and RCMP, process and verify passport applications, inspect meat and food processing plants, assess tax returns and administer tax benefit programs, monitor and enhance fish stocks and habitat, work with inmates and parolees, maintain airport runways and navigation systems, stop guns and drugs at the border, and provide services to veterans and their families.

These are just some of the programs and services we deliver and that Canadians depend every day. We must speak out against cuts to these services. Speaking out works. We saw this when the budget did not cut our pensions because we took action in the workplace.

Management may propose layoffs and job cuts to deal with the budget freeze. We know the government has indicated it will not necessarily staff the 14,000 positions expected to be vacated this year due to retirement and attrition.

Our union will fight any proposed reduction in workforce and any reduction in our ability to deliver quality programs and services to Canadians.

What can you do?

PSAC BC is launching a “Workplace Watch” campaign to document and speak out against the effect of cuts in the workplace – cuts that hurt both the Canadian public and Federal employees. Your Local Executive and PSAC Regional Offices will be in touch soon with more information about how to get involved.

Go to psac-afpc.com/federal-budget and sign up to receive updated information on the impact of the budget.

• Position Title: Reg. Coordinator – B.C.
• Branch/Section: Regional Offices Branch
• Employment Type: Term – up to twelve months
• Location: Vancouver Regional Office

Purpose of Position

Under the direction of the Director, Regional Offices Branch (ROB), the Regional Coordinator manages programs and staff in their assigned region; coordinates and supervises staff and, in consultation with the Regional Executive Vice-President (REVP), ensures the timely and effective delivery of PSAC programs and services in the regions.

Qualifications

• Combination of education and experience in the field of labour relations; knowledge of union practices and programs;
• Demonstrate management skills;
• Ability to prepare and monitor budgets;
• Ability to successfully deal with change and to effectively manage organizational, operational and people issues;
• Understanding and commitment to union and equity principles;
• Knowledge of the PSAC policies, constitution and objectives of its programs;
• Ability to contribute to planning and priority setting;
• Ability to understand and respond strategically to operational issues with innovative solutions and develop and monitor long- and short-term goals;
• Ability to establish trust and cooperation amongst all employees and promote enthusiasm and commitment;
• Self-confidence, action-oriented and tenacity;
• Good judgment and diplomacy;
• Well-developed time management skills to deal effectively with conflicting priorities and time sensitive issues while remaining focused in the face of multiple distractions;
• Political acuity and respect for workers;
• Well-developed communication, negotiating and conflict resolution skills;
• Ability to communicate both effectively orally and in writing, in English;
• Travel and evening / weekend work;
• Ability to facilitate group discussion and decision-making

For more information, visit the careers section at the national website. Competition closing date is March 24, 2010.

CR & District Area Council Meeting

• When: Wednesday March 24, 2010, 7PM
• Where: Fisheries & Oceans Board Room, 150-1260 Shoppers Row, Campbell River
• Agenda:
  • Budget
  • Pension Campaign
  • By-laws
  • Public Service Spending Freeze

For further information email Tom Hopkins – President or call 250-283-7171

Here are a few photos of the inaugural CR & D Area Council meeting, held on February 20th

The next chapter in the Federal Superannuation Surplus dispute begins at the Ontario Court of Appeal, April 19, 20 and 21, 2010 in Toronto.

PSAC and other federal public service unions took the then-Liberal government to court over 1999 changes to the Public Sector Investment Board Act which allowed it to expropriate $30 billion from the federal superannuation fund.

Read more at the national website.

Across Canada and around the world, people are taking a stand in support of public water and against the privatization of water. The bottled water industry is being forced under a public microscope as more and more people question:

• The safety of bottled water
• The weak bottled water industry regulatory standards and practices
• The growing corporate control of water
• The use of misleading bottled water marketing schemes
• The heavy social and ecological toll of for-profit water around the world

In Canada, there are over 70 municipalities, 6 school boards and 3 campuses that have successfully phased out the provision and sale of bottled water in their sectors. Will your institution be next?

It’s time to stand up and speak out, ditch the bottle and turn on the tap! Join the Canadian Federation of Students, the Sierra Youth Coalition and the Polaris Institute this March 11 for Canada’s first Bottled Water Free Day! Visit bottledwaterfreeday.ca to take the pledge and make today the first day of your bottled water free life!

via United Steelworkers, District 3

Every year in British Columbia about 160 workers die on the job. Across Canada there are about 1,000 workplace fatalities annually and well over 300,000 lost-time workplace injuries. Since 2004, that adds up to roughly 6,000 workplace deaths and close to 2,000,000 injuries.

2004 was an important year: it was the year that Bill C45 was enacted. Termed the Westray Act after the horrible mine explosion in Nova Scotia that killed 26 miners in 1994, the new law was 10 years in the making.

Years of lobbying by the United Steelworkers finally convinced all parties in the House of Commons to amend the Criminal Code of Canada to legislate criminal prosecutions of corporate executives, directors and managers whose actions prove willfully negligent in neglecting their responsibilities to make and keep workplaces healthy and safe.

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Spotlight on International Women’s Day – The struggle continues, women still fighting for equality and human rights

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the first international women’s conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which lead to the creation of International Women’s Day. The day had been celebrated in many countries since the mid-1800s. But in 1910, women made the day a part of a worldwide movement and haven’t looked back since.

March 8 also represents the 40 year anniversary of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women – the first Canada-wide investigation into women’s equality, which made recommendations that women are still fighting for today. Canadian women have seen many victories over the last four decades, including constitutional rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, paid maternity leave and laws that ensure equal pay for work of equal value.

In addition, Canadian women played a significant role in ensuring that women’s rights and gender equality are included in international agreements such as the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women.

But even though women have seen many improvements over the last 40 years, there is still much work to be done. Since the election of Stephen Harper’s Conservative government in 2006, women have seen their rights rolled back or denied.

Read more of the Union Update spotlight on IWD at the national website.

OTTAWA – The largest union of federal public-sector workers is poised to mobilize against cuts in public sector programs and operations and to apply pressure on Parliament to reject the federal budget.

“This budget is a clear attack against quality public services,” says John Gordon, the national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “The freeze on public-sector operation budgets, combined with an increase in deregulation and free trade, will further weaken the economy and hurt Canadians.”

Gordon argues that freezing the operation spending of government departments will mean significant reductions to the quality of public services that Canadians need in an economy that’s, at best, still undergoing a fragile recovery. Spending freezes, more expenditure review and deregulation will also mean job losses in the federal public sector.

“This runs counter to the government’s stated goal of job creation and economic growth,” Gordon says. “With this budget, the government is compromising the food we eat, the health of our environment, transportation safety and the public services that the people in Canada rely on everyday.”

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In the week before International Women’s Day, the Canadian Labour Congress is launching an email campaign to let the Members of Parliament who voted in favour of scrapping Canada’s long gun registry know that this is the wrong thing to do!

Why is scrapping the gun registry the wrong thing to do? Among other things, it’s about violence against women.

More women in Canada are killed by their intimate partners than are killed by strangers – 65% of women murder victims are murdered by their intimate partners. In contrast, men are more likely to be killed by strangers, with only 15% of male homicides committed by their intimate partners. Most women are killed in their own homes – an Ontario study of risk factors of domestic violence found that possession or access to a firearm was the fourth most serious risk factor after marriage breakup, depression and a history of domestic violence.

In 1991 Canada brought in stricter gun control regulations, and also introduced the gun registry legislation in 1995.

The new laws focused on strengthening controls on rifles and shotguns – not just registering long guns but also strict regulations on the storage of these weapons. Since 1991 the overall rate of homicides with firearms (including handguns) in Canada is down by 40%. But the rate of homicides with rifles and shotguns has plummeted – a decrease of 70% in the same period. The number of women murdered by guns has fallen from 85 in 1991 to 24 in 2004.

In BC, Dona Cadman is one of the urban Conservative MPs who voted in favour of abolishing the registry. Please take a moment to visit the CLC website and send her an email asking her to change her mind.

Last June the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (the Board) allowed a section 18 application by the PSAC. This resulted in additional YVR employees being moved into the PSAC/UCTE bargaining unit. As we reported last June this victory came as a result of a three year battle with the employer.

Following the issuance of the Board’s June decision, the employer had their legal folks file an “application for reconsideration” pursuant to section 18 of the Canada Labour Code (Code). The grounds for the reconsideration application were: “The Board breached the principles of natural justice and exceeded its jurisdiction by failing to consider relevant evidence in determining whether certain positions were properly included in the Union’s bargaining unit; and The Board breached the principles of natural justice by failing to provide adequate reasons for its decision.” The remedy requested was: “Conduct a full evidentiary hearing to determine anew the issue of the inclusions or exclusions of positions in the bargaining unit.”

In a decision dated March 2, 2010 the Board has refused to exercise its discretion pursuant to section 18 of the Code to review, rescind, amend, alter or vary either of their previous decisions (LD2148 & LD2172).

Specifically, the Board therefore refuses the request to hold a full evidentiary hearing to determine anew the issue of the inclusions or exclusions of positions in the bargaining unit; the Board dismisses the employer’s application, filed June 22, 2009, asking for a review of LD 2148 on the grounds that the applicant has not satisfied the Board that it breached any principles of natural justice in reaching or communicating its decision. Moreover, the Tracking Sheet does not constitute “new facts”; the Board dismisses the employer’s application, filed August 13, 2009, regarding LD 2172, on the grounds that the applicant has not satisfied the Board that it breached any principles of natural justice in reaching or communicating its decision.

The complete decision is available here (pdf).

Judging from the Throne Speech, the Harper government’s strategy for containing the deficit will focus on attacks against quality public services through spending freezes, more expenditure review and deregulation.

The speech was clear that the government plans to balance the budget by restraining federal program spending overall. It will do this by freezing the total amount that government departments spend on salaries, administration and overhead, and by aggressively undergoing a review of all departmental spending.

Continue reading John Gordon’s message regarding the Throne Speech at the national website.

The federal budget will probably talk about both short term measures and long term measures to slay the deficit. Some of those measures could involve direct attacks on federal public sector workers. Read more at the national website, and download the budget background documents on …

• Child care
• Debt and deficits
• Destroying public services
• A healthy economy
• Taxes and public services

OTTAWA –The head of the largest union representing federal public sector workers is urging the Harper government not to cut public services or attack federal pension plans in order to pay off the deficit.

“If the recession has shown us anything, it is that Canadians need and expect more services from their national government, not less,” said the national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, John Gordon, today during a press conference on Parliament Hill. “They expect safe food and drugs, their environment protected, their military and veterans supported and their human rights enforced.”

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In 1977, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution calling on member states to proclaim a day for women’s rights and international peace. Following the United Nations’ lead, Canada chose March 8 as International Women’s Day. Each year at this time, Canadians celebrate progress toward equality for women and their full participation, reflect on the challenges and barriers that remain, and consider future steps to achieving equality for all women, in all aspects of their lives.

Read more for a list of events and check back as more will be added.

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Please read the message from John Gordon regarding the PSAC Hands Off Our Pension campaign. It is important that we continue to put pressure on the Government by signing the petition, lobbying MPs, and attending meetings. Despite some media reports, our fight is not over – on Friday the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said “There are too many programs, employing too many people who, generally, get paid too well (when you include pay and lavish pensions)” – read the piece here at the Vancouver Sun – and the Financial Post called for the Harper government to put public service pensions “on the chopping block”.

So far in BC members have mailed back over 2000 signatures on the Hands Off Our Pension petition, and over 25,000 people have signed the national petition on-line. If you have a hard copy of the petition, please don’t forget to return it to the Vancouver Regional Office as soon as possible and if you haven’t signed the on-line petition, please take a moment to do so here.

We’ve also had very successful membership meetings in Vancouver, Kelowna, Comox and Abbotsford – over 400 members in total attended – and we have more scheduled for next week. PSAC members across the province have also been plant-gating their worksites and phoning, emailing, and visiting their MPs in person. If you would like more information regarding holding a meeting, or information on how to get involved in the campaign, please contact Garry Fraser in the Vancouver Regional Office, by phone (604) 430 5631 or by email fraserg@psac.com.

We must continue to tell the government to protect our pension and improve pensions for all Canadians.

Election of Officers/Annual General Meeting, Prince George PSAC Regional Women’s Committee

• Date: Sat., March 6th, 2010
• Place: Ramada Hotel, Alder Room
• Time: Immediately following the International Women’s Day Breakfast which will be approximately 10:30 or 11:00am

Agenda:

• Election of Officers
• IWD
• Regional Women’s Conference
• Round Table

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released the 2010 version of its Alternative Federal Budget. The budget is produced in collaboration with unions, including the PSAC, and other progressive groups and individuals. As its name suggests, the Alternative Federal Budget offers a different economic approach, one that supports strong public services and working people. Read more at the national website.

Speculation about what will be in the March 4 federal budget is rampant in the media. Some reports would lead us to believe that the Harper Conservatives will leave the federal pension plans alone.

So far, nothing PSAC has heard from Treasury Board President Stockwell Day would lead us to believe that we won’t have to continue to fight to protect the pension benefits our members in the federal public sector pay for.

Minister Day has made repeated references to the pension plan funds. At no time has he guaranteed federal public sector unions that the Conservative government will not reduce pension benefits and/or increase contribution rates.

Our pension campaign is in full swing and we are not letting rumours slow us down. I urge you to continue your hard work gathering signatures on our petitions to Stephen Harper. The willingness of our members to send a strong message to the government is critical if we are to succeed in getting the Conservatives to keep their hands off our pensions.

In solidarity, John Gordon, PSAC National President

source: Vancouver Sun, Feb 23

Re: Government pensions fair game, Feb. 18

In her column, Barbara Yaffe is critical of the federal public service pension plan and the level of employee contributions to it.

Federal public sector workers make significant contributions to their pensions in the form of deferred wages. By 2013, these contributions will make up about 40 per cent of the total cost of providing pension benefits. The real pension crisis in Canada is that most workers and pensioners are covered by inadequate defined-contribution pension plans or no workplace pension plan at all. In a defined-contribution plan, pension benefits are dependent on a number of things, such as the performance of markets and interest rates at retirement. All of the risk is put on the workers.

Defined-benefit plans collectivize risk and resources and ensure a decent, stable retirement income for seniors.

Our union believes defined-benefit pension plans in Canada should be supported by governments. We are also calling for significant improvements to public pensions in Canada: CPP benefits should be doubled by gradually increasing employer and employee contributions by three per cent and the Guaranteed Income Supplement of Old Age Security should be immediately increased by 15 per cent.

We can have a society in which no retired person is living in poverty through achievable, forward-thinking pension policies.

Kay Sinclair – B.C. Regional Executive Vice-President, Public Service Alliance of Canada