Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Members in Victoria recently had the opportunity to attend a Workplace Health & Public Safety Programme (WHPSP) Seminar put on by Health Canada. The seminar was designed to instruct members on the following issues:

* WHPSP’s “Occupational Health Assessment Guide” (OHAG)
* Treasury Board’s “Occupational Health Evaluation Standard”
* Health Canada’s WHPSP Health Assessment Services
* The other services WHPSP offers

For those of you that were unable to attend Health Canada has provided us with a copy of the following OHAG Workshop Powerpoint Presentation.

FVAC Minutes Dec 2007

Sharon McIvor is a member of the Lower Nicola Band, a practicing member of the Law Society of British Columbia, and a Professor of Aboriginal Law at Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, where she is on the executive of her trade union, the Federation of Post-Secondary Educators. For many years, Sharon McIvor has been a national leader in the Native Women’s Association of Canada and the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action.

Recently, in an unprecedented constitutional case, Sharon McIvor successfully challenged the continuing preferential treatment given to males and those whose Indian status is traced from male ancestors, as a violation of section 15, the equality guarantee of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

On June 7, 2007, in McIvor v. Canada, Judge Carol Ross of the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the federal government must remove sex discrimination from the determination of Indian status and restore equal Indian status to First Nations women and their descendants.

This is a ground-breaking decision that may affect the Indian status of more than 200,000 Aboriginal women and their descendants.

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Picket and Rally

Wednesday, January 30, 4 pm
Picket outside the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver (1075 W. Pender)

War and Occupation are a Health Crisis.

The Israeli occupation is a health crisis for Palestinians. In particular, the total siege by the Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza effectively detains Palestinian men, women and children in what amounts to a giant open air prison, creating a mounting health emergency by denying even the basic necessities of life. In addition to the Israeli-created public health crisis, Palestinians face arbitrary and criminal military violence from the Israeli occupiers.

The conditions in Gaza demonstrate clearly the criminal nature of the Israeli occupation:

Ongoing killings, assassinations and air attacks by Israeli occupation forces; already in January, 2008, Israeli occupying forces in Gaza have killed 26 Palestinians, including children and women, and wounded 44 others. This death toll does not include the countless others whose physical and mental health hangs in the balance of the siege.

Tens of thousands are denied access to safe water and sanitation as raw sewage runs through the streets. General scarcity of food, clean water, and fuel, resulting in malnutrition, disease are a public health clamity. Gaza is on the verge of a humanitarian, health and environmental crisis, threatening the lives of 1.5 million civilians.

Surgical operations and medical aid are suspended at hospitals due to lack of power and supplies, leaving patients languishing in need of medical attention. Furthermore, medical personal are unable to reach people due to the siege conditions.

Blockade of supplies for UN Relief and Works Agency which supplies over 900,000 Palestinians in refugee camp; humanitarian aid is suspended in a region where 85% of the Palestinian population depends upon humanitarian aid their basic needs for survival.

The U.S. and Canadian governments share culpability for this disaster as they continue to support the Israeli occupation. The U.S.A. provides billions of dollars in aid to Israel annually, much of it military aid. Meanwhile the Canadian government has over the last several years shifted to a position of essentially unconditional support for Israel at the U.N. and was the first government to cut humanitarian aid to Palestinians following their democratic election in 2006, punishment for not voting for the ‘correct’ representatives.

Peace, justice and health for Palestinians are impossible under conditions of occupation and siege. We must speak out! We must ACT NOW to break the siege and end the occupation.

Break the Siege on Gaza!

Canada & U.S. - stop supporting Israeli war crimes!

End the Israeli Occupation! Free Palestine!

Organized by the Health Now! Campaign, Alliance for Peoples Health, Al Awda – Palestinian Right of Return Coalition, International League of Peoples Struggles participating organizations in Vancouver (BC Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines, Grassroots Women, Ugnayan Ng Kabataang Pilipino Sa Canada/Filipino-Canadian Youth Alliance, SIKLAB, Bus Riders Union, Filipino Nurses Support Group), Free Ahmed Sa’adat Campaign.

Email contact.

Come celebrate the 20th anniversary of the historic Supreme Court decision that finally gave Canadian women true reproductive choice!

Monday, January 28, 2008, 6-10pm, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 W. Hastings St., Vancouver.

Featuring: Reception, cash bar, speaker’s panel, and new documentary film “Henry”.

Here is a poster with details.

For more info, contact jharthur@shaw.ca

Monday, February 11th at 5:00 at the PSAC office, #210 - 1497 Admirals Road.

The agenda for this meeting will include

• Election of Chairperson/Secretary/Treasurer
• Election of Delegate to the BC PSAC Regional Convention
• Budget for the 2008 fiscal year
• Event for International Women’s Day
• Information on Oxfam Canada

Recruitment rate drops as pool grows; critics call for penalties if government can’t reach hiring goals

Kathryn May, The Ottawa Citizen (Monday, January 14, 2008)

The federal government’s multimillion-dollar plan to hire and promote visible minorities has failed and it’s time to start imposing tough penalties if departments don’t meet hiring goals, critics say.

Despite the government’s push, visible minorities are losing ground in the public service, and their under-representation will only become more marked as their share of Canada’s population increases.

Staffing watchdog Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission, raised the alarm when she found the recruitment rate of visible minorities fell last year even though overall hiring in departments increased. Despite that hiring spree, recruitment of visible minorities dropped from 9.8 per cent to 8.7 per cent of all hires.

“I was optimistic we could close the gaps more rapidly. I had not expected that downturn and that is quite a significant downturn. … It means that we have reached a level that we seem to be getting into the public service and we are not going beyond that because all of our recruitment is going up and the proportion is not going up,” she told a Senate committee.

In a bid to catch up, Ms. Barrados has asked Statistics Canada to determine how many visible minorities departments will have to recruit “within a reasonable amount of time” so its workforce reflects Canada’s labour force. She also launched a series of surveys and reviews to determine why visible minorities can’t land jobs in the public service in anywhere near the large numbers that apply.

What’s worrisome is that this dip comes at a time when the number of foreign-born Canadians — who are mostly visible minorities — in the labour market continues to climb.

Last year’s census revealed Canada’s foreign-born population grew four times as fast as that of the Canadian-born population during the first half of this decade and accounts for nearly one in five people who live here, a 75-year high.

“One in five Canadians will be visible minorities by 2017. That’s like the population of Quebec, which brings a lot of social, economic and political power with it,” said Errol Mendes, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.

“This is as much about the economy and sustainability of the public service and the private sector has caught onto this much faster.”

Under Canada’s employment equity laws, the government must hire women, people with disabilities, aboriginals and visible minorities in proportion to their share of the labour force. Departments are only trailing in the hiring of visible minorities, who make up 10.4 per cent of the labour force but have 8.6 per cent of federal jobs. Women, people with disabilities and aboriginals are hired at rates higher than they represent in the labour force.

On paper, getting more racial minorities into the public service has been a federal priority since the Liberals approved targets in 2000 recommended by the Embracing Change task force. It called for one in five new hires to be a visible minority by 2003. Similarly, one in five promotions into the executive ranks was to be a visible minority by 2005.

But a recent Senate study found the government went backwards and only one in 10 new hires is a visible minority.

Many say the poor showing will ratchet the pressure for new targets and tough penalties to enforce them.

Fo Niemi, the director general of the Centre of Research-Action for Race Relations, said the problem is Canada’s laws and policies aren’t enforced and there are no consequences.

The Senate’s human rights committee echoed that criticism and urged a cut in pay for deputy ministers, such as withholding their performance bonuses, if departments don’t hire enough visible minorities. Mr. Niemi, however, said ministers should be “accountable” if departments fall short.

The Embracing Change targets, led by Lewis Perinbam, lost momentum and the Harper government has shown little enthusiasm in pursuing them. Ms. Barrados said those targets are now being reworked and will have to be increased to catch up with the growth of visible minorities in the labour market. (Mr. Perinbam, a longtime bureaucrat, died last month.)

Governments have been bedeviled why visible minorities don’t get more jobs because they show such high interest. The commission’s studies reveal they accounted for 25.7 per cent of applications, but have 10.5 per cent of the jobs. This discrepancy is larger in some regions, departments and occupations.

Visible minorities are also more educated than most applicants; half have bachelor degrees or higher. Language doesn’t seem to be a barrier, especially for entry jobs, and neither does the preference for Canadian citizenship.

Ms. Barrados said the commission has been studying the recruitment process for about a year to determine where visible minorities drop out. She said they meet the advertised job requirements; fill in all forms properly and sail through the first screening. She now plans to survey visible minority applicants to ask them why they don’t think they landed the jobs.

Mr. Niemi said he suspects the dropoff happens after the interviews, which are often done by panels without visible minority members. The public service has long been dominated by white men and people tend to hire those who look like them, the Senate report said.

“It’s natural for people to like to hire and retain those they are most comfortable with. That’s the natural rule of selection and why men hire male buddies and work with people from the same cultural group,” he said.

Deborah Gillis, vice-president of the research firm Catalyst, said her studies show visible minority managers, professionals and executives in the private sector feel excluded from relationships that often help people get ahead, such as those forged by networking or with mentors and role models. She said many don’t feel comfortable going for drinks, paying golf or to see hockey games, especially women. She said nearly half felt they were held to higher performance standards and said who you know was critical to getting ahead.

Ms. Barrados said the big problem is departments aren’t strategic in their personnel planning, which should include plans for visible minorities.

She said she hoped that would change now that departments have been ordered to publicly post staffing and business plans on websites by the end of March.

She said the fact that departments rely on term and casual workers as their main pool of talent for permanent jobs also affects the number of visible minorities. These short-term workers are typically hired locally, through networks or contacts. Once hired, they get the inside track on permanent jobs. Visible minorities, however, don’t have the same contacts and are also concentrated in big cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal.

© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

The next Vancouver & District Area Council meeting is one week away.  It’s scheduled for Tuesday, January 22, 2008. Dinner at 5:30, meeting to start at 6 pm.

Location: Vancouver RO Boardroom, #200 – 5238 Joyce Street, Vancouver, (1 ½ blocks south of the Joyce Street Skytrain Station)

Agenda:
- election of VAC delegate to the BC Regional Convention
- discussion on resolutions to be submitted to BC Regional Convention

If your local/branch has not yet paid its 2008 dues, please ensure it does so at this meeting in order to have full voice and vote during the election and discussions on resolutions. Dues are .50 per member, per year, and calculated only for the number of members who are in the area of Vancouver & District catchment area (this includes New Westminster, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver and Squamish). Cheques can be made payable to “PSAC Vancouver & District Area Council”.

Please RSVP to urrutim@psac-afpc.com to ensure that there is quorum and enough food for all!

See Poster.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008, 5:30 p.m.
PSAC Regional Office, 210-1497 Admirals Road

Agenda:
Election of Delegate to BC Regional Convention

Please RSVP to Rosemary at the Victoria Regional Office no later than January 28, 2008 at 953-1050 or mackenr@psac.com

Food will be served

The BC Fed Health & Safety Centre promotional video is now available on the WorkingTV website. Please have a look by clicking here.

Only Colombia is riskier for union organizers.

The Philippines provide a steady stream of hard working immigrants seeking a better life in British Columbia. For most of these newcomers, the pay may not stretch far, given the high cost of living here and, often, a chunk of the paycheque sent to help family back home.

• Send a message to the Philippine Government: stop the political killings! 

But at least in B.C., standing up for your rights on the job won’t get you killed.

Under the Arroyo government in the Philippines there has been a higher incidence of murders and assaults against union activists than during the notorious Marcos regime, according to a Philippine labour leader who recently toured Canada.

And an international study that reported a 25 per cent increase in murders of trade unionists around the world in 2006 says that the Philippines is the second most lethal environment for union activists globally, only topped for murder of union leaders by the blood stained record of Colombia.

Continue reading at thetyee.ca.

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, January 29/08, starting at 5:30 p.m., at the Knight & Day Restaurant located at 9677 King George Highway.  On the Agenda is choosing the delegate to the Regional PSAC Convention.

The next Vancouver Regional Women’s Committee meeting will be held on
Tuesday, January 22 @ 5:30PM
At the PSAC Satellite Office, 5128 Joyce Street
½ block south of the Joyce Street Skytrain Station (note different venue).

The agenda includes holding an election to send a delegate to the 2008 BC PSAC Regional Convention.
More agenda items to follow…

Please RSVP to the Vancouver RO - 604 430 5631 - if you plan on attending.

This is the official call for nominations for the position of Regional Executive Vice-President and Alternate Regional Executive Vice-President for the BC Region. Elections for these positions will be held at the BC Regional Convention in Vancouver, April 18-20, 2008.

As a result of a decision by delegates at the 2003 PSAC Convention, Regional Executive Vice-Presidents and their Alternates are elected in the regions, at their respective Regional Conventions. Any PSAC member in good standing in BC is entitled to run for these two positions. The nominator and the seconder must be delegates to the BC Convention.

As Regional Coordinator, I have been assigned the responsibility for sending out the call for nominations, receiving the nominations in advance of the Regional Convention, and working with the Nominations Committee at the Convention itself.

Here’s how the procedure will work, and what to do if you want to run for office.

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SIKLAB-CANADA READIES FOR THE INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS’ ALLIANCE; ENCOURAGES MIGRANTS IN CANADA TO JOIN

Filipino migrants in Canada are set to bring their fight for their rights to a new level.

SIKLAB-Canada, a national formation representing migrant Filipino workers, is readying for the historic launching of the International Migrants’ Alliance (IMA) in June 2008 in Hong Kong.

“There is an urgent need to form the IMA,” explains Roderrick Carreon, Chairperson of SIKLAB-Canada, “The issue of migration has become a global phenomenon and the focal point for much intense debate and discussion among academics and politicians on how to administer and manage international migration. It is now also time for those of us organizing around migrant rights to join together internationally to focus on the real lived experience and exploitation of migrant workers, the structures behind global migration, and the impacts of imperialist globalization,” continues Carreon.

There are over half a million Filipinos across Canada, the majority of whom are women who have entered the country as live-in domestic workers under the Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). SIKLAB is actively campaigning for the scrapping of the LCP calling the immigration program “anti-woman and racist”.

Under the LCP, migrant workers are required to live-in their employers’ home for 24 months, hold only temporary immigration status, and are tied to their employers because of the required employer-specific contracts under the program — conditions, which SIKLAB argues breed exploitation, abuse and oppression of Filipino migrant workers in Canada.

“We know that our community’s migration to Canada as cheap and expendable labour is shared by many other migrant and immigrant communities,” says Glecy Duran, Vice-Chairperson of SIKLAB-Canada, “Because we are here and legislated to perform low-wage and dangerous jobs that no other Canadians will perform, migrants of all nationalities, especially those of colour, share a common experience of exploitation. We need to unite,” adds Duran.

The objectives of the IMA are:

• To promote the rights, livelihood and welfare of migrants, refugees and displaced persons all over the world;
• To defend the interests of migrants, refugees and displaced persons from attacks of imperialist globalization and its lackeys;
• To forge coordinated and joint actions and plans in advancing the rights and well-being of im/migrants and refugees.
• To intensify campaigns for just wage, job security, against commodification and against criminalization of undocumented migrants and immigrants.
• Extend support and cooperation among the members.
• To further promote international solidarity and cooperation with progressive and genuine anti-imperialist organizations and alliances.

The IMA was initiated by the International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) Study Commission on Migrants and Immigrants, and aims to be a broad international formation of progressive and anti-imperialist migrant organizations of various nationalities.

As a convenor of the launching the IMA, SIKLAB-Canada is also inviting other like-minded organizations of migrants and immigrants in Canada to join the significant founding of the IMA.

For more information: SIKLAB-B.C.: Glecy Duran, siklab@kalayaancentre.net; 604-215-1103
–
SIKLAB-British Columbia
Advance the Rights and Welfare of Overseas Filipino Workers and Their Families
Member of SIKLAB-Canada
c/o Kalayaan Centre, 451 Powell Street, Vancouver, B.C., Canada, V6A 1G7
Phone: 604.215.1103 | Fax: 604.215.1905 | http://www.kalayaancentre.net

There is one part-time (50%) position available in BC for a Regional Political Communications Officer. This person will provide political and communications advice, assistance and support to the Regional Executive Vice-President (REVP) in her role as the political voice for the PSAC in this region and in her role as a member of the National Board of Directors (NBoD) and the Alliance Executive Committee (AEC).   See Job Poster for complete details.

Ontario turned over Ipperwash Provincial Park to a First Nation on Thursday, settling a long-standing aboriginal grievance in the province.

Read full article

In October, the PSAC postponed negotiations with Treasury Board that had been scheduled for December. We had to postpone the sessions because various departments are not meeting their legal obligations to provide the most basic information required to negotiate Essential Services Agreements (ESAs).

FB Complaint

PSAC filed a complaint on behalf of our Frontière/Border Services(FB) unit with the Public Service Staff Relations Board (PSLRB) against one of those departments, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA). As a first step to address our complaint against the CBSA, the PSLRB proposed mediation between the parties. The mediation hearing resulted in an agreement that CBSA would begin to provide the necessary information needed so the parties can enter into the negotiation of the ESA. The union is expecting the employer to provide the type and proportion of duties that the employer considers essential. From there, the parties are expected to determine the number of employees necessary to remain on the job in the event of a strike.

The Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise (CEUDA) and the CBSA met for the first time on December 10 and 11. Further meetings are scheduled for December 20 and 21 and January 9 and 10, 2008. CEUDA Branches have been or will be contacted for additional information in support of these negotiations.

ESAs for PA and SV units

PSAC will next focus on ESAs for the Program and Administrative Services (PA) and Operational Services (SV) bargaining units that need to be negotiated with some 45 different Departments. In most cases, Components and Departments have met and begun the ESA discussion and several ESAs have been signed. However, the union continues to experience difficulty receiving basic information from some Departments. Progress reports will be provided as we move forward with the negotiation of these agreements.

BC’s labour movement backs up support for locked-out Sears workers with $20,000 contribution to strike fund

BC’s unions are contributing $20,000 to locked-out Sears Canada workers today, says B.C. Federation of Labour Jim Sinclair, to underline labour’s determination to help them win a fair collective agreement.

“This contribution is intended to underline our call to consumers to refrain from shopping at Sears until this company negotiates a fair collective agreement with these members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 213,” Sinclair said. “Seventy-seven (77) workers who repair appliances for Sears have been locked out since October 1st, ordered to take pay cuts and face concessions on overtime and time off.”

Sinclair and other representatives of the Federation made the contribution during a lunchtime leafleting blitz outside the Vancouver store at Robson and Howe.

Sinclair said Sears, which had profits of $150 million last year, is taking a hard line with its workers that amounts to union-busting.  “This is unacceptable in this province and our boycott indicates labour’s rejection of this approach.”

Sinclair said the $20,000, collected from Federation affiliates in the last week, will help the union support its members during the Christmas season. During the past few days, IBEW has distributed flyers about the boycott to hundreds of thousands of homes in the province.

The labour movement in BC says shoppers have a choice to make during this busy holiday season.

“They’ve told them if they want to come back to work, they have to take less money in real terms than what they had before.” He says the company also took away their right to two days off in a row, and eliminated overtime when it imposed a contract.  “It’s completely unfair, and it’s just a question of deciding if you support these workers and their families, or Sears, which made $150 million last year in Canada.”

Sinclair claims Sears has a notoriously anti-union attitude, and believes the lock-out is an effort to break this union local.
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For more information, please call Geoff Meggs 604 220-3095.

Date:
Tuesday, January 22, 2008.
Time:
Dinner at 5:30, Meeting to Start at 6 pm
Location:
Vancouver RO Boardroom, #200 – 5238 Joyce Street, Vancouver, (1 ½ blocks south of the Joyce Street Skytrain Station)
Agenda:
- election of VAC delegate to the BC Regional Convention
- discussion on resolutions to be submitted to BC Regional Convention

If your local/branch has not yet paid its 2008 dues, please ensure it does so at this meeting, in order to have full voice and vote during the election and discussions on resolutions. Dues are .50 per member, per year, and calculated only for the number of members who are in the area of Vancouver & District catchment area.

For more information: www.psacbc.com or call 604-430-5631. Please RSVP to urrutim@psac-afpc.com as a light dinner will be served!

See Meeting Notice.