Your CRA BC Regional Strike Committee:

• Pamela Abbott, UTE Regional Vice-President and Bargaining Team member
• Robert Hume, UTE Alternate Regional Vice-President
• Kurt Munger, UTE 20002
• Alex Cook, UTE 20003
• Terry Ruyter, UTE 20007
• Sharon Hickey, UTE 20026
• Janet Graham, UTE 20027
• Wayne Little, UTE 20028
• Johann Ackermann, UTE 20029
• Richard Hyatt, UTE 20050

Check back here at the regional website, or sign up for email bargaining updates at the UTE website and keep up to date with CRA Bargaining!

The directive, issued Feb. 26, ordered managers to:

• deny all requests to post petition sheets
• deny all requests to distribute the petition electronically
• prevent employees who serve the public from wearing stickers

“We consider this Directive to be censoring and an outright violation of union members’ freedom of expression and association,” said John Gordon.

Did your employer take down PSAC petitions or otherwise interfere in the pension campaign? Let us know.

The grievance alleges the directive violates Use of employer facilities and No discrimination provisions in the following collective agreements:

• Program and Administrative Services;
• Operational Services;
• Technical Services;
• Education and Library Science;
• Border Services;
• Canada Revenue Agency;
• Parks; and
• Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

“We need to hear from PSAC members in these workplaces to determine the extent of the damage the employer caused with this directive,” Gordon said. “If there was an incident in your workplace, let us know.”

Grievance time lines are one of the most important elements of problem solving. If we miss the initial filing of a grievance or the transmittal of grievances between levels we shortchange one or more of our members. In order to avoid this happening we have updated and posted several grievance time line flowcharts, more will follow for other bargaining units.

• Purolator Courier grievance flowchart (pdf)
• CRA grievance flowchart (pdf)
• CFIA grievance flowchart (pdf)
• Canada Post grievance flowchart (pdf)
• YVR grievance flowchart (pdf)
• Treasury Board grievance flowchart (pdf)
• Stats Canada grievance flowchart (pdf)
• YYJ grievance flowchart (pdf)

“While we achieved an agreement in record time, we did not sacrifice important demands in the process,” says PSAC national president John Gordon. “Significant gains were made in wages, job security for term workers and improved benefits for part-time workers.”

According to Betty Bannon, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) Component of the PSAC, members have been impressed with the speed of the negotiations. “We achieved a goal the union set when the Agency was first formed, to eventually be able to negotiate a new agreement before the old one had expired.”

This agreement sees the conversion of former classifications in the bargaining unit to a new Agency classification standard. While the amounts will vary by individual, the average increase as a result of the conversion is 1.67%. After the salaries are converted to the new standard effective November 1, the workers will also receive an economic increase of 2.5%. Further wage increases during the life of the contract are 2.5% effective November 1, 2008 and 2.5% effective November 1, 2009.

Over 400 term workers will immediately see a change in their status as a result of a change in the Agency’s term employment policy. Effective November 1, 2007 term workers who have accumulated five years of service, without a break of 30 days or more anytime during the accumulation of this service, will automatically become indeterminate.

Part-time workers will now enjoy enhanced benefits including improved overtime provisions. Overall, there are also improvements to personal and bereavement leaves and some improvement in vacation leave.

PSAC served notice to bargain and exchanged bargaining demands with the CRA at the beginning of July. The union was able to reach a tentative agreement by conducting intensive negotiations over a total period of just under 20 days.

PSAC represents 26,000 workers at CRA. The new agreement, which will expire on October 31, 2010, is being signed on December 3.

Dates and locations for other cities will be posted as they become available.

Details of the tentative agreement can be found in these documents:

• PSAC ratification kit (PDF, revised Oct. 29)
• Article 18 – Grievance Procedure (HTML/PDF)
• CRA Term Employment Policy (HTML/PDF)
• PSAC news release (HTML/PDF)

“Negotiating a new contract before the old one has expired is virtually unheard of in the federal public sector,” says PSAC National President John Gordon. “In this case, both negotiating teams were focused on reaching a new agreement and we have achieved this in record time.”

• CRA Bargaining update, ratification kit & other details available here.

The union served notice to bargain and exchanged bargaining demands with the CRA at the beginning of July. Intense negotiations took place over a two-week period in September and resumed in mid-October.

“Our negotiating team is making a unanimous recommendation of acceptance to our members,” says Gordon. “The speed of these negotiations did not affect our ability to achieve important gains.”

During this round of bargaining, the parties were negotiating the conversion to a new Agency classification standard. While the amounts will vary by individual, the average increase as a result of the conversion is 1.67%. After the salaries are converted to the new standard effective November 1, the workers will also receive an economic increase of 2.5%. Further wage increases during the life of the contract are 2.5% effective November 1, 2008 and 2.5% effective November 1, 2009.

The union was also successful in negotiating changes to the Agency’s policy on term workers. Effective November 1, 2007 term workers who have accumulated five years of service, without a break of 30 days or more anytime during the accumulation of this service, will automatically become indeterminate. This will have an immediate impact on over 400 workers.

The tentative agreement also provides enhanced benefits for part-time workers including improved overtime provisions, as well as overall gains in personal and bereavement leaves and some improvement in vacation leave.

According to Betty Bannon, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) component of the PSAC, the union wanted to set a new standard for bargaining. “From the beginning, our goal has been to avoid having a long gap between the expiry of one agreement and the conclusion of a new one and this time we’ve done it.”

The union will be conducting a ratification vote among the 26,000 PSAC members at the Agency during the month of November. If ratified, the new agreement will expire on October 31, 2010.

Arrangements are being made for meetings to conduct a vote on the tentative agreement between the PSAC and the Canada Revenue Agency. More information will follow at a later date.

Details of the tentative agreement can be found in these documents:

• PSAC ratification kit
• Article 18 – Grievance Procedure
• CRA Term Employment Policy
• PSAC news release

Your team has now received responses from the employer on all outstanding issues. We’re continuing to work hard to achieve a settlement.

We’re getting there with your help

Your bargaining team can’t say thank you enough to our members who have been organizing the plantgating, wearing stickers and coming up with other great ideas to show their support. Members have even been braving sub zero temperatures in some locations to distribute stickers and daily bulletins.

There isn’t space to acknowledge everyone but here are some of the activities that have been taking place this week. In Trois Rivières, in addition to wearing “Deliver the Deal” stickers, 98% of the Local members wore blue jeans and red shirts and sweaters on October 15 to show their support for their team. One of our Locals in Toronto delivered balloons decorated with the “Deliver the Deal” stickers to their Director. In Sudbury, the Local distributed PSAC kit folders with the sticker and asked members to use them in the workplace and at meetings to show