Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Attention to all members of the DD, EG, GT, PI, PY and TI pay groups.

• Your Bargaining Team encourages PSAC members to register for the automatic email update on the PSAC National Website.

Your TC Bargaining Team was in Ottawa from February 26 to 29 and continued negotiations with Treasury board.

As in earlier rounds, bargaining is being coordinated between the Treasury Board Tables, with each Table taking the lead on certain issues. So this session, our Table discussed the following issues:

• Article 20 – Harassment;
• Article 28 – Overtime;
• Article 29 – Call-back Pay;
• Article 30 – Standby;
• Article 31 – Reporting Pay;
• Article 34 – Traveling Time/Captive Time;
• Article 41 – Injury-on-duty Leave;
• Article 43 – Maternity Related Reassignment;
• Article 65 – Pay Administration (Acting Pay & Salary Protection);
• New Article – Pre-retirement Transition Leave;
• New Article 39.09 – Sick LWOP provision for extended absence.

The Employer responded to a number of items that we had tabled during the last session, and said NO to the following:

• Improved Call-back for workers at Percy Moore and Norway House Hospitals;
• Article 39.09 – Sick LWOP provision for an extended absence;
• Training to keep TI certification up-to-date (According to Treasury Board, the existing Employer-provided-training is sufficient)
• Inclusion of Ammo Techs in the Dangerous Goods Article (Treasury Board stated that DND informed them that the Ammo Techs are not accountable if something goes wrong, because they only handle the material and they are not certified under the TDG Act.)
• App K – Improvements to Diving Duty Allowance;
• Article 43 – Improvements to Maternity Related Reassignment;
• A new proposal to include on Pre-Retirement Transition Leave in the Collective Agreement.

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Members across the Province wore black last week in support of their bargaining teams. Cheers to Mandi Schubert, CEIU 20975 (Government Street Service Canada office, Victoria) for sending in these photos!

The next day of action to wear black is on the 19th! Contact your Treasury Board Area Strike coordinator for more information.

Click the thumbnails for a larger view!

Team Presents Thousands of Petition Signatures to CBSA at Bargaining Table, FB Workers at CBSA Send Clear Message to Management

This past week (Feb 25 - 29), our bargaining team met with CBSA/Treasury Board in an effort to bring the parties closer to a new contract. During the session, our team presented management with petitions containing well over 5,000 signatures from CBSA employees in support of our core demands in this round of bargaining for our first FB contract: Job Security in the context of the arming initiative, wages that meet the standards set by enforcement workers in other jurisdictions, respect for both our years of service and our work as union members, protection of Alternative Working Arrangements and safe working conditions for members with enforcement responsibilities. Our team explained to management that our members are determined to achieve a fair contract that addresses these concerns. The employer’s team committed to deliver the petitions to senior CBSA administration this week.

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Our PA and EB Treasury Board bargaining teams are at the table this week!

This week: The TB-Regional Coordinating Committee for B.C. Region is encouraging all Treasury Board members to wear anything black on pay days to show support for your bargaining teams. Help spread the word, support your bargaining teams! Send in photos for web posting.

If you want to keep up to date on what activities are going on for TB bargaining in the B.C. region and nationally please sign up for our regional list-serve.

Here are a few photos of PSAC events & activities over the last month …

Members at the Service Canada office in Nelson supported their TB bargaining teams last week, click the thumbnails for a larger view. Cheers to Sheila Pearce, Treasury Board Area Strike Coordinator for the South Kootenays, for the photos. Visit this webpage to find out how to keep up to date with TB bargaining, or send a message to your TB strike coordinator.

Members of CEIU Local 20975 - the Victoria Service Canada office - held their AGM, and re-elected Mandi Schubert as the President. Congratulations Mandi, and thanks for the photos!

The PSAC Regional Staff conference took place last week in Victoria. The Director of the Regional Offices Branch, Penny Bertrand (in black) presented Dave Jackson and Janet Routledge with their long service pins - 20 and 30 years respectively!

If you want to keep up to date on what activities are going on for TB bargaining in the B.C. region and nationally please sign up for our regional list-serve here.

There is also have a link dedicated to TB bargaining on our regional website - look for !
This week: TB-Area Coordinators are distributing an info flyer on current negotiations. Please help get these flyers out to your members, Union boards, lunch rooms. Help spread the word, support your bargaining teams!

In Solidarity, Monica Urrutia, TB-RSC for BC Mainland

Your Bargaining Team was disappointed, in this week of negotiations, by the employer’s lack of understanding of the need to have meaningful negotiation on the priority issues. It is clear that the employer is not ready or willing to negotiate a collective agreement after their statement that all demands carry equal weight in terms of importance.

Your Team was also frustrated as the employer continuously focused on grammatical changes instead of the key issues such as:

* Seasonal and term employment
* No contracting out
* Wages
* The return to the National Joint Council
* No Zones
* Misuse of student program

The Bargaining Team unanimously agreed that it is left with no choice but to apply for conciliation to get the process back on track, with the goal of achieving a fair and just collective agreement that addresses all of the bargaining unit’s priority issues.

For more information on Parks collective bargaining and to find out how you can participate in mobilization activities, please contact your Bargaining Team member, your local executive, or the PSAC local regional office, or visit our website.

We’ll be sure to update as things progress.

Progress slow at PA bargaining table after another four days of talks

PSAC was back at the table in negotiations for the Program and Administrative Services (PA) unit from February 5 to 8. As of the end of this session, our PA team has tabled all of the union’s demands with the exception of the wage package.

Employer demands more shift work

Hours of work have been the subject of much discussion in this round of bargaining and the last session was no exception. While we have heard in the past that the employer wants to create special hours of work for Service Canada members, this time the discussion included the WP and IS groups who are currently excluded from shift work. The employer is demanding the right to change members in the WP and IS groups, as well as those at Service Canada, into shift workers.

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The Issues: Quality jobs, quality public service

Parks Canada Agency’s mandate is to protect and present nationally significant examples of Canada’s natural and cultural heritage on behalf of all Canadians. The Agency meets this mandate through the work of PSAC members. Parks workers are committed to preserving an important part of Canada’s heritage and to keeping visitors to national parks, canals and historic sites safe and well informed.

However, many of our jobs have been or are under threat of being contracted out. The quality of our jobs is deteriorating as the Employer takes advantage of our most vulnerable members: the term and seasonal work-ers. The work of our members is a valuable public service to Canadians. To defend the quality of this service means to defend the quality of our jobs.

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Parks Canada Agency puts up wall at bargaining, union ready to tear it down

From January 28 to February 1, 2008, your bargaining team faced an inflexible Employer across the table as the last of our demands were tabled. Important issues, such as “no contracting out,” the elimination of pay zones and pay increases, among others, either got a “No” from the Employer or a “We’ll get back to you on that in the next round.”

• Sign up for BC Parks Negotiations email bulletins

Your team was also encouraged and felt they had the members’ full support as it heard reports of the success of the plantgating by members across the country. The flyer on the “Student Hiring” issue elicited a response from the Employer entitled “Setting the Record Straight.” Our members, however, were not fooled by the so-called “facts” that the Employer claims, knowing full well that what we experience in the field and what we hear them say at the negotiating table fully contradict what they say in this paper. Our members know that the Employer is hiring students as flexible and cheap labour to do bargaining unit work.

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Frustrating negotiations for EB group

Four full days of bargaining with Treasury Board last week left members of the EB Table feeling disappointed and wondering if their management counterparts have a mandate to bargain.

Your team was able to sign off on the existing hours of work for librarians, language teachers, and employees in the ED-EDS classification, after the Employer dropped a demand (dealt with at the PA table) to expand the hours of a normal work day to between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. And the EB team also withdrew a Travelling Time proposal dealing with child and elder care, acknowledging that the issue is more appropriately dealt with at the National Joint Council.

But that was where the progress ended. The Employer has said no to our demand to improve bereavement leave to five working days from five consecutive days, in the case of a death in the immediate family. They have said no to our proposal to remove the cap on the amount of vacation pay that can be carried over from year to year.

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Your TC bargaining Team was in Ottawa from January 28 to February 03. We met with the Employer to table more proposals and provide further information on other items previously submitted.

• See all TB bargaining updates.
• Sign up for regional TB bargaining updates by email
• Contact your Area/Hub Strike Coordinator here.

As in earlier rounds, bargaining is being coordinated between the Treasury Board Tables, with each Table taking the lead on certain issues. Table TC has the lead on:

• Article 29 – Call-back Pay;
• Article 30 – Standby;
• Article 31 – Reporting Pay;
• Article 34.09 – Captive Time – also to include appropriate appendices;
• Article 41 – Injury-on-duty Leave;
• Article 65.07 – Acting Pay;
• New Article – Pre-retirement Transition Leave;
• New Article 39.09 – Sick LWOP provision for extended absence;
• Various articles involving Compensatory Leave.

We also share the lead on Work Force Adjustment (WFA) with Table SV. We have tabled language on all of the above demands except for WFA.

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CBSA/Treasury Board to provide responses to key bargaining demands at the end of the month

Our elected FB Bargaining Team met with Treasury Board/CBSA from January 28 to February 1, in an effort to bring the parties closer to a new contract. At the outset of the session, our team expressed frustration over Treasury Board’s position in the compensation study that our Union withdrew from in December. Our team indicated that the jobs that management was comparing our work to in the proposed study demonstrated a fundamental lack of appreciation and respect for the work that we do as enforcement workers.

Our team also indicated our frustration with CBSA/Treasury Board’s lack of progress on the key issues that we have raised in this round. In response, management expressed a commitment to take the time to discuss the key issues with us in good faith. Over the course of the week, we discussed job security in the context of the arming initiative, alternative working arrangements, protection of bargaining unit work, seniority rights and paid investigatory suspension language. We indicated that other federal workers have these things and we deserve no less.

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Your SV Team was in Ottawa from January 29 to February 1, 2008, to meet with the Employer.Our efforts this week focused on pay zones and the apprenticeship issue. On Article 44, Maternity-Related Reassignment or Leave, the SV group experiences unique work issues around finding alternate work for pregnant and nursing members in workplaces that are hazardous or where the nature of the work poses a health threat to the members.

Ongoing discussions continued on allowances that included height pay, transportation of dangerous goods, NERT and dirty work. Talks centred on broadening the scope of allowances, as well as the method of their payment.

There were meaningful discussions on the apprenticeship issue, with movement on the Employer’s part to entertain this issue.

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A quick update:

The initial meeting between the PSAC/CFIA negotiating team and the employer are scheduled to take place on January 15th and 16th in Ottawa. Notice to bargain was served on the employer on September 28, 2007.

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.

To provide an opportunity for PSAC members to meet and discuss this round of TB bargaining, we are planning to hold info sessions on the following dates and locations.

If you are unable to come to the meeting, sign up for Treasury Board bargaining alerts and find out how to contact your Area Coordinator at the regional website: www.psacbc.com/tb-regional/

FB UNIT MEMBERS:
Meet Morgan Gay, PSAC Negotiator for the FB Group and Carolyn McGillivray, FB member negotiator
December 11th, 2007, 11:30AM - 1PM
Sandman Hotel, 180 West Georgia St.
Ballroom

PA UNIT (TABLE 1) MEMBERS:
Meet Megan Adam, PA member negotiator
December 12th, 2007, 11:30AM - 1PM
Vancouver Public Library
Peter McKay room

TB Info Sessions Poster

OTTAWA - A strong majority of Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members have voted in favour of accepting a tentative agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency. The settlement had been negotiated before the expiry date of the old agreement, a remarkable achievement in the federal public sector.

“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.

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Your team listens to the members

The TC Bargaining Team was in Ottawa from November 02 to the 09. During this session the team continued to gather information from the members in support of their proposals.

The team also met with the other Bargaining Teams to brief each other on the status of the team negotiations, to discuss the recent CRA tentative settlement, and the postponement of the December bargaining sessions and to clarify who would be the lead tables for our coordinated list of demands.

Starting Tuesday November 6 to Friday November 9, the team had meetings with the employer where we discussed proposals including the following items: compensatory leave, NJC agreements, sexual harassment, call back, standby, reporting pay, travel status leave, leave general, transfer of leave credits, injury on duty leave, and a new pre-retirement transition leave.

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The PSAC bargaining team for the EB Group met with the Employer from November 6 to 9, 2007

The Employer did not respond favourably to our proposals to improve bereavement leave. We are asking for leave of five working days when there is a death in the immediate family, and we are trying to improve the discretionary leave for bereavement-related travel to five days from three. We are also proposing to increase bereavement leave provisions dealing with extended family members and to add co-workers and close friends to the list.

Moreover, we are seeking to have the Employer recognize the special leave requirements for those who have traditional bereavement responsibilities in aboriginal communities.

We are disappointed to report that the Employer also turned down our proposal to include gender identity and expression, as well as political activity, in the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination, despite a passionate presentation in which we invited Treasury Board to join us in making a powerful statement opposing discrimination of all kinds in the workplace. This demand as well as our bereavement leave proposals remain on the table.

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