From the beginning, PSAC has been very clear that any and all issues regarding the arming initiative must first be discussed at the bargaining table.

PSAC confirmed this position in a July 15 letter sent to Parks Canada Agency and, on behalf of Parks Canada, Andrew Campbell responded on July 18 affirming that the arming initiative will be discussed at the bargaining table.

The arming initiative is complex because it involves both “terms and conditions of employment,” which should be dealt with at the bargaining table, and health and safety issues that should be addressed by the National Occupational Safety and Health (NOSH) committee.

However, it is for the bargaining teams to discuss and determine which issues are properly issues for the bargaining table and which issues are more properly issues for NOSH committee discussions.

Your bargaining team will be focused on all of your high priority issues when we begin mediation Monday, September 29.

Continue to support your bargaining team and participate in the many activities planned for this summer.

For information on these activities please contact your regional office or a bargaining team member.

Be clear Be loud Be determined! Tell the Employer: We Want An Agreement

Under the new Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) the union and the employer must determine which positions will be considered “essential services” in the event of a strike. Right now, your union and the employer are disputing the very definition of essential services. Basically, the two parties are in disagreement over this fundamental issue: whether recreational services, facilities and activities at Parks Canada Agency constitute essential services as defined by the PSLRA. They need a ruling on this issue from the Public Service Labour Relations Board (the Board) before they can finalize the Essential Services Agreement.

Hearings before the Board are scheduled for the week of August 11, 2008.

Why is this important?

Essential Service Agreements (ESAs) play a critical role in the bargaining process because they directly affect what we can do next. While the goal of our bargaining team is to negotiate a fair settlement at the table, there is no guarantee that they can do so.

For example, it might be necessary to conduct a strike in order to obtain a fair settlement. Under the new rules, no bargaining unit may conduct a legal strike until 30 clear days have passed after the ESA for that bargaining unit has been signed off.

PSAC is negotiating ESAs for the first time under the PSLRA. This new scheme replaces the old designation process and it means that we have to negotiate all the ESAs one position at a time.

Under the new rules we have one chance to negotiate ESAs that will stay in place for future rounds of negotiations so we need to get it right the first time.
All of our members’ work is valuable

The PSAC recognizes and respects that all of our members, including those at Parks Canada, perform valuable work for the people of Canada. At the same time, we recognize that some of our members provide services that are necessary to ensure the safety and security of the public and of our members themselves. However, we also recognize that our members have the legal right to take strike action.

Not every function qualifies as essential

The legislation defines an “essential service” as “a service, facility or activity of the Government of Canada that is or will be, at any time, necessary for the safety or security of the public or a segment of the public”.

While the PSLRA is new, the principles of essential services are similar to the former legislation under which we negotiated. From our previous experience with the former Staff Relations Board, we expect some similar decisions on essential services, such as:

• Inconvenience to the public” is not a valid consideration for determining essential services.
• Technically, duties that would protect the employer or the public from economic hardship are not considered essential to safety or security. However, there have been some cases where the provision of income maintenance, such as CPP or OAS, has been considered an essential service.
• The mental, psychological or emotional state of individuals is not covered by safety/security to the public.
• “Safety or security” can also relate to future situations.
• The term “public” is to be given a broad meaning. It includes employees and inmates.

Parks Canada Agency has proposed over 1,300 positions to be considered essential. We believe that they are basing these proposals on the assumption that recreational services provided by Parks Canada, such as maintaining and operating camp grounds or interpreting natural and historic sites to visitors, would continue to be provided to the public in the event of a strike.

However, your union takes the position that these recreational services are not essential services and may be suspended during a strike without jeopardizing the safety and security of the public. Accordingly, the union is disputing a majority of the positions proposed by Parks Canada and including only those positions necessary to ensure the safety and security of the public. The union’s position is that this fundamental issue has to be resolved before the parties can move forward in negotiating the ESA.

Updates on the progress of the ESA negotiations will be posted on the PSAC website.

Your bargaining team believes that mediation is premature because the parties are far from resolving the substantive issues and that the employer has not even addressed the critically important issues, including the arming initiative.

The employer’s application for mediation to the Public Service Labour Relations Board came after seven days of fruitless negotiations that began on May 5.

Your bargaining team had agreed to return to the table at the request of Parks Canada Agency and after it had publicly announced that they wanted to return to the bargaining to address all of our important bargaining demands. Your team had made the commitment to you that they would remain at the table in an effort to reach a fair and just collective agreement.

Unfortunately, as in the previous bargaining sessions that began more than a year ago, the Agency refused to negotiate some of our high priority issues.  These issues include no contracting out, the privatization of parks services and the downsizing of the bargaining unit. The Agency also did not bring up the arming initiative before it walked away from the table.

We have sent two letters to the Board saying that we believe the employer should return to the bargaining table and bargain in good faith to reach a fair collective agreement.  We stated clearly to the Board that before entering into mediation, the Agency must provide all of the information we require on our important issues, including no contracting out, work of the bargaining unit, privatization and downsizing, and the arming initiative. Although the Board has said that it intends to appoint a mediator, this has not happened, and we are still waiting for the Board’s response.
It is unfortunate that Parks Canada Agency continues to engage in activities that prevent your bargaining team from negotiating a collective agreement.

We urge you to continue to support your bargaining team. Through ongoing activities this summer, send a strong message to Parks Canada that they must return to the bargaining table and negotiate.

In Downtown Vancouver, meet in front of Canada Place for music, speakers and food from 12 noon - 1PM. Look for the PSAC banners! Show your support for Public Services and your Bargaining Teams! Wear your “I Support My Bargaining Team” tattoo or sticker and enjoy a free hot dog!

In Metro Vancouver members are going to a Bargaining, BBQ and Baseball event at Nat Bailey Stadium. They’ll hear about negotiations, share a meal, and enjoy a Vancouver Canadians game afterwards!

The South Kootenays is encouraging members to dress in ratty clothes to demonstrate how poorly they are paid.

In the Service Canada site in Prince George members will be in beach wear with “We deserve better” buttons and balloons and “I Support my bargaining team” tattoos and stickers at its National Public Service Week breakfast.

Fraser Valley is distributing peanuts, symbolizing what they think of the employer’s pay offer and giving out bargaining information to the members.

There will be a Union Pizza Day lunch at both Service Canada Sites in Kamloops and Salmon Arm. In Kamloops they are asking members to wear green that day (Show us some green) and will have green balloons with I Support my Bargaining Team stickers.

If there are no events near you initiate your own!

There are plenty of things you can do to show your support! Download our “Things to Do” flyer (.pdf)

Send a message to your MP! Sign a Think Public postcard and make sure your MP gets the message!

The union adds that the employer’s inflexibility on its meagre wage offer, on the elimination of pay zones and on closing the pay gap for Parks trade workers is a strong indication that the Agency is not taking negotiations seriously.

“After we reached impasse last February, the employer contacted us and asked us to return to the table because they said they were ready to respond seriously to our demands,” said the Public Service Alliance of Canada Regional Executive Vice-President for Atlantic, Jeannie Baldwin. “We came back to the table last week. After seven days of talks where they refused to budge from their positions, they walked away from bargaining and are now proposing mediation to which we don’t agree.”

Baldwin says in order for mediation to work, the two parties have to be close to an agreement, but this is not the case given that the employer refuses to deal with the major issues. “We want the employer to come back to the table and negotiate,” Baldwin says.

Contract negotiations began in May last year but reached impasse after 10 months when the employer refused to respond to the union’s major issues, including job security, contracting out, misuse of student hiring and wages. The PSAC filed for third-party conciliation, called Public Interest Commission, on April 21, 2008. The union had agreed to return to bargaining talks “without prejudice” on May 5.

The employer proposed a four-year collective agreement and tabled an offer of 2.1 per cent wage increase in the first year, two per cent in the second, 1.5 per cent in the third and 1.5 per cent in the fourth. The employer also rejected the union’s demand to eliminate regional pay zones, where the same work is paid differently according to geographical locations. The employer further refused the union’s demands for an increase in allowances.

“Their offer is less than half of what we were demanding for fair annual wage increases that would protect our members against inflation and reflect the current strength of the Canadian economy,” Baldwin said. “Not only has the employer failed to consider our position at the bargaining table, they’ve been misrepresenting our bargaining demands in communicating with our members and the public.”

Media articles have quoted Parks Canada Agency spokespeople saying the union’s demands for wage increase amount to a total of 47 per cent.

“That’s a total distortion of our demand,” says Baldwin. “Our proposal for wage increases includes demands to eliminate pay zones and to close the wage gaps identified in a pay study for our members working in trades. I don’t know what kind of calculations the employer is making, but even if you take all our demands into consideration, it would not amount to 47 per cent.”

The pay study by the firm Moreau-Sobeco in 2003 clearly indicates that the wages paid to Parks trades workers are much lower than those paid to other private and public workers doing similar work.

“The Agency and the federal public service sector are having problems with retaining employees,” Baldwin said. “The employer’s wage offer is a long way from solving this problem. We’re left with no choice now but to take action. The employer can expect our members to bring our message to UNESCO at the World Heritage events in Quebec city and at world heritage sites this summer.”

PSAC members at Parks Canada have been without a contract since August 2007.

After 23 days of negotiations it had become apparent to your Bargaining Team that the Agency would not address the important issues. Your Team broke off negotiations informing the Employer that the Team would begin the process of applying for Conciliation. Immediately the Agency claimed that your Bargaining Team walked away from the table before it had a chance to address the bargaining unit’s critical issues.

In an effort to secure the bargaining unit a fair and just collective agreement, your Team has agreed to return to the bargaining table to again offer the Employer the opportunity to negotiate the issues that are important to the bargaining unit. Your Team is cautiously hopeful that Parks Canada Agency intends to negotiate in good faith and to address the bargaining unit’s major concerns. The return to the bargaining table will not change your Bargaining Team’s decision to apply for Conciliation or any other actions that are necessary to move the Employer to deal with the critical issues.

Your Bargaining Team is determined to achieve a new collective agreement with the Agency. To find out how you can show your support for your Bargaining Team, contact your Local Union Executive, or any of the Regional Offices.

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.

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.

Contracting out

Parks Canada Agency continues to contract out bargaining unit work. However, reverting to private companies to deliver services is not a solution. The primary motive of private companies is to make profit. Putting profit before people has high social costs. The quality of jobs of the people who deliver public services, the quality of these services and the access to these services inevitably suffer.

Furthermore, experience and studies have proven that privatization and contracting-out actually end up cost-ing tax payers more.

Abuse of Term and Seasonal Workers

Term and Seasonal Workers, because of the nature of their status, do not enjoy the same level of job security as their indeterminate co-workers. Their job security is further threatened by the Employer’s abuse of student hiring. Many term and seasonal workers are concerned that they will not be renewed or recalled and will be replaced by students who are paid lower wages for doing bargaining-unit work. Our experience in the field and what our team hears at the bargaining table make the Employer’s position clear: They will use students as cheap and flexible labour to cut costs and undermine our bargaining-unit work.

The Union’s position

Our goals in these negotiations are clear: Protect bargaining unit work, protect the standards that we have won and defend quality public services. Our bargaining demands include:

a no-contracting-out clause

proposals designed to improve the working conditions and job security of seasonal and term employees

language which more clearly defines the appropriate use of student employment in the workplace.

What Union members can do

• Get involved in Union activities, such as plant-gating, attending meetings, or distributing Union materials (e.g. bulletins, Union stickers, etc.).
• Let your manager know that this is an important issue for you in this round of bargaining and that you support your bargaining team.
• Keep yourself updated regularly on our bargaining issues through these flyers and the PSAC web site and share the information.
• Sign up for BC Negotiations bulletins - You can sign up now on the regional web site – www.psacbc.com/parks-bulletins/ - to automatically receive negotiation updates as they are issued.