Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

What happens to our negotiations if a federal election is called?

PSAC currently has two weeks of negotiations scheduled for our PA, EB, SV and FB bargaining units; one week in September, one in October. The TC group is in the process of establishing dates for mediation this fall.

It is our intention to proceed with negotiations if an election is called. There are no legal restrictions that would prevent Treasury Board and other Agency employers from bargaining during an election period.

The union also intends to continue its negotiation of Essential Services Agreements, including hearings before the Public Service Labour Relations Board, during the election period, if one is called. There is no legal restriction that prevents the Board from continuing this work during a federal election.

Conducting a strike is prohibited when a federal election takes place. However, if an election is held this fall, this restriction will not affect our negotiations with Treasury Board, Parks Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The government we elect has a direct impact on our negotiations

PSAC members working in the federal public sector aren’t just electing a government, they’re electing their employer.

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With the summer drawing to an end PSAC members in BC were busy keeping bargaining front and centre while enjoying the weather … here are some photos & brief reports.

Throughout the summer members of CEIU Local 20961 are holding payday actions. They plan to continue until a collective agreement is reached.

On August 21, just before the Canada Post bargaining team returned to the table, members of UPCE Local 20101 working at the Main Post Office in Vancouver held a Day of Action barbecue - the day started out with cloudy skies but the blue sky and sun arrived at nooon. Members passed out “Stamp Out Deregulaton” leaflets to the public while members from CUPW, APOC and CUPE all showed their support.

On August 22 a small but spirited group of PSAC Young workers and their supporters came out to Trout Lake Park for some fun and barbeque.

Scroll down or click ‘continue reading’ for more, click on the thumbnails for a larger version, and click the photos to advance the slideshow.

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Your bargaining team, buoyed by membership support from coast to coast tabled a thoughtful and comprehensive offer of settlement with Canada Post this week.

The offer of settlement addresses the key priorities identified by you. They include:

• Monetary proposals to ensure a fair general wage increase
• Improvements in the Cost of Living Clause
• Improvements to the bilingual bonus, travel and meal allowances
• Improvements in medical benefit entitlements - Article 37
• Bargaining Unit Protection – Article 7
• Workload management improvements for those who work in Contact Centres – new language on Preparatory and Wrap Up time
• Pay and benefit entitlements for actual time worked – Article 4 for part-time workers and article 26.08 for all employees who work overtime
• Improvements in grievance language in Article 19
• Stronger anti-harassment language in Article 14
• Adequate funding for child care centres
• Family Related Leave Improvements in a variety of clauses in Article 42
• Protections against unreasonable measurement and surveillance of individual employees – new language
• Improvements in Appendix M dealing with the access to and provision of training for members who have received formal surplus notice

Your team is not prepared to negotiate any concessions and is interested in moving forward towards the goal of workplace fairness. Your team cannot achieve these goals without your help - support your bargaining team actively over the coming weeks! Canada Post is expected to respond to the union’s offer of settlement on Monday, August 25.

Your Bargaining team in front of the wall of member support — left to right: Seth Sazant, Andrew Baranowski, Erna Post, Richard des Lauriers, Hélène Arbique, René Fredeen and Larissa MacFadden.

The PSAC has applied for Conciliation on August 21, 2008.

At the last session with the BC Corps of Commissionaires held on July 7 and 8, 2008, the parties had tentatively agreed to continue negotiations on August 20 and 22, 2008. These dates were confirmed on August 2, 2008. However, the employer subsequently denied leave to a member of the bargaining team, preventing him to attend the meeting and these dates were cancelled.

These negotiations, for a first collective agreement, included two (2) bargaining units: approximately 40 Commissionaires performing work on behalf of the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) at Library Square and the Vancouver International Airport and 8 Commissionaires performing work on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the Seal Cove Coast Guard Base in Prince Rupert.

The application for Conciliation affects the CBSA unit only. The Seal Cove unit falls under different legislation. Therefore, the parties will now be negotiating the two (2) agreements separately.

A couple of months ago, the employer announced they had been notified by CBSA that their contract would end on March 31, 2009, and that a public bid would happen sometime this fall. The employer then imposed an arbitrary deadline for reaching an agreement with the Union. If a deal was in place by September 30th, the employer would be bidding on the work. If such a deal was not in place, the employer would not be bidding on the work. The Union is still hopeful that, with the assistance of a Conciliation Officer, an agreement is still possible.

We are currently in the process of scheduling membership meetings. More information will be provided at that time.

Over the summer months, your bargaining team has worked hard to make sure that your bargaining proposals have been fairly presented and fully understood by Canada Post. For its part, Canada Post has been reluctant to commit to any proposal of substance, and in fact, applied for conciliation before your team presented detailed financial proposals.

It is clear that Canada Post is not interested in seriously discussing the issues that matter to members. Without a doubt, Canada Post needs to change its approach if it wants to achieve a fair collective agreement that builds true workplace respect by contract expiry. Our contract will expire at the end of the month and, in addition to bargaining a fair wage increase, much work remains to be done.

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Your union is raring to get back to bargaining with Treasury Board with negotiations set to resume in the coming weeks.

The bargaining-session dates for each TB unit are as follows:

• FB – four days September 30 to October 3
• SV – four days September 30 to October 3
• EB – four days October 6 to 9
• PA – four days October 6 to 9
• Future dates to be determined by each team
• TC – The union is still in talks with the employer to establish dates for the TC bargaining unit. The dates will be posted once they are confirmed.

After a year of frustrations at the bargaining table, your union sincerely hopes the employer is now ready to seriously negotiate fair contracts and seriously address the issues of wage parity and contracting out.

Your union is determined to fight for fair wages and for protecting quality public services. We ask for your continued support. Visit this web site regularly for future updates on negotiations.

In June we distributed a list of summer suggestions (pdf) on how you can support your bargaining team and challenged people to check off as many support actions by Labour Day. Well, Labour Day is just three weeks away so take a peek and see (pdf), you probably have done more than you think!

You can check off three of the things today by:

• signing up for the Regional TB bargaining e-info bulletin
• writing to your Member of Parliament regarding the value of public services and the public servants who provide them
• helping get the word out about bargaining and Think Public! at some upcoming summer events by leafleting and gathering public support. Please contact one of our two summer students who are looking for volunteers to help them out until August 30. Ria can be contacted in the Vancouver RO or at rknishikawara@gmail.com and Jade can be contacted at jade.kennedy101@gmail.com or the Victoria RO.

We’ll be back to the bargaining table soon. Make sure your views are heard before then!

Canada Post applied for conciliation on August 6th. With this action, the employer has short-circuited the bargaining process by applying to a third party before the union had the opportunity to present a complete set of proposals.

What does this mean for the membership?

• Your bargaining team will continue to bargain in good faith
• Your bargaining team will ensure that your issues receive a fair hearing and the respect that they deserve

Note that the bargaining dates that were previously established by both parties will be adhered to. While your bargaining team is very displeased with the employer’s tactics, remember: Together we can make a difference.

PSAC/UPCE at Canada Post | Stronger Together

The impact of increased workloads due to restructuring (Bulletin #4) goes far beyond the workplace; it goes to the heart of how members try to balance increasing workloads with family obligations.

At the same time that members face workplace change, they are also coping with increased family demands brought about by cuts to education and to social and health services. Both younger and older UPCE members feel caught between the competing priorities of work and home. Recent research has shown that these ever increasing demands are pushing up stress levels and prompting the increased use of leave and more unplanned absences.

The result is that more and more employees — regardless of their length of service — need to take time off to care for parents and children. Our current agreement is not consistent with respect to these leave provisions. A minimum of two weeks leave without pay to care for pre-school age children is provided for. The minimums are higher for the care of older children but they are subject to operational requirements. Leave for elder care is similarly subject to operational requirements. Our contract should be consistent and provide us with the time that we need in order to care for our children and our parents. To begin to address this inconsistency, the bargaining team has tabled the following language with Canada Post:

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Our collective agreement with Canada Post guarantees extended benefits to our members, including coverage for prescription drugs, physiotherapy and dental care.

Canada Post would have PSAC members believe that our health and insurance benefits under Article 37 of the collective agreement make the employer uncompetitive compared to other companies that do the same work.

Is this true? Not really.

Canada Post’s current benefit costs are similar to the payroll costs of other large employers. The company will realize significant tax savings once changes to the Alberta provincial health plan come into effect in 2009. PSAC/UPCE’s membership represents approximately 4 per cent of Canada Post’s total payroll. This means that the total benefit plan costs of PSAC/UPCE members are not as critical in affecting the company’s bottom line.

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Our national bargaining team met with Canada Post from July 22 to July 25.

Most of the unions’ proposals with the exception of monetary items have been discussed at least once during this week of bargaining. Some priority items such as leave entitlements, bargaining unit work, hours of work, contact centre proposals and staffing have been discussed several times to date.

Canada Post tabled an initial proposal on dental health and vision care. Because PSAC/UPCE and Canada Post will not be discussing monetary items until the next set of bargaining dates in August, these proposals are not complete and will remain confidential until all of the appropriate information has been received and bargained between the parties.

Canada Post also tabled proposals that would fundamentally alter the current bidding and scheduling practices for contact centre workers. These concessionary proposals were immediately rejected by your bargaining team.

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Following a May 9 announcement by Parks Canada Agency that it intends to arm 100 Parks employees, the Parks bargaining team walked away from the table on May 11 without discussing this very important issue with your bargaining team.

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.

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Since PSAC signed the collective agreement with Canada Post four years ago, there have been a lot of changes in the way that work is organized and who does that work. The drive for “increased flexibility” has led to reorganization, increased use of term and casual employees and duties being moved outside the bargaining unit.

In 2006, Human Resource Management (HRM) and Production and Control Reporting (PCR) were reorganized and new reporting systems were introduced. Canada Post’s expectations increased, workloads increased and yet fewer people were left to do more complicated work. For example, in 2002, 50 jobs were created in Montreal to handle increased workloads and now only 17 people remain in those positions. The workload has not decreased.

Members are now finding that they have to monitor and correct work that is being done outside of the bargaining unit. This work used to be part of their job.

While PSAC recognizes that there may be some situations that call for term or casual staffing, the union is concerned about the increasing use of these strategies instead of simply staffing positions on a permanent basis.

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Our national bargaining team met with Canada Post July 7 to July 10.

PSAC’s proposal for new grievance language in Article 19 was discussed and a  technical working group was formed to report back to the main bargaining table for the round of bargaining on August 20.

The employer presented a revised Appendix M for renewal. Appendix M deals with ongoing change at Canada Post. Your bargaining team will work to ensure that this program is updated appropriately and continues to be adequately funded. This appendix remains under discussion.

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The last negotiation session with the BC Corps of Commissionaires was held on July 7 and 8, 2008. Although progress is slow, the parties reached agreement and signed off on a couple articles:

• Job Descriptions - contained in the Post Orders and shall reflect the duties and responsibilities expected of the employees;
• Professional Membership, Registration and Licenses Fees - employer to pay for periodic refresher training to maintain First Aid and CPR certificates and will reimburse employees for any other certificate and/or license required for the employee’s position, as determined by the employer;

Discussions were also held regarding the following issues:

• Definitions and Interpretation
• Information
• Discrimination and Harassment
• Leave With or Without Pay for Union Business
• Other Leave With or Without Pay
• Layoff and Recall
• Seniority
• Pay Administration

With the employer representatives not being available until the end of August, the next negotiation meeting with the employer has been scheduled for August 20, 2008.

These negotiations, for a first collective agreement, include two (2) bargaining units: approximately 40 Commissionaires performing work on behalf of the Canadian Border Services Agency at Library Square and the Vancouver International Airport and 8 Commissionaires performing work on behalf of Fisheries and Oceans Canada at the Seal Cove Coast Guard Base in Prince Rupert.

Where are we at in negotiating an Essential Services Agreement with Parks Canada?

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.

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• July 9th, 5:30PM
• PSAC Vancouver RO, 200 - 5238 Joyce Street
• (1 1/2 blk south of the Skytrain)

Come and listen to bargaining updates from members of PSAC units that are currently in bargaining: Treasury Board, CFIA, Commissionaires and Parks. If time allows, there will be a question and answer session.

Please RSVP to Regina Brennan at (604) 430 5631 x 228 so we can plan for dinner.

Negotiators for Parks Canada Agency applied for mediation after walking away from the bargaining table last May.

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.

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Filing a grievance is one of the most effective ways that you can stand up for your rights on the job, making a difference for everyone in the workplace. When PSAC/UPCE sits down at the bargaining table during this round of negotiations, we will be working hard to improve the grievance process at Canada Post, so that complaints can be resolved more quickly and efficiently.

Your collective agreement

Your collective agreement is the contract with Canada Post that union members fought hard for in previous rounds of negotiations. This contract spells out the gains that we made in protecting human rights, salaries, job security, vacation leave entitlements, benefits and the right to freedom from harassment, among many other issues.

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Your bargaining team met with the BC Corps of Commissionaires on June 17 and 18, 2008. The parties reached agreement on a few articles and signed off the following articles (summary only):

• Union Recognition - recognition of the PSAC, by the employer, as the exclusive bargaining agent for the employees identified in the bargaining certificate;
• Joint Consultation Committee - process and some parameters regarding discussions between the parties on matters of common interest;
• Technological Change - reference to relevant legislation and commitment to meet to discuss any effect it will have on employees, with a view to minimizing such effects;
• Court Appearances - reimbursement for wages lost due to a court appearance when serving as a subpoenaed witness;
• Leave to Vote - in accordance with the relevant statutes.

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