Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

OTTAWA - After six years as the PSAC’s national president, Nycole Turmel will be stepping down and making way for a new leader of the 155,000-strong union. Elections for the new national president and national executive vice-president will be held on Friday, May 5, 2006, starting at 8:30 a.m.

The PSAC Convention officially begins on Monday, May 1, in Toronto, but there will be a pre-convention forum on political action and social justice on the previous day.

The Sunday Forum

• What: Political Action and Social Justice Forum
• Who

• Moderator: Hassan Yussuff, Canadian Labour Congress Secretary-Treasurer
• Panelists: Olivia Chow, NDP Member of Parliament; Carole Lavallée, Bloc Québécois Member of Parliament; Alex Munter, Ottawa Mayoralty Candidate; Jim Sinclair, British Columbia Federation of Labour President

The annual CALM Conference, where union members gather to learn more about union communications, will be held from May 12 to 14 at the Red River College in Winnipeg. If you want to create a Local newsletter or website, or to learn how to improve communicating with your members, this conference is for you.

PSAC Locals can attend the conference even if they are not member of CALM. If you register before April 25, registration fees are $320 per person ($295 for members). You can choose up to four different workshops at the conference.

Visit www.calm.ca for more details on the conference. Register now for a great opportunity to meet union members who want to improve their communication skills.

Pierre Lebel, PSAC Communications Officer, CALM President

Fighting The Blues, the Canadian Labour Congress 13th National Women’s Conference will be held in Ottawa from June 11 to 14, 2006. This is a timely conference for the Labour movement. With the election of a minority Conservative government the challenges for working families and especially for women are greater than ever. The labour and women’s movements have made some important gains over the last decades. We must build our movement to ensure that we maintain the advances we have achieved and move our agenda forward in our workplaces, our communities and our legislatures.

Visit the CLC website for the call letter, registration and more information.

Subsidies have been made available by the National and Regional Offices to assist a PSAC member in BC to attend the conference. Please note the PSAC BC Regional Council conference grant guidelines. Applications for a subsidy (available here) should be received in REVP’s office no later than May 1st. The conference registration deadline is May 23rd.

The countdown has begun!

In a month’s time, delegates, observers, guests and staff will be gathering in Toronto during the 14^th National Triennial Convention. To find out more about the agenda and what delegates will be debating, visit the national website. The agenda, resolutions book and various committee reports have all been posted.

All PSAC health and safety activists should be proud of their achievement over the last few years. Health and safety has been propelled to the forefront of our union’s agenda. Your hard work started with our 2003 PSAC National Convention where a record number of health and safety resolutions were debated and endorsed by the delegates.

The budget was considerably increased and included full funding for 300 delegates attending this conference.

And like the Unity Conference, the Access Conference, the Pride Conference and the National Women’s Conference, the National Health and Safety Conference now also has the right to send resolutions to the next PSAC Convention.

The theme of our 6^th National Health and Safety Conference was Health and Safety: Our Jobs, Our World.

Read the full conference report at the National Capitol Region regional website.

The third international “Workers Out” conference for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) trade unionists and allies will be held in Montréal from July 26 to 29, 2006.

The CLC and PSAC will be sponsors of the event and a decision has been made by the AEC to allocate one fully subsidized delegate spot per PSAC region. This is your opportunity to express your interest to represent the PSAC BC at this international event. Please send to the REVP’s office at ducharp@psac.com a brief outline of what you could contribute to the PSAC and to the conference by your attendance. Here is some more information about the conference, or check out their web site at www.montreal2006.org.

Deadline for expressions of interest is the end of day on February 28, 2006.

The 2005 Unity Conference was held September 23-25th in Halifax. The objectives of the 2005 National Unity Conference were:

* To enhance our understanding and analysis of the challenges facing Racially Visible and Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis communities in our fight against racism;

* To empower, politicize and mobilize to take action to ensure our Union, workplaces and communities are inclusive and racism free; and

* To strengthen our formal and informal networks, communication and to build solidarity between and among Racially Visible and Aboriginal, Inuit and Métis members at all levels within our Union.

The Final Report of the Unity Conference is now available at the national website.

BC PSAC Regional Health & Safety Conference, March 11/12, 2006 (note date change), Metrotown Hilton, Burnaby

The Conference will be focusing on indoor air quality and violence in the workplace: these regional priorities were identified by the BC Caucus at the last National H&S Conference.

The Conference will be a combination of workshops, panel speakers, and planning. More details and an agenda will be available soon.

For more information phone Jack Rudd @ 604.430.5631 x 229 or 1.800.663.1655.

Online registration for the Conference is available at our old webspace or download a PSAC BC Health and Safety Conference application form and mail or fax it back. Note that if you have registered for the Conference, originally scheduled for January 2006, there is no need to re-register.

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Approved at the RC meeting May 13-14, 2001

Requests for conference grants should

• be in writing (email or paper) to the REVP’s office
• be received 3 weeks prior to registration deadline
• contain a rationale why this conference would be valuable for the applicant
• give an indication how the information/experience obtained at the conference will be used by the participant in union activities
• indicate any other efforts the applicant has made to obtain funding

All requests will be forwarded to the Grant’s Committee for approval.

The following considerations will be used to award grants:

• is the conference is labour, political or social activism related?
• will the Region benefit from our participation in this event?
• has the applicant been awarded previous grants for conferences? if yes, when?
• normally we will not fund more than 3 participants for the same conference
• exceptions to the above should be mostly in the lower-cost category

Grants:

Conference outside BC: $500.00
Conference in BC, and participant has to fly: up to $500.00
Conference in BC and no need to fly: $250.00

There should be a written report to the REVP’s office within one month of the event.

Download a conference subsidy application (pdf).