Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister:

On behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, I am writing to express our grave concern and dismay regarding the imposition of a state of emergency and suspension of the constitution in Pakistan by the country’s military ruler and President, General Pervez Musharraf.

Musharraf’s dictatorial actions, including: the suspension of Pakistan’s Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry and other members of the judiciary; bans against the media; and the suppression of fundamental democratic rights; have resulted in protests throughout Pakistan and growing condemnation from human rights organizations, trade unions and government leaders from around the world, including Canada.

The people of Pakistan have a long and vibrant history of fighting to protect civil society and democracy and have been on the frontlines of the struggle since a state of emergency was declared in the country. Pakistan’s military dictatorship has responded with wide spread detentions and arrests of lawyers, journalists, students and internationally respected human rights defenders such as Asma Jahangir.

On November 11, the Musharraf government amended the Army Act of 1952, allowing the army to court martial civilianspeaking out against the state with charges of sedition, treason and terrorism, with trials conducted through military courts. This most recent change in legislation signals a dangerous escalation in the regime’s long history of human rights violations by allowing the military to act with total impunity, and presents a very serious threat to justice and human rights in the country.

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Dear Prime Minister:

On behalf of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, I am writing to express our deep concern regarding the recent turn of events in Burma. Canadians and people around the world have been able to witness growing protests in Burma, led by Buddhist monks and nuns, as they have been gathering momentum in recent days.

• Read the latest news from Burma at labourstart.org

In solidarity with the monks who sacrificed their lives, and to the students and youth who bravely confronted the military dictatorship through peaceful protest, the Burmese Federation of Trade Unions called a general strike for October 1. Once again, the military dictatorship has carried out acts of extreme violence against the Burmese people, including repeatedly firing weapons directly into crowds of peaceful demonstrators, and carrying out mass arrests and murderous assaults.

What is most disturbing is that such gross violations of human rights are standard fare for this regime. Not only has it regularly engaged in the barbaric practice of forced labour and imprisoned the leaders of the movement for democracy such as Aung San Suu Kyi, but also it has unleashed military and police terror each time the courageous people of Burma have attempted to stand up against the dictatorship.

In response, governments around the world, including the Government of Canada, have expressed condemnation of these acts. As recently as June, 2007, the House of Commons unanimously demanded that the Burmese military junta release Suu Kyi from the lengthy house arrest she has endured. She has been forced to spend 11 of the past 17 years in detention since she won a landslide election. The Public Service Alliance of Canada supports an expanded demand that all of Burma’s political prisoners, including the thousands of monks recently arrested in Rangoon, as well as student leaders, be immediately freed.

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On Labour Day this year, the Public Service Alliance of Canada celebrates with working Canadians the recent landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, affirming that the right to collective bargaining is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That decision was a great victory for all working people and a stern reminder to governments that they cannot run roughshod over the rights of workers and erase the hard-won gains of collective bargaining by legislative fiat.

Looking forward, the PSAC remains committed to standing up for quality public services both as an expression of core Canadian values and as a legitimate and effective investment in the nation’s social and physical infrastructure. Many of our over 160,000 members work everyday to protect the health and safety of Canadians and to improve the nation’s environment and culture. The work they do for the public good is the very embodiment of the collective Canadian vision of a fair, equitable and healthy Canada where no one gets left behind.

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To the editor,

RE: Mental leaves in PS Soar (The Ottawa Citizen, July 31, 2007 - read the article at canada.com )

To suggest that mental health absences in the Public Service are soaring is more than a stretch. More troubling is the possibility that your article will discourage workers suffering from depression from seeking the help they need.

Mental health is a growing issue for the global workforce, not just federal public sector workers. According to the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health:

“Depression is the leading source of disability in the world and as a percentage of the burden of disease, it is growing faster in the global population than cardiovascular disorders yet it remains under researched, under diagnosed and under treated.”

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The Public Service Alliance of Canada has called on the Prime Minister to mandate the Auditor General of Canada to review the federal government’s plan to sell nine office buildings and lease them back from the new owners. The text of the PSAC’s letter to the Prime Minister is below.

June 27, 2007

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
House of Commons
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A6

Dear Prime Minister:

The sale of nine office buildings owned by Canadians will lead to one of the largest sales of public assets ever, assuming the government endorses Minister Fortier’s view that the federal government should not be in the business of owning real estate assets.

This transaction is taking place behind such a heavy veil of secrecy it may well do harm to your call for greater transparency and openness in government. To date, Minister Fortier has refused to release any details related to any aspect of the transaction.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada has deep concerns about the merits of the sale and lease back plan and serious questions about its costs and benefits. We believe that taxpayers will pay $2 in leasing costs for every $1 gained in proceeds from the sale of the buildings.

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PSAC held a demonstration in downtown Ottawa yesterday to protest the Conservative government’s plan to sell off and lease back valuable federal government buildings.

• Pictures at the national website.

PSAC National President John Gordon, and REVP-NCR Ed Cashman delivered speeches in downtown Ottawa yesterday against the government’s plan to sell off the buildings … here’s the video on youtube.

PSAC has counted the votes cast in the representation vote that has taken place among our members at Service Canada. The vote was to determine which PSAC Component would represent all PSAC Service Canada members at the workplace level.

• View John Gordon’s video message to Service Canada members: High-resolution | Low-resolution

The vote has resulted in the Canada Employment and Immigration Union earning the right to represent you at the workplace level. Here are the vote totals.

• Canada Employment and Immigration Union (CEIU) – 3,774 (62.9%)
• National Health and Welfare Union (NHWU) – 2,226 (37.1%)
• Spoiled – 36
• Total votes cast – 6,036

PSAC National President John Gordon will be meeting with the National Presidents of both Components in order to ensure there is a smooth transition process. A key part of the process will be to ensure that there is no disruption of service to members, particularly in the representation of members’ grievances. Another part of the process will be to give voice to the members being transferred from NHWU to CEIU.

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Sisters and Brothers:

This year, on April 22, over 500 million people in more than 100 countries will be celebrating International Earth Day. Some 6 million Canadians will participate in Earth Day events in schools, community groups, youth groups, unions, and environmental organizations. Nearly all school children in Canada will participate in an Earth Day event.

Across Canada, there is widespread support for protecting the environment. According to the David Suzuki Foundation, nine out of ten Canadians rate the environment as one of their top concerns, and eight out of ten Canadians believe that environmental protection should be given priority over economic growth.

Despite this widespread popular support, successive federal governments have systematically dismantled environment programs and replaced them with rhetoric and little substance. Canada is sadly one of the world’s most wasteful nations in terms of excessive energy consumption, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions. Our performance on the majority of environmental indicators is worsening. Clearly, there is a gap between our environmental values and our poor environmental record.

Read John Gordon’s Earth Day message at the national website.

OTTAWA - The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) says the federal government needs to change a number of its practices if it is to meet the challenges of the changing demographic of the federal public sector.

PSAC National President John Gordon, appearing today before the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, called for changes in staffing approaches and practices if the federal government is to meet the challenges of an aging workforce.

• Read John’s presentation at the national website.

“Staffing for part-time or short-term needs does not attract the same consideration of employment equity objectives as are in place when an employer is staffing on an indeterminate basis,” says Gordon in response to a statement by the President of the Public Service Commission (PSC) that 88.6% of federal staffing is in term, student and casual positions.

According to the PSC’s 2004-05 Annual Report, approximately 65% of those hired permanently into the federal public service were hired from a pool of temporary workers. “Perhaps this is why a Senate Committee recently described this practice as a ‘significant stumbling block’ to achieving employment equity,” says Gordon. “Reducing, if not eliminating, these back door opportunities is the solution and it’s a solution that our staffing agencies ignore.”

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I want to start by thanking you for providing me with an opportunity to participate in your pre-budget consultation.

I do so on behalf of more than 160,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union representing the vast majority of Canadian workers employed by the federal government and its various departments and agencies.

In this short statement, I want to make a case for renewal of public services, public service delivery and public infrastructure.

• Have your say on the budget!

But first, I want to make a couple of comments on the revenue side of the equation.  From my perspective there is both good news and bad news on the fiscal front since your government was elected a little over a year ago. I believe that your decision to reduce revenue by almost $5 billion by cutting the GST was a mistake. On the other side of the coin, I would like to commend you for taking action last fall on the income trust file because failure to act would have continued and increased the leakage from the tax system putting even further pressure on your governments ability to deliver service to Canadians.

Clearly, budgets are about priorities. And in looking forward to your 2007 budget, I can’t help but look at the past and your government’s September 25, 2006 announcement of a 1 billion dollar reduction in government expenditures.

Not all cuts are created equally, and I would urge you to take a second look at the 2006 cuts that undermine equally and use your budget to, in the words of the Ad Hoc Coalition for Women’s Equality “Put Equality Back on Track”.

That means restoring operational funding for Status of Women Canada, and restoring funding for the Court Challenges program and the Law Reform Commission.

It means putting literacy back on the priority list, and investing more resources, not less to level the playing field for aboriginal peoples.

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OTTAWA - The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is putting the defense of quality public services on the bargaining table in the upcoming round of negotiations with the federal government for over 100,000 federal public sector workers.

“PSAC members are proud of the role they play in the daily lives of Canadians from coast to coast to coast,” said National President John Gordon. “Our negotiations serve a larger purpose as Canadians across the country want more public services and are prepared to pay for them, not further cuts to our public services. The work we do at the bargaining table and in the community is about building a better Canada.”

The union has been holding a national bargaining conference for its five Treasury Board bargaining units and for its bargaining unit at the Parks Canada Agency. PSAC members, who attended regional bargaining conferences in late 2006, have spent the last four days reviewing bargaining priorities established by the 2006 PSAC triennial convention and bargaining demands submitted by PSAC Locals.

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OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government has quietly handed senior government officials and the heads of Crown corporations pay raises and increased bonuses, sounding alarm bells from a tax watchdog and the biggest public service union.

Government executives and deputy ministers, the highest ranking public servants, are in line to get a 2.5-per-cent pay raise.

The chief executives of Crown corporations, such as the CBC and Canada Post, are slated to get three-per-cent raises.

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The 385 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada at the Ekati diamond mine in the Northwest Territories have been on strike since April 7 in their attempt to negotiate a first collective agreement.  They are up against a multinational corporation, BHP Billiton, which is refusing to bargain in good faith, is using scabs and is trying to break the union at all cost.

The union movement cannot allow this company to stifle our rights without a fight.  BHP must be told clearly that workers in Canada do have a right to union representation, that they have the right to bargain collectively and that they refuse to allow scabs to steal their livelihood.

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TORONTO - John Gordon has been elected as the National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC). Gordon has been the union’s National Executive Vice-President since 2000. Competing against three other candidates, Gordon was elected on the third ballot. Over 400 Convention delegates participated in this process.

“PSAC will be moving quickly to implement the plan to defend quality public services adopted at our convention this week,” said Gordon. “We don’t intend to have the Conservative government’s proposed budget ’savings’ come at the expense of needed public services and our members’ jobs.”

Prior to his election as National Executive Vice-President, Gordon was the National President of the Union of Public Works Employees from 1982 to 1999. A PSAC activist since 1974, when he joined the federal public sector as a tradesperson with Public Works Canada, Gordon has held a variety of union positions in his Component.

Delegates also elected Patty Ducharme as the union’s National Executive Vice-President. For the past six years, Ducharme has been PSAC’s Regional Executive Vice-President (REVP) for British Columbia. Prior to her election as REVP in 2000, Ducharme had worked as a customs inspector in British Columbia and served as First Vice-President of Branch 20040 of the Customs Excise Union Douanes Accise (CEUDA). She has been a PSAC activist for over 20 years holding a number of union positions.

In a two-way contest, Union of Postal Communications Employees President Richard Des Lauriers was elected alternate National Executive Vice-President. All elected officers take up their duties effective immediately.