Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

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 deadline for PSAC scholarships is July 31st:

The PSAC Scholarship Program is offering the following 15 scholarships to PSAC members and their children:

• one $4,000 Groulx-PSAC National scholarship;
• one $4,000 Coughlin-PSAC National scholarship;
• two $3,000 Groulx-PSAC National scholarships;
• two $3,000 Coughlin-PSAC National scholarships;
• the J.R. (Joe) Power $2,000 Scholarship;
• one $1,000 PSAC National Scholarship;
• one $1,000 scholarship for each region ( Atlantic , Quebec , National Capital Region, Ontario , Prairies, British Columbia and the North).

Awarding of the scholarships is based on an 800-word essay, scholastic achievement, and community and union involvement. The subject of the essay is determined in January of each year. Three out of the eight $1,000 scholarships will be awarded to PSAC members (if applications are received) who are returning to university, college or an institute of higher learning on a full-time basis.

Eligibility

All scholarships are available for PSAC members and their children. Members must be in good standing as of May 31 st of the current year. The student will attend a recognized university, college, or institute of higher learning on a full-time basis. These scholarships are not restricted to first-year students. No more than one scholarship will be awarded to the same family in a given year and no one will be awarded a scholarship more than once.

Read more and find out how to apply at the national website.

PSAC is going to be surveying members in preparation for the next round of bargaining with Treasury Board, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Parks Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

Environics Research Group, a well-known and respected polling firm will be conducting the survey for PSAC, asking questions about bargaining issues and priorities.

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Yellowknife – Public Service Alliance of Canada members at the Ekati diamond mine have voted to ratify a tentative agreement with Ekati owner BHP Billiton, ending a strike that began April 7 with the first-ever union contract at a Canadian diamond mine and significant improvements for workers there.

Ekati workers voted 66% in favour of the one-year contract that contains a full grievance procedure to protect workers from arbitrary and unfair treatment, wage increases, a signing benefit, more vacation days and other improvements, said Jean-François Des Lauriers, PSAC Executive Vice-President-North.

“This has been a tough strike but our members are going back to work with significant improvements in their workplace as a result of their determination,” Des Lauriers said. “And we will be back at the bargaining table on our members’ behalf next year.”

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Yellowknife - The Public Service Alliance of Canada has reached a tentative agreement for striking Ekati diamond mine workers with Ekati owner BHP Billiton and will be recommending acceptance to end the strike that began April 7.

PSAC National President John Gordon said Ekati workers can be proud of their fight to win the first-ever contract at a Canadian diamond mine against BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world.

“When less than 400 union members take on a giant multinational corporation with $7.5 billion in annual profits to try and win a first contract, it’s hardly a fair fight,” Gordon said. “But our members can hold their heads high. They reached a tentative agreement against the odds in an extremely tough strike where the employer did everything it could to defeat them and failed to do so.”

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OTTAWA - Despite feeling that they are overworked and have had no improvement in working conditions, public service workers are still strongly committed to their job of providing quality services to Canadians, according to the latest results of the federal government’s Public Service Employees Survey.

The survey, released today by the Public Service Human Resources Management Agency of Canada, found that 90 per cent of federal public service workers admit to being proud of the public services they deliver, and 96 per cent say they are committed to making their organization successful.

• View the results of the survey online at hrma-agrh.gc.ca

“These results confirm what we’ve been saying all along: That our members care deeply about their work and that public services need to be defended from cutbacks and privatization,” says Public Service Alliance of Canada National President John Gordon.

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Public Service Alliance of Canada says don’t buy trademarked Aurias™ and CanadaMark™ diamonds produced by strikebreakers

YELLOWKNIFE, June 13 /CNW/ - Over 2 million readers of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal in the United States will read today about “Dirty Diamonds” being produced despite a strike by Ekati diamond mine workers, as their union runs major ads in the newspapers as part of its growing international campaign against mine owner BHP Billiton.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is asking consumers not to buy Ekati diamonds being produced by strikebreakers under the Auriasâ„¢ and CanadaMarkâ„¢ trademarks behind union picket lines as the union fights to win a fair first collective agreement for nearly 400 Ekati workers on strike since April 7.

“BHP Billiton is going to feel increasing heat around the world until it reaches a fair contract with Ekati diamond mine workers,” said Jean-François Des Lauriers, PSAC Executive Vice-President-North. “We will be telling readers of the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal that they should not buy Canada’s own conflict diamonds - diamonds being produced despite a labour conflict.” Click here to view the ad (pdf).

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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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The PSAC Triennial Convention, as the union’s supreme governing body, has established clear priorities for the union for the next three years. In order to meet these priorities, the Convention adopted a progressive budget and resolutions with dues increase that will allow the PSAC to better represent the interests of members, as well as all Canadians, at work and in their communities.

This means there will be an average dues increase of 29 cents per member per month. The actual dues percentage will rise to 0.8963% from the current 0.8889%. This increase will take effect on January 1, 2007.

The Strike Fund

Delegates at the 2003 PSAC Convention increased strike pay from $35 to $50 per day, without an increase in the current Strike Fund dues of 35 cents per member per month. The National Board of Directors also approved to pay the necessary premiums to ensure that the health and dental benefits of our members continue during a strike.

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Public Service Alliance of Canada and BHP Billiton to resume negotiations for first contract at strike-bound Ekati diamond mine May 25-26 in Edmonton; PSAC picket lines will stay up until ratified agreement reached

YELLOWKNIFE, May 23 /CNW/ - The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the union representing striking Ekati diamond mine workers, and mine owner BHP Billiton have agreed to resume negotiations for a first collective agreement, with talks scheduled for May 25-26 in Edmonton.

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Preamble

A significant number of employers, including many, that count unionized PSAC members amongst their employees, routinely hire students.

The PSAC believes that employers, including the PSAC itself, have an obligation to future generations of workers, and that this obligation can be partially met by hiring students.

The PSAC is equally clear that students should be hired into carefully crafted and monitored programs that are designed to assist them in advancing their academic skills and acquiring social and workplace knowledge and skills – including an understanding of the role of Unions in workplaces and society and not into determinate and indeterminate positions. Under no circumstances should students be hired as a form of cheap labour for employers, or in any way to undermine the employment security of the employers’ regular workforce.

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Defending Quality Public Services

The PSAC supports strong public services and service delivery and remains unalterably opposed to privatization of public infrastructure and public services.

Quality public services are essential in building strong economies and inclusive societies. Privatization undermines the ability of public sector workers to provide the kind of services to the public that they would like to provide. The PSAC’s People behind the Services Campaign in 2004 highlighted this commitment.

After 20 years of pro-privatization policies, neither Canada nor the world are better or fairer places to live. The gap between rich and poor has widened.

Continue reading the PSAC Defending Quality Public Services policy at the national website.

Student Employment

A significant number of employers, including many, that count unionized PSAC members amongst their employees, routinely hire students.

The PSAC believes that employers, including the PSAC itself, have an obligation to future generations of workers, and that this obligation can be partially met by hiring students.

The PSAC is equally clear that students should be hired into carefully crafted and monitored programs that are designed to assist them in advancing their academic skills and acquiring social and workplace knowledge and skills – including an understanding of the role of Unions in workplaces and society and not into determinate and indeterminate positions. Under no circumstances should students be hired as a form of cheap labour for employers, or in any way to undermine the employment security of the employers’ regular workforce.

Continue reading the PSAC Student Employment policy at the national website.

Diamonds produced in the North West Territories at the BHP Billiton Ekati Diamond Mine are “dirty”. BHP Billiton has been promoting its signature “Aurias” diamond as “conflict free” rather than “blood diamonds” produced in war-torn countries like Sierra Leone and the Congo. But Ekati is now the site of a major labour conflict.

Why should this concern you?

As one of the largest multi-national corporations doing business in Canada, BHP has chosen to force its employees into a strike by failing to negotiate a fair and reasonable first collective agreement.

Canadians appreciate employers who respect our tradition of bargaining in good faith…especially when the employer’s profits were $7.5 billion in 2005!

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Delegates at the PSAC National Triennial Convention in Toronto pledged in excess of $45,000 to help members of PSAC Local X3050 on strike against BHP Billiton at the Ekati diamond mine, 300 kilometers north-east of Yellowknife. This amount comes in addition to the $100,000.00 already pledged by the Union of Northern Workers for its hardship fund.

The pledges were announced after more than five hundred PSAC members and supporters took to Toronto streets in a demonstration in support of Ekati diamond mine workers. (Images of delegates rally for BHP strikers).

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OTTAWA — The Public Service Alliance of Canada is planning its first organizing drive of the thousands of students it claims the federal government hires every year as ”cheap labour.”

John Gordon, PSAC’s newly elected president, said the campaign is aimed at ensuring students get top-notch job opportunities and income without being ”exploited as cheap labour” and undermining the jobs and security of regular public servants.

”The youth today aren’t much different than the youth of yesterday,” said Gordon. ”When you join the workforce as a student, you learn pretty quickly that you are doing the same job as the colleague next to you but you’re not getting the same pay and benefits.”

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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.

TORONTO – While 400 of its members at the Ekati diamond mine north of Yellowknife suffer the consequences of having scabs in the workplace, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) applauds the anti-scab Bill introduced today by the Bloc Québécois aimed at stopping this practice.

“During the last session of Parliament, the Bloc introduced Bill C-263 which was lost by only 12 votes,” explained PSAC President, Nycole Turmel. “We will work with the Bloc Québécois and other Canadian unions to ensure that finally, workers under federal jurisdiction are protected by anti-scab legislation.”

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TORONTO – The Harper government’s first federal budget provides more questions than answers about its impact on services to Canadians, according to the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

In its pre-budget submission, PSAC had argued that demands for public services are growing as the population ages and as more and more people locate to larger cities and communities. The union urged the government to reconsider premature tax cuts.

“In addition to tax cuts, particularly the many corporate tax cuts contained in the budget, the Conservatives are slowing government spending at a time when the economy is growing,” says PSAC National President Nycole Turmel. “They’re also instituting another round of expenditure review, cutting $1-billion in each of the next two fiscal years.”

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Delegates and observers at the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s 14th triennial national convention will demonstrate in support of the striking workers on Wednesday.

Delegates will be marching from the Westin Harbour Castle Conference Centre to the park located behind the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. Speakers at the rally will include PSAC National President Nycole Turmel, Union of Northern Workers President Todd Parson, Ekati Mine striker Robert Beaulieu.
The Ekati diamond mine, about 300 kilometres north of Yellowknife, is something of a cash-cow for BHP Billiton. The mine opened in 1998, and cost about $900 million to build. But the revenue has long-since left that number in the dust.

When it’s at full production, Ekati cranks out from three to five million carats a year. The diamonds tend to be of very high quality, commanding prices of $110 to almost $200 per carat. Late last year, Ekati President Sean Brennan reported to investors that the mine earned more than $350 million, before taxes, in both 2004 and 2005 fiscal years.

Those diamonds account for about six per cent of the world’s annual supply by value, but four per cent by volume, according to the company. It’s all done with a workforce of about 740 people who fly in and out on two-week rotations. About 390 are members of the Union of Northern Workers, part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. They went on strike on April 7, and the standoff continues.

Continue reading the CBC North Ekati strike feature.

On May 1, 1886, a general strike was called in the United States at a time when the right to organize and strike did not exist. A peaceful mass meeting at Haymarket Square in Chicago that followed was broken up by the police and led to the hanging of four labour leaders. All these events sparked the declaration of May 1 as an international day to remember and celebrate workers’ struggles.

One hundred and twenty years later, workers are fighting to protect their hard-won rights to organize, to bargain collectively and to strike. Recently, there has been a concerted effort by the labour movement to protect the right to bargain by pressuring Members of Parliament to adopt federal anti-scab legislation and first contract arbitration.

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