Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Ottawa – In a groundbreaking decision today, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal found that employers cannot discriminate against their employees should they choose to become parents. Fiona Johnstone, a Canadian Border Services Officer and a member of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, convinced the Tribunal that she was a victim of discrimination based on family status.

The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) refused to accommodate her request for more regular hours so she could arrange for proper child care. The CBSA told her that the only way that she could care for her kids was to work part time. Fiona Johnstone was unable to obtain child care because she and her husband both worked rotating shift schedules at Pearson International Airport.

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OTTAWA – First the Harper Conservatives cancelled the mandatory long-form census, now they’re going after the federal Employment Equity Act that depends on this data with the announcement that they will be reviewing employment equity policies and practices in the federal public service.

“The government claims to support diversity but its news release implies the opposite”, says PSAC National Executive Vice-President Patty Ducharme. “It reinforces the misconception that equal opportunity is threatened by employment equity measures and that employment equity hiring policies are not based on merit.”

The purpose of employment equity is to ensure equal access to jobs for all and to make sure that workplaces reflect the diversity of the Canadian population. The Employment Equity Act and the Public Service Employment Act already require all hiring to be based on merit and qualifications.

Less than 2% of job competitions in the federal public service are designated for equity group members, and managers have to justify the use of these designations with data showing large gaps in their workforce representation.

“In fact, the government needs to be doing more to ensure diversity throughout its workforce,” says Ducharme.

Continue reading at the national website.

Thursday July 22, 2010     NEWS RELEASE    For Immediate Release

Servisair now admits major flight delays at Vancouver International Airport due to lockout of refueling supervisors – files legal application detailing extensive delays & complaints from Air Canada, WestJet, international airlines – after Servisair and YVR administration denied delays previously

Vancouver – Servisair now admits in a legal document filed this afternoon that there have been major flight delays at Vancouver International Airport since it locked out refueling supervisors on Monday – delays it and YVR management denied publicly until now, says the supervisors’ union.

A Servisair application to the Canadian Industrial Relations Board states that WestJet complained of “quite significant” delays and that “Air Canada advised Servisair that it could not afford a repeat” of delays experienced Monday July 19 when replacement workers took over from existing trained supervisors, says Stephen Dunsmore, Regional Vice-President Pacific of the Union of Canadian Transportation Employees – a component union of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

The Servisair application says Air Canada complained of “cost attributable to fuelling delays” and that United, KLM, Continental, Cathay Pacific, Air New Zealand, US Airways and Air North all reported fuelling delay, Dunsmore said.

A WestJet official quoted in the documents says the delays were significant and impacted well over 140 other flights in the WestJet system.

Says Dunsmore: “This CIRB application is a legal document that demonstrates irrefutably that both Servisair and Vancouver International Airport management deliberately misled the public and the media about what Servisair admits have been quite significant delays due to their lockout of experienced refueling supervisors.”

“The solution is obvious – negotiate a fair first collective agreement immediately, as the union has been trying to do from the start – and end this lockout now,” Dunsmore said.  “We were at the bargaining table Sunday night when Servisair walked away without even hearing our counterproposal and instead locked out our members.”

Dunsmore said the Servisair application is a clumsy attempt to blame refueling workers who are continuing to work under their own existing collective agreement for problems when the obvious reality is that inexperienced replacement supervisors don’t know how to manage Vancouver International Airport’s complex refueling procedures.

“There have been many documented mistakes – some of which are health and safety concerns – that these replacement supervisors are making,” Dunsmore said.  “We are now documenting safety concerns and will be making the appropriate complaints shortly to bring this to the attention of authorities.”

Dunsmore said the union is confident that the CIRB will reject the Servisair allegations, noting that the union advised refueling workers prior to the dispute that they must obey their collective agreement even if supervisors were locked out.

Employer Servisair is a Paris-based company that provides fuel to Air Canada, WestJet and other airlines at Vancouver International Airport as well as at more than 128 locations worldwide.

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For further information contact: Stephen Dunsmore UCTE at cell 778-998-1491 or Bill Tieleman, West Star Communications at cell 778-896-0964 or 604-844-7827.

Mass arrests, detentions and abuses of power are an affront to democracy

PSAC members were among 25,000 people who protested against the G20 on Saturday, June 26

The Public Service Alliance of Canada condemns the mass arrests of peaceful protestors in Toronto at the G20 demonstrations this weekend and joins the growing cry for a public inquiry into police actions.

PSAC members were among 25,000 people who protested against the G20 on Saturday, June 26. But despite a largely peaceful convergence, more than 900 people were arrested over the weekend, in an alleged attempt to apprehend the small group of people responsible for acts of vandalism.

While PSAC remains committed to non-violent, peaceful protest, the union is joining the thousands of Canadians who are critically concerned about the vicious and disproportionate nature of the police presence in Toronto on Saturday and Sunday.

Read more at the national website.

The UN General Assembly has designated June 23rd – World Public Services Day – to celebrate the value and virtue of public service to the community and to encourage young people to pursue careers in the public sector.

National President John Gordon, NVP Patty Ducharme, REVP BC Kay Sinclair, REVP North Jean-François Des Lauriers, REVP Atlantic Jeannie Baldwin, CEIU National President Jeanette Meunier-McKay, and UTE National President Betty Bannon are in Vancouver attending the International Trade Union Confederation World Congress. They joined many other PSAC members and elected officers at a rally commemorating World Public Services Day where they heard messages of Solidarity from labour leaders from around the world and rallied for strong public services. Formed in 2006, ITUC represents 175 million workers through its 311 affiliated organizations within 155 countries and territories. Here are a few photos …


The voices of Public Services International members are being raised from the streets of Europe to international trade union and government meetings in Canada this month.

The message is loud and clear: workers and their trade unions reject public spending cuts that reduce the wages, pensions and social programmes that families and communities rely on. Working people must not be made to pay any further to bail out banks and speculators.

Public Service International general secretary Peter Waldorff says, “Budget deficits and debts must not be used as an excuse to cut public services. This simply opens the way to privatizing desperately-needed public programmes, and will only further benefit financial profiteers at the expense of working people.”

Read more at world-psi.org



Ottawa – While giving a speech today at the Public Service Awards of Excellence Ceremony, Stockwell Day, the President of the Treasury Board, proudly announced the creation of the Employee Innovation Program.

“On a day when Treasury Board should celebrate the excellent work of federal public service workers and the quality public services they provide to Canadians, Minister Day has chosen to deflect his responsibilities onto the backs of these workers” said John Gordon, PSAC National President.

Read more at the national website.

As capitalism begins to emerge from the ‘Great Financial Crisis,’ there is good reason for working people to refrain from celebration. Though the roots of the crisis were in the private sector, it’s clear that the bill will be primarily paid via the public sector – which is to say that the costs will be placed on the working class as both providers and recipients of social services. Moreover, although economic and political elites experienced a significant decline in credibility as a result of the crisis, popular movements – a few exceptions aside – remain on the defensive and are generally ill-prepared to respond. Most dangerously, as our weaknesses are exposed, and as pressures from business grow to ‘deal with the deficit,’ the government will likely harden its position and modest restraints will turn into more severe cutbacks.

And so at a time when people will need more public programs and supports, they will get less. In Ontario, the recent $200-million cut to the ‘special diet program,’ to help people on social assistance buy fresh fruits and vegetables and other medically necessary dietary supplements, is one especially disgraceful example of this, after spending billions bailing out auto companies and supporting the financial sector. And at a moment when unions in the private sector are reeling from the job losses resulting from restructuring and globalization, it is their public sector counterparts – now at the center of any hope for reviving the labour movement – that are under the gun.

Continue reading at The Bullet …

Cuts to federal inspections are leading to disabling injuries and deaths

OTTAWA–The Public Service Alliance of Canada is demanding that the Harper government take action to prevent workplace injuries and fatalities, after a damning report revealed that it has been negligent in protecting workers under its jurisdiction.

According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the federal government is putting workers at risk by under funding and under staffing federal safety inspection. The federal government is responsible for protecting its own employees, those at Crown corporations such as Canada Post, as well as workers in the airline and trucking industries.

The rate of disabling injuries in federally regulated workplaces increased by 5 per cent between 2002 and 2007 while the provinces have managed to cut their disabling workplace injuries by an average of 25 per cent over the same time frame.

Read more at the national website.

OTTAWA — The Conservative government’s 2010 budget will compromise public services and people’s livelihoods, to the detriment of all Canadians. That’s the message that John Gordon, President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, delivered to the House of Commons Government Operations and Estimates Committee this afternoon.

Speaking on behalf of PSAC’s 170,000 members, the majority of whom work in the federal public sector, Gordon didn’t mince words. He criticized the Harper government for punishing workers and the public for a crisis that is not of their making. PSAC maintains that the 2010 federal budget will do little to help Canada recover from the recession, and will likely make things worse.

Read more at the national website.

Ottawa – The Public Service Alliance of Canada, the largest federal public service union in the country, will be taking swift action to prevent Canada Post from privatizing an important part of its operations. Yesterday, the crown corporation announced that it would outsource its contact centres and the National Philatelic Centre, resulting in the elimination of more than 300 jobs across the country.

Affected locations include:

• Edmonton
• Ottawa
• Winnipeg
• Antigonish
• Fredericton

“This obsession with privatization will badly damage the quality of the Canadian postal service as well as the communities it serves,” said Robyn Benson, the PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the Prairies. “Many regions in the country will lose local contact with Canada Post as well as jobs that are important for the local economy,” she added.

Continue reading at the national website.

OTTAWA – The Public Service Alliance of Canada condemns the Harper government’s decision to close Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) offices in Vancouver, Toronto and Halifax. The union maintains that the closure of the three offices will make it substantially harder for individuals from marginalized groups to launch human rights complaints.

The three offices slated for closure received 70 per cent of all signed complaints to the CHRC in 2008.

The union, which represents CHRC employees, says this latest attack will have a particular impact on racialized people and recent immigrants. In many cases, the closures will make it much more difficult to challenge both systemic abuses and individual instances of discrimination.

Continue reading at the national website.

OTTAWA – The largest union of federal public-sector workers is poised to mobilize against cuts in public sector programs and operations and to apply pressure on Parliament to reject the federal budget.

“This budget is a clear attack against quality public services,” says John Gordon, the national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “The freeze on public-sector operation budgets, combined with an increase in deregulation and free trade, will further weaken the economy and hurt Canadians.”

Gordon argues that freezing the operation spending of government departments will mean significant reductions to the quality of public services that Canadians need in an economy that’s, at best, still undergoing a fragile recovery. Spending freezes, more expenditure review and deregulation will also mean job losses in the federal public sector.

“This runs counter to the government’s stated goal of job creation and economic growth,” Gordon says. “With this budget, the government is compromising the food we eat, the health of our environment, transportation safety and the public services that the people in Canada rely on everyday.”

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Last June the Canadian Industrial Relations Board (the Board) allowed a section 18 application by the PSAC. This resulted in additional YVR employees being moved into the PSAC/UCTE bargaining unit. As we reported last June this victory came as a result of a three year battle with the employer.

Following the issuance of the Board’s June decision, the employer had their legal folks file an “application for reconsideration” pursuant to section 18 of the Canada Labour Code (Code). The grounds for the reconsideration application were: “The Board breached the principles of natural justice and exceeded its jurisdiction by failing to consider relevant evidence in determining whether certain positions were properly included in the Union’s bargaining unit; and The Board breached the principles of natural justice by failing to provide adequate reasons for its decision.” The remedy requested was: “Conduct a full evidentiary hearing to determine anew the issue of the inclusions or exclusions of positions in the bargaining unit.”

In a decision dated March 2, 2010 the Board has refused to exercise its discretion pursuant to section 18 of the Code to review, rescind, amend, alter or vary either of their previous decisions (LD2148 & LD2172).

Specifically, the Board therefore refuses the request to hold a full evidentiary hearing to determine anew the issue of the inclusions or exclusions of positions in the bargaining unit; the Board dismisses the employer’s application, filed June 22, 2009, asking for a review of LD 2148 on the grounds that the applicant has not satisfied the Board that it breached any principles of natural justice in reaching or communicating its decision. Moreover, the Tracking Sheet does not constitute “new facts”; the Board dismisses the employer’s application, filed August 13, 2009, regarding LD 2172, on the grounds that the applicant has not satisfied the Board that it breached any principles of natural justice in reaching or communicating its decision.

The complete decision is available here (pdf).

Judging from the Throne Speech, the Harper government’s strategy for containing the deficit will focus on attacks against quality public services through spending freezes, more expenditure review and deregulation.

The speech was clear that the government plans to balance the budget by restraining federal program spending overall. It will do this by freezing the total amount that government departments spend on salaries, administration and overhead, and by aggressively undergoing a review of all departmental spending.

Continue reading John Gordon’s message regarding the Throne Speech at the national website.

OTTAWA –The head of the largest union representing federal public sector workers is urging the Harper government not to cut public services or attack federal pension plans in order to pay off the deficit.

“If the recession has shown us anything, it is that Canadians need and expect more services from their national government, not less,” said the national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, John Gordon, today during a press conference on Parliament Hill. “They expect safe food and drugs, their environment protected, their military and veterans supported and their human rights enforced.”

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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released the 2010 version of its Alternative Federal Budget. The budget is produced in collaboration with unions, including the PSAC, and other progressive groups and individuals. As its name suggests, the Alternative Federal Budget offers a different economic approach, one that supports strong public services and working people. Read more at the national website.

source: Vancouver Sun, Feb 23

Re: Government pensions fair game, Feb. 18

In her column, Barbara Yaffe is critical of the federal public service pension plan and the level of employee contributions to it.

Federal public sector workers make significant contributions to their pensions in the form of deferred wages. By 2013, these contributions will make up about 40 per cent of the total cost of providing pension benefits. The real pension crisis in Canada is that most workers and pensioners are covered by inadequate defined-contribution pension plans or no workplace pension plan at all. In a defined-contribution plan, pension benefits are dependent on a number of things, such as the performance of markets and interest rates at retirement. All of the risk is put on the workers.

Defined-benefit plans collectivize risk and resources and ensure a decent, stable retirement income for seniors.

Our union believes defined-benefit pension plans in Canada should be supported by governments. We are also calling for significant improvements to public pensions in Canada: CPP benefits should be doubled by gradually increasing employer and employee contributions by three per cent and the Guaranteed Income Supplement of Old Age Security should be immediately increased by 15 per cent.

We can have a society in which no retired person is living in poverty through achievable, forward-thinking pension policies.

Kay Sinclair – B.C. Regional Executive Vice-President, Public Service Alliance of Canada

Groups provide “reality check” on women’s equality – Labour, women’s groups will tell UN Canada is lagging

VANCOUVER, Feb. 22 /CNW/ – Labour and women’s groups have issued a report which they say is a “reality check” describing Canada’s lagging performance in achieving women’s equality. The report will be distributed at the Bejing plus 15 meeting being held at the United Nations in New York, March 1-12.

“Canadian women have lost a lot of ground in the past 15 years,” says Kay Sinclair, Public Service Alliance of Canada Regional Executive Vice President for BC. “Our government has sent a report to the United Nations that paints a rosy picture on women’s equality in Canada. We have written our own document and it is a reality check on what the government is saying.”

• Download the report: Reality Check:Women in Canada and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action Fifteen Years On, A Canadian Civil Society Response (pdf)

The UN meeting in March will evaluate progress, identify challenges, and recommend policies to promote gender equality and the advancement of women. This year holds special significance because it marks the 15th anniversary of the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women.

Sinclair continues, “We see the ravages of poverty every day in school classrooms, and rates are increasing at an alarming rate while the support mechanisms are disappearing or non-existent. With more women and girls living in poverty and being denied fundamental human rights, how can we build for a strong and prosperous Canadian future?” She adds, “Although Canada has made commitments to implement equal pay for work of equal value, the federal government hasn’t lived up to its commitments. The government removed the right to pay equity for federal public sector workers in 2009, with the adoption of the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act. We raise this issue in this report and it will be front and center for us next week at the United Nations in New York.”

Five years ago, Canada was ranked amongst the top ten countries in the world for its achievements in women’s human rights, but in 2009 Canada had fallen to 73rd in the UN Gender Disparity Index. Changes to gender architecture, shifts in policy and programming within the government, and the government’s response to the economic crisis have been felt by the most vulnerable women and girls in Canada.

The joint report is called Reality Check: Women in Canada and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action Fifteen Years On, A Canadian Civil Society Response. It was coordinated and produced by the Canadian Feminist Alliance for International Action and the Canadian Labour Congress, and is endorsed by a variety of other organizations.

Next budget must stress good jobs – Georgetti says unemployment, low wages hurting younger workers

OTTAWA – When the federal government introduces a new budget in March, it must make the creation of good jobs a priority, says Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Georgetti was commenting on the release by Statistics Canada of labour force figures for December 2009. The unemployment rate remains at 8.5% and 1.57 million Canadian men and women are out of work.“Workers have had a dismal year and we’re not out of the woods yet,” he says.

Georgetti says that both the number and quality of jobs available are big issues for workers. “The income of most Canadian workers has dropped in the past decade, even while corporate executives saw their pay outpace inflation by 70%. Too many other Canadians are surviving on poorly paid and part-time jobs. The middle class is taking a beating and we have to turn that around.”

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Union unanimously recommends ratification

OTTAWA—Early this morning, the Public Service Alliance of Canada reached a tentative agreement with the Museum of Civilization Corporation. This came on the 85th day on the picket line for workers at the Museum of Civilization and War Museum. The union is unanimously supporting the tentative agreement and will meet with the museums’ management today to negotiate a return-to-work protocol.

“We are unanimously recommending ratification of this agreement,” said Daniel Poulin, a guide at the Museum of Civilization and the President of PSAC Local 70396. “We have made serious gains in the areas of job security and contracting-out. We are confident that our members will support this agreement and we are thrilled that will be able to return to work soon.”

John Gordon, National President of PSAC, expressed admiration for the striking workers’ courage and determination.

“These workers have shown us the true meaning of solidarity,” he said. “Their tenacity and strength have been an inspiration to the labour movement and to the entire community of Ottawa/Gatineau. When workers unite, anything is possible.”

The workers will meet soon to ratify the tentative agreement. Until then, picket lines will remain up at the two museums