Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

OTTAWA – Conservative ideology has triumphed over the needs of Canadians in the latest federal budget according to the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

“This budget is a medley of misguided priorities,” says PSAC National President John Gordon. “The Harper government’s obsession with deficit reduction continues unabated with more than $10 billion going to pay down the debt this year, money that should have been invested in Canadians.”

“Continued debt reduction at a time when Canada may be facing an economic slowdown is not sound economic policy. Conservatives have once again missed an opportunity to use the surplus to invest in the health and well-being of Canadians through a national pharmacare or child care and early learning program or a comprehensive environmental protection plan.”

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OTTAWA – Conservatives are not the good fiscal managers they would like the country to believe and there is plenty of evidence to prove it. According to John Gordon, National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), Conservative budgets have been contributing to a growing gap between rich and poor Canadians.

“Why is it that, in spite of continued economic growth, poverty is still on the rise in Canada,” says Gordon. “Nearly one in six Canadian children live in poverty; one in four in First Nations communities. Our social safety net is disappearing and economic disparity and social exclusion are deepening.”

Since their election, Conservative budgets have been designed to provide a few ‘goodies’, such as the GST reduction and the taxable child care allowance, that are of little real benefit to individuals but advance the government’s agenda of undermining publicly funded services and reducing their role in meeting Canadians’ priorities. The money lost by reducing the GST by just 1% could have financed a universal early learning and child care system for three to five-year olds across the country.

At the same time the Harper government has been devoting large surpluses to debt repayment, they’ve been cutting social programs. Debt reduction will be cold comfort to the working families affected by the impending economic slowdown and who are even now living from pay cheque to pay cheque. Nor will it help new immigrants already clustered in low-wage, no benefits, precarious work.

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Ottawa – Former Reform MP Elwin Hermanson who was appointed chief commissioner of the Canadian Grain Commission only weeks ago is advocating in favour of a controversial bill that has never been endorsed by Parliament.

Hermanson authored a strongly worded opinion article in favour of amendments to the Canada Grain Act in Bill C-39 which was published in the February 7th edition of The Western Producer. Mr. Hermanson declares in his opinion article: “As chief commissioner of the CGC, I strongly support this legislation… .”

• Oppose amendments to Canada Grain Act: Fax your MP

The bill would gut or kill several services and regulatory oversight activities of the Canadian Grain Commission, leaving producers newly disadvantaged in their dealings with grain companies and undermining the quality and food safety assurance programs Canada’s international reputation for excellence are built upon.

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OTTAWA - The picture of employment of historically marginalized Canadians in the federal public service is not as rosy as the government would like to have us believe, says the Public Service Alliance of Canada, a union representing more than 100,000 federal public service workers.

“The report submitted by the Canada Public Service Agency to Parliament on Employment Equity support many of our arguments that we presented earlier this week to the Senate Standing Committee on Human Rights,” says Ed Cashman, the PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the National Capital Region.

• Read the report submitted to Parliament here (pdf)

For example, the government claims it is meeting its targets with respect to the representation of persons with disabilities relative to their labour market availability. However, the number of persons with disabilities who are hired into the government is below their labour market availability rate.

“In other words,” says Cashman, “the federal government is meeting its legal obligation not through proportional hirings but through injury and illness of workers already on the job. Some workers become persons with disabilities through the course of their careers.”

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Ottawa – Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz should retract a gag order which threatens Canadian Grain Commission employees who speak out against his government’s legislative proposal to gut the Commission, according to the Agriculture Union – PSAC which represents the employees.

On December 21^st, the Canadian Grain Commission issued a memo to employees forbidding them to publicly criticize Bill C-39, the government’s proposal to cripple the Commission.

“We hope the Minister will disassociate himself from the Commission’s intimidation and assure employees they are free to express their opinion,” said Bob Kingston, National Vice-President of the Agriculture Union – PSAC.

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(Ottawa) The federal government should withdraw amendments to the Grain Act in Bill C-39 because it will hurt grain producers and it ignores the unanimous advice from an all-party Commons committee, according to the Agriculture Union – PSAC.

• Fax your MP - Oppose the amendments to the Grain Act!

The Conservative government’s proposed legislation will gut the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC), the independent body that provides essential services to grain producers. Bill C-39 will be debated for the first time in Parliament today.

The legislation ignores the recommendation of an all–party committee by immediately and aggressively cutting the CGC’s regulatory responsibilities and services. After extensive study, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Agriculture recommended that the Commission receive increased funding to ensure that the essential services it offers to grain producers can be sustained.

“Instead of heeding the advice of politicians from all parties, the Conservative government is putting the future of farmers and of all Canadians who benefit from the grain trade at risk. This bill should be withdrawn and fixed before it is debated in Parliament,” said Bob Kingston, Executive Vice President of Agricultural Union - PSAC.

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source: The Ottawa Citizen, Jan 11, pg A1

Fat City is back. And according to a study of federal public service employment trends released yesterday, it’s putting on weight at a rapid rate.

The Statistics Canada study also found that, on average, public servants in this region are younger and more highly trained than those elsewhere in Canada.

The study reported that the number of people who work for the “core public administration” in the national capital region, which includes Ottawa, Gatineau and surrounding areas, grew by a stunning 20 per cent between 1995 and 2006, an additional 12,800 jobs.

By contrast, federal employment in the category fell 5.6 per cent nationally during the same period, shrinking by more than 10,000 to just under 178,000.

The core public administration represents nearly half of all federal employment and includes almost the entire public service other than the Canada Revenue Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency.

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Source: The Ottawa CitizenThe federal government has been discriminating against a group of federal nurses on the basis of their gender for more than three decades, the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal has ruled.

The ruling could potentially expose the government to hundreds of millions of dollars of liability for back wages and compensation, according to the lawyer for most of the nurses.

And the principles it endorses could apply to other employee groups as well, said Philippe Dufresne, senior counsel for the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

The human rights tribunal found that the nurses, who determine the eligibility of applicants for CPP disability benefits, perform essentially the same core functions as government doctors who are paid about twice as much.

The group of nurses, called medical adjudicators, is 95-percent female, while the doctors’ group, known as medical advisers, is 80-per-cent male.

Under the Canadian Human Rights Act, it is illegal to treat a female-dominated group differently from a male-dominated group when both perform the same or substantially similar work.

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Only Colombia is riskier for union organizers.

The Philippines provide a steady stream of hard working immigrants seeking a better life in British Columbia. For most of these newcomers, the pay may not stretch far, given the high cost of living here and, often, a chunk of the paycheque sent to help family back home.

• Send a message to the Philippine Government: stop the political killings! 

But at least in B.C., standing up for your rights on the job won’t get you killed.

Under the Arroyo government in the Philippines there has been a higher incidence of murders and assaults against union activists than during the notorious Marcos regime, according to a Philippine labour leader who recently toured Canada.

And an international study that reported a 25 per cent increase in murders of trade unionists around the world in 2006 says that the Philippines is the second most lethal environment for union activists globally, only topped for murder of union leaders by the blood stained record of Colombia.

Continue reading at thetyee.ca.

BC’s labour movement backs up support for locked-out Sears workers with $20,000 contribution to strike fund

BC’s unions are contributing $20,000 to locked-out Sears Canada workers today, says B.C. Federation of Labour Jim Sinclair, to underline labour’s determination to help them win a fair collective agreement.

“This contribution is intended to underline our call to consumers to refrain from shopping at Sears until this company negotiates a fair collective agreement with these members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 213,” Sinclair said. “Seventy-seven (77) workers who repair appliances for Sears have been locked out since October 1st, ordered to take pay cuts and face concessions on overtime and time off.”

Sinclair and other representatives of the Federation made the contribution during a lunchtime leafleting blitz outside the Vancouver store at Robson and Howe.

Sinclair said Sears, which had profits of $150 million last year, is taking a hard line with its workers that amounts to union-busting.  “This is unacceptable in this province and our boycott indicates labour’s rejection of this approach.”

Sinclair said the $20,000, collected from Federation affiliates in the last week, will help the union support its members during the Christmas season. During the past few days, IBEW has distributed flyers about the boycott to hundreds of thousands of homes in the province.

The labour movement in BC says shoppers have a choice to make during this busy holiday season.

“They’ve told them if they want to come back to work, they have to take less money in real terms than what they had before.” He says the company also took away their right to two days off in a row, and eliminated overtime when it imposed a contract.  “It’s completely unfair, and it’s just a question of deciding if you support these workers and their families, or Sears, which made $150 million last year in Canada.”

Sinclair claims Sears has a notoriously anti-union attitude, and believes the lock-out is an effort to break this union local.
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For more information, please call Geoff Meggs 604 220-3095.

Locked out workers take boycott of Sears to holiday shoppers

Vancouver – Locked out service technicians employed by Sears Canada, will be taking their boycott of Sears straight to holiday shoppers this weekend.

The 77 workers, members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) 213, have been locked out since October 1, 2007, when Sears Canada imposed a collective agreement, with no negotiated wage increases, cuts to holiday time, and a longer work week with no overtime.

The workers will be joined by Jim Sinclair, President, B.C. Federation of Labour, and Rick Dowling, International Executive Council Member, Business-Manager, IBEW 213.

WHAT: SEARS CANADA BOYCOTT
WHEN: 10:30 am, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2007
WHERE: OUTSIDE METROTOWN SEARS (4750 Kingsway, Burnaby, B.C.)

For more information, please contact Jessie Uppal at 604-220-0739

OTTAWA – Canadian workers have finally won new legal protection for their wages and their pension contributions when their employer goes bankrupt. Bill C-12, a series of amendments to existing insolvency and wage protection laws, was approved by the Senate last night and received Royal Assent today. This was accomplished after an intensive three-year campaign by the Canadian Labour Congress and its affiliated unions to change bankruptcy laws that unfairly put workers last line to get paid.

To print the English PDF version, please click here.

By JENNIFER LASH and BILL WAREHAM

Jennifer Lash is the Executive Director of Living Oceans Society and Bill Wareham is Senior Conservation Specialist, Marine Conservation Program, at David Suzuki Foundation.

VANCOUVER, B.C. - The ocean touches the lives of all Canadians every day.
It produces close to half of the oxygen in the world’s atmosphere. Canadians eat six kilograms of Canadian-caught seafood per capita each year. And our oceans’ resources contribute $23-billion annually to Canada’s economy.
Canadians from Calgary to Toronto benefit from a healthy ocean as much as the residents of Sointula, B.C., and Petty Harbour, Nfld./Lab.
So why, at a time of record surpluses, is the federal government letting the health of our oceans slip away?

Destructive fishing practices such as bottom trawling continue to destroy critical habitat, overfishing threatens the future of our fish stocks, and less than 0.1 per cent of our coastal and ocean environments are protected.

Canada took a progressive step towards caring for our coasts in 1997 when the Oceans Act was passed, enabling the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to manage not just the fish we harvest, but the ocean ecosystem as a whole. Further action in 2002 established the Oceans Strategy, a blueprint for sustainable use of the ocean.
And when Canada’s Oceans Action Plan was ratified in 2005, funds began to flow to Canada’s marine regions, empowering progressive changes in ocean management in the Maritimes, the Arctic, and the Pacific Coast of Canada.

However, this wave of change has slowed to a trickle. The federal government’s approach has significantly slowed progress on realizing an action plan that will ensure conservation of our marine resources.
The federal government’s proposal to establish nine marine protected areas across our three oceans is a good start.
However, the federal government failed to make a commitment to marine management planning processes that could lead to integrated oceans management and ensure all ocean-related activities are conducted in a manner that does not compromise the health of our ocean ecosystems. In short, their approach is the equivalent of setting up nine parks in Canada’s vast forest landscape and allowing the rest to be clear-cut.

Our oceans need a network of marine protected areas designed to conserve the full range and function of Canada’s marine ecosystems. Their choice and location should be based on the knowledge and needs of the people who work and live on our coasts. Our oceans need an ecosystem-based management approach—one that will allow us to harvest resources and realize the benefits provided by our oceans for generations to come. Canada has an Oceans Strategy that could make all this happen if it is actually implemented.

Right now, Canada’s oceans need some leadeship. The federal government failed to show leadership in the 2007 budget when it allocated a meagre $19-million over five years towards ocean conservation and clean water, and surveillance.
Additional funding provided this year gave priority to other issues. Funding for the Oceans Strategy was reduced to a trickle. Without sufficient funding, our oceans cannot be effectively managed. Canadians on every coast have voiced grave concern that the 2007 budget failed our oceans and along with them some of the most abundant and diverse webs of marine life on earth. It also failed the millions of Canadians whose livelihoods depend on healthy oceans.

Over the next few months, the federal government will set its fiscal priorities for the 2008 budget. This is a golden opportunity to invest the necessary funds initiatives that improve the management of our oceans.
To start, a $300 million investment over five years would ensure that Canada’s Oceans Strategy planning initiatives, management reforms and conservation goals can be achieved. The strategy is a good one, but it has languished because of a serious lack of funding and prioritization by government.
In 1997 Canada built an international reputation as a world leader in oceans management. Unfortunately, our reputation is quickly being tarnished as other countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the United States surpass us in implementing their own ocean legislation, policies and management reforms.
A healthy Canada includes healthy oceans. Let’s hope the Prime Minister and his government take corrective action soon. The federal government failed to show leadership in the 2007 budget when it allocated a meagre $19-million over five years towards ocean conservation and clean water, and surveillance. Additional funding provided this year gave priority to other issues. Funding for the Oceans Strategy was reduced to a trickle.

The Minister of Fisheries and many of his colleagues support the Oceans Strategy.
With a record federal surplus of $9-billion in the first six months of 2007, the government has the capacity to do the right thing. All that is lacking is the political will.

The Hill Times

OTTAWA - A strong majority of Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members have voted in favour of accepting a tentative agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency. The settlement had been negotiated before the expiry date of the old agreement, a remarkable achievement in the federal public sector.

“While we achieved an agreement in record time, we did not sacrifice important demands in the process,” says PSAC national president John Gordon. “Significant gains were made in wages, job security for term workers and improved benefits for part-time workers.”

According to Betty Bannon, national president of the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) Component of the PSAC, members have been impressed with the speed of the negotiations. “We achieved a goal the union set when the Agency was first formed, to eventually be able to negotiate a new agreement before the old one had expired.”

This agreement sees the conversion of former classifications in the bargaining unit to a new Agency classification standard. While the amounts will vary by individual, the average increase as a result of the conversion is 1.67%. After the salaries are converted to the new standard effective November 1, the workers will also receive an economic increase of 2.5%. Further wage increases during the life of the contract are 2.5% effective November 1, 2008 and 2.5% effective November 1, 2009.

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Nearly All Canadians Concerned about State of Fisheries in Canada - Union of Environment Workers Calls on Federal Government to Put More Money into Fisheries Protection and Enhancement

OTTAWA (November 21) – Nearly all Canadians (97%) are concerned about protecting Canada’s natural resources including fisheries and Canadians clearly give that concern priority over two issues at the forefront of the federal government’s agenda - protecting Canada’s sovereignty over the Arctic and maintaining Canadian ownership of large corporations. Moreover, the majority of Canadians say responsibility for the protection of the fisheries belongs to the federal government and that the government should provide more funding to ensure sustainability of this resource.

• Visit ourfish.ca and send a message to the Prime Minister & your MP!

Part of a recent Leger Marketing survey of Canadians conducted on behalf of the Union of Environment Workers (UEW), a component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the results were released on World Fisheries Day to mark the launch of a campaign calling on the federal government to put more money and resources into the monitoring, enforcement and conservation of Canadian fisheries.

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CUPE is joining hundreds of other organizations and individuals to urge Canada’s Prime Minister to immediately and publicly condemn President, General Pervez Musharraf for his recent dictatorial actions.

• Sign the petition: End emergency rule in Pakistan.

CUPE National President Paul Moist urged Stephen Harper in a letter to “take the action necessary to ensure that the people of Pakistan, and the thousands of Pakistani-Canadians who are watching in fear, can have hope that their loved ones will be safe.”

CUPE agrees with the International the Trade Union Confederation’s call for the immediate restoration of the rule of law, Pakistan’s constitution and the fundamental democratic rights of its people. CUPE also supports the petition condemning Musharraf for the house arrest of Pakistan’s Human Rights Commissioner, Asma Jahangir who has asked the US “to stop all support” to Musharraf’s regime to avoid “a worse form of civil strife.”

“Canada,” says Moist, should heed this advice as well.”

Workers at Ekati Diamond Mine reach tentative settlement for 2nd collective agreement

YELLOWKNIFE - Workers at the Ekati Diamond Mine represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada North have reached a tentative settlement for a second collective agreement at Canada’s only unionized diamond mine.

The proposed 4-year agreement comes after a series of negotiations concluded November 7 and the union bargaining team is recommending members vote in favour, says Jean-François Des Lauriers, Regional Executive Vice-President PSAC North.

Des Lauriers says the new contract contains significant improvements for diamond workers, including annual indexed wage increases above the rate of inflation, a very good incentive pay plan, improved seniority and layoff protection, better Short Term Disability program and other benefits to workers.

“Ekati Diamond Workers can today see the great benefits of joining a union and sticking with their union. This new contract is a substantial improvement on wages and working conditions that will serve our members well,” Des Lauriers said.

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by Murray Dobbin, The Tyee, November 1 2007

Taxes are the price of a civilized society. Support them.

So here we go again, another round of huge tax cuts as the country continues down the road to a neo-con dystopia. Over the next five years the revenue that pays for the things Canadians say they want will drop by $60 billion. There are cuts to the GST, to personal income taxes and corporate taxes — with the latter dropping by 2012 to 15 per cent (from 21 per cent today), an outrageous corporate giveaway, giving us third world status in the “attract investment” race to the bottom.

• More: PSAC news release - Tax cuts a sell out.

It is the continuation of a 20 years process of diminishing the country — a conscious plan implemented by three prime ministers from both the Liberal and Conservative parties. Between 1984 and 2006 the federal government, which is supposed to be looking after the interests of the country, has voluntarily given up over $250 billion in revenue — an amount that would have made a huge difference in the quality of life of Canada. We can now add $60 billion more. Provincial governments are equally culpable.

It’s not hard to list the things we could now be enjoying as a country had those cuts not been made, especially taking into account the annual revenue we would have: a national child care program, a national pharmacare program, a home care program, social housing, radical cuts in tuition fees, and the elimination of this country’s staggering infrastructure deficit, estimated to be between $60 billion and $120 billion.

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source: The Ottawa Citizen, Nov 5 2007

High stress levels, work-life balance main reasons for escalation, PSAC says

The incidence of disability claims by federal public servants is at a 37-year-high, with women bearing a disproportionate share of the burden, according to federal government figures presented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

In a presentation this week to a group of PSAC local officers, James Infantino, a PSAC pensions and disability insurance officer, singled out high job stress levels and problems with work-life balance as key reasons for the escalating claims.

“The federal government is a cesspool right now,” he said in an interview. “The stress levels are inconceivable, actually.”

The high rate of depression in the public service was pointed out in a major federal study of public service compensation that was posted without fanfare on Treasury Board’s website in July.

The study, commissioned in 2004 by former Treasury Board president Reg Alcock, made no attempt to explain why more public servants are unable to work because of psychological problems.

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The widely anticipated tax cuts announced in yesterday’s Economic and Fiscal Update confirm once again the Harper government’s preference for politics over meaningful public policy.

Betting that a $60 billion giveaway will give them a boost in the polls, the Harper government is playing shabby pre-election politics while furthering its agenda to shrink the capacity of government to act in the interests of all Canadians.

Massive tax cuts for the corporate sector – cuts that will take Canada’s rate to the bottom of industrialized countries by 2012 – are no substitute for investments in the nation’s social and physical infrastucture.

While the Harper government seeks to portray its single-minded focus on tax cuts and debt reduction as evidence of sound financial management, in fact the government’s approach is both unbalanced and risky – ignoring the needs of the majority of Canadians right now and endangering the country’s finances in the event of an economic downturn in the future.

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