Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

OTTAWA – The union representing about 10,500 CBSA workers, which includes all of Canada’s Front-Line and Inland Customs & Immigration Officers, is charging the employer of being irresponsible with how it is handling workplace issues, including the implementation of the arming initiative.

The government has given CBSA a mandate for a smooth transition over a 10-year period for the implementation of the arming of Canada’s border officers, but the Public Service Alliance of Canada says the Agency is not following that mandate at the bargaining table.

“Our union has been pushing for a smooth transition that ensures that officers are protected through the arming implementation process,” says PSAC National President John Gordon. “CBSA has responded irresponsibly by implying that officers may be laid off as a result of arming. CBSA has also indicated that there is no long-term plan regarding implementation.”

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OTTAWA – The union representing about 5,000 workers at Parks Canada denounces the employer’s attempt at undermining contract negotiations when the Agency’s negotiators walked away from the table.

The union adds that the employer’s inflexibility on its meagre wage offer, on the elimination of pay zones and on closing the pay gap for Parks trade workers is a strong indication that the Agency is not taking negotiations seriously.

“After we reached impasse last February, the employer contacted us and asked us to return to the table because they said they were ready to respond seriously to our demands,” said the Public Service Alliance of Canada Regional Executive Vice-President for Atlantic, Jeannie Baldwin. “We came back to the table last week. After seven days of talks where they refused to budge from their positions, they walked away from bargaining and are now proposing mediation to which we don’t agree.”

Baldwin says in order for mediation to work, the two parties have to be close to an agreement, but this is not the case given that the employer refuses to deal with the major issues. “We want the employer to come back to the table and negotiate,” Baldwin says.

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OTTAWA – The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is taking a quarter century-old pay equity complaint to the Federal Court of Appeal. The complaint involves about 6,000 current and former clerical workers at Canada Post. The union is reacting to a lower court decision issued in February that essentially overturned an award made by a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal in October 2005.

PSAC National President John Gordon announced the decision to appeal at a national bargaining conference being held in Ottawa with members of PSAC’s Union of Postal Communications Employees component who are employed by Canada Post.

“We believe the Federal Court’s decision is flawed and there are strong grounds for an appeal,” said Gordon. “Some aspects of the decision are contradictory while others ignore the roles and authority of both the Tribunal and the Canadian Human Rights Commission.”

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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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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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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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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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OTTAWA – The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has achieved an historic milestone in its bargaining history. The union has negotiated a tentative agreement with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) before the expiry date of the current contract.

“Negotiating a new contract before the old one has expired is virtually unheard of in the federal public sector,” says PSAC National President John Gordon. “In this case, both negotiating teams were focused on reaching a new agreement and we have achieved this in record time.”

• CRA Bargaining update, ratification kit & other details available here.

The union served notice to bargain and exchanged bargaining demands with the CRA at the beginning of July. Intense negotiations took place over a two-week period in September and resumed in mid-October.

“Our negotiating team is making a unanimous recommendation of acceptance to our members,” says Gordon. “The speed of these negotiations did not affect our ability to achieve important gains.”

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OTTAWA – The federal government should call off the sale of nine federal office buildings in the wake of its last minute decision to pull two Vancouver properties out of the transaction, according to the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Sale of the Sinclair Centre and another office and retail complex in downtown Vancouver had been stalled in late September by an injunction when the Federal Court ruled Ottawa had failed to consult the aboriginal band on whose traditional territory the buildings reside.

• Stop the sale! Send a message to your MP.

Faced with this legal roadblock, Public Works and Government Services Minister Michael Fortier has decided to yank the two Vancouver buildings from the sale.

“We know the sale is a terrible deal for taxpayers. We now also know there are serious legal issues with implications for Aboriginal land claims that have clearly taken the federal government by surprise as well,” said Patty Ducharme, National Executive Vice-President of the PSAC.

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While Stephen Harper paid lip service to the ideals of peace, order and good government, the October 16th Speech from the Throne does little to promote these ideals in concrete terms.

Announcing a legislative agenda that prominently features deregulation, broad-based tax cuts, self-imposed limits to federal spending along with inaction on the environment, poverty and the growing prosperity gap, the Harper government has served notice that it intends to degrade existing public services and severely limit the government’s ability to address emerging needs in the future.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada says the government has got it wrong. The Harper Conservatives continue to fail to understand that enlightened investment in people through stable funding for programs and public services is one of the hallmarks of a progressive, modern society and the birthright of every Canadian.

In the wake of enormous budget surpluses, the government’s failure to invest in Canada and in the health and welfare of all citizens is a national embarrassment. Canadians deserve better!

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The negotiations started in July 2006. From the start, the Corps of Commissionaires displayed its usual bag of bad tricks. They fired one of the members of the PSAC negotiating team and imposed disciplinary measures on another. However, that only served to strengthen our members’ resilience and solidarity. The members fought the firing and the disciplinary measures and they won. The Corps had to reinstate our member and it dropped the disciplinary measures against the other member of the negotiating team.

The parties reached a tentative agreement in February 2007 and the agreement was promptly ratified by the PSAC. However, the Corps kept refusing to sign it. This prompted the PSAC to file a complaint of bad faith bargaining and, after one day of hearings on October 2, the Corps finally agreed to ratify the new collective agreement.

The contract provides our members with a grievance and arbitration procedure, health and safety provisions, a hiring process, job security and salary increases. The contract expires in March 09.

For our members, the signing of this collective agreement demonstrates once again that solidarity among the membership will always win the struggle, even against the toughest employer.

Ottawa - In a week that saw the National Association of Women and the Law forced to close its doors because of funding cuts and the announcement of drastic funding cuts at Environment Canada that threaten environmental monitoring programs and the Canadian Wildlife Service, Canadians should question the Harper Government’s constant refrain that budgetary surpluses should be directed towards tax cuts.

The government announced on Thursday that it will use part of its nearly $14 billion budget surplus to fund $725 million in tax cuts – an amount that adds up to about $35 for every taxpayer.

“Thursday’s announcement is one more example that shows the Harper government’s budgetary policy is out of touch with the views of Canadians, including the members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. We all want more services not less,” says John Gordon, National President of the PSAC.

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OTTAWA – The Harper government, having finally figured out that being seen to be “green” could translate into votes, is in the process of sacrificing other vital Environment Canada programs in a misguided attempt to focus almost exclusively on climate change.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada’s Union of Environment Workers (PSAC/UEW) takes strong exception to Environment Minister John Baird’s claims that no programs have been cut and that spending is just being prioritized for climate change initiatives.

“Program budgets that are being slashed by 50 to 100 percent are cuts,” says UEW National President Bill Pynn, “regardless of what the government may claim.”

“The government’s decision to cut programs not related to climate change demonstrates their lack of a comprehensive plan for sustaining and protecting our environment and their abysmal lack of understanding of the important work Environment Canada performs,” says Pynn. “It is also one more move by the Harper government to reduce if not eliminate the federal government’s responsibility to provide necessary public services at the national level.”

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OTTAWA – In spite of election promises by Stephen Harper, women’s groups who track women’s inequalities and advocate for change, such as the National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL) are being forced to close their doors, according to the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

“During the last election campaign, Harper promised to do more to meet Canada’s international obligations to women’s equality,” says PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President Robyn Benson. “Less than a year after forming the government, then Minister responsible for the Status of Women Bev Oda declared women equal, closed most of the Status of Women Canada (SWC) regional offices and cut funding for research and advocacy.”

“Now, one by one, women’s organizations who lobby for change are being forced to shut down. Today, NAWL’s offices are closing and others are expected to follow.”

Women’s inequality in Canada is still very much an issue. Women are more likely to be poor and almost half of Canada’s poor children live with a single female parent. Women’s earnings are still 71% of men’s earnings and average incomes for Aboriginal, disabled and racialized women are even lower. Women make up 51% of the population but still only hold 20% of the seats in the House of Commons.

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