Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

After almost one year of negotiations and with the assistance of a Conciliation Officer, a tentative agreement was reached between the Public Service Alliance of Canada and the Prince George Airport Authority on February 11, 2010. The agreement has been ratified by both parties.

Highlights of the agreement include:

• Duration: 4 year agreement (April 1, 2009, to March 31, 2013)
• Rates of Pay:
  • Effective January 1, 2010  – 1%
  • Effective April 1, 2010 – 1%
  • Effective April 1, 2011 – 3%
  • Effective April 1, 2012 – 3%
• Ratification bonus:  $300.00 to each employee
• Recall: Members in the AOS classification who are term, temporary or seasonal will have priority of recall for future opportunities in order of their original date of hire
• No Discrimination: Gender identity or expression added as prohibited grounds
• Call-back: employees to be paid for mileage in accordance with Treasury Board rates
• The parties will jointly participate in a Committee Effectiveness workshop provided by the Federal Medication and Conciliation Service. The objective is to provide tools to both parties for discussion and resolution of workplace issues during the term of the collective agreement.

The bargaining committee would like to thank the members working at the Prince George Airport for their support throughout this difficult round of negotiations.

DATE: February 9, 2010 (Tues)
TIME: 5:30 P.M.
LOCATION: PSAC Boardroom
210-1497 Admirals Rd
Victoria, BC

AGENDA: To be announced.

Please forward any agenda items to the Chair, Virginia Vaillancourt at: uvaevictoria@shaw.ca

Please R.S.V.P as various snack food will be provided – email Rosemary at mackenr@psac.com
Note: the building door is locked by 5:30, so please if you can, arrive a few minutes earlier. Thanks.

Here’s an interesting article relating to workplace bullying which was posted in the Toronto Star last November. The reporter is Janis Foord Kirk.

Getting stepped on at work

“She loved the work at first, ” a worried husband confides. “But now she drags herself in every day. A couple of people who’ve worked there for years seem to have it in for her. I can’t believe some of their antics. “Is this workplace bullying?” he asks. “And if it is, what can she do about it?”

Bullying is one of the fastest-growing complaints of workplace violence, according to the International Labour Office. It runs the gamut from extreme violence, even murder, to intimidation and snide remarks.

The psychological harassment of a co-worker tends to fall into the latter category. And when two or more people join forces to lie, gossip, criticize and socially isolate a specific employee, the ILO says, it’s called “mobbing” or “ganging up.”

Valerie Cade is a workplace bully expert based in Calgary who consults internationally on the issue. “It’s important to distinguish between workplace bullying and difficult behaviours, ” she cautions. “Bullying is deliberate, disrespectful, repeated malicious behaviour. Bullies really do know what they’re doing. This is the difference. A difficult person is just grouchy and steps on other boundaries in order to get their own needs met. But a bully will actually calculate how to embarrass and demean someone else.

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Greetings everyone,

This is a reminder that the PSAC Vancouver & Victoria Regional Offices will be closed between December 28th and January 1st.

For issues of an urgent nature that cannot wait until the office re-opens on January 4th, please phone 604-430-5631, or, 1-800-663-1655 and leave a voice mail at my extension, 227.  I will be checking messages regularly throughout the holidays and will return calls.

Have a happy, healthy and safe holiday season.

In Solidarity,

Joanna Schultz, Regional Coordinator PSAC BC
(604) 430-5631 / 1-800-663-1655 x 227

Greetings,

It is with great pleasure that I advise you that Patricia Mullin was the successful candidate in the recent Vancouver Regional Office Admin Assistant competition.

Patricia brings with her many years of experience in providing administrative support within the PSAC Vancouver Regional Office as a Secretary, and before that with CEIU.

Patricia is embracing her new challenge and will no doubt continue to make a positive contribution to the PSAC in her new role.

Congratulations Patricia!

Joanna Schultz, Regional Coordinator, PSAC BC

Please join the B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP) in celebrating International Human Rights Day!

December 10 marks the 61st anniversary the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In the spirit of building genuine people-to-people solidarity with those hardest hit by the financial crisis because of job loss and lack of economic security, and increasing violence by militarization and war, it is becoming more important for us to gather, listen and learn from each other as we organize in our struggles.

Join BCCHRP and special guests for a cultural evening of solidarity!

Rites for Humanity

• Wednesday, December 9 @ 7:00 pm
• Zawa Restaurant, 920 Commercial Drive, Vancouver
• $5-10 sliding scale donation at the door

Event organized by the B.C. Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (BCCHRP); Co-sponsored by the Vancouver & District Labour Council (VDLC) and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

Please contact bcchrp@kalayaancentre.net for more information.

Download the poster for the event here:  R4H

Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Time: 5:30 p.m.

Location: PSAC Vancouver Regional Office – 300-5238 Joyce St., Vancouver, B.C.

*Note: Meeting will be held on 3rd floor.

Agenda items so far include:

• Planning for the VAC Annual General Meeting (scheduled for October 27, 2009)
• Vancouver Area Council local/branch affiliation campaign

Please forward any other proposed agenda items and confirm your attendance to Monica as a light dinner will be served at ph: 604-430-5631.

Date: Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009

Time: 5:30 p.m.

Location: PSAC Vancouver Regional Office – 200-5238 Joyce St., Vancouver, B.C.

Agenda:

• Participation in the upcoming Labour Day Picnic (scheduled for Sept 7th)
• Health and Safety resolutions for consideration to be submitted to the PSAC National H&S conference (deadline of Sept 18th)

Please forward any other proposed agenda items and confirm your attendance to Monica as a light dinner will be served at ph: 604-430-5631.

Torstar news service

Nearly 3,400 Ontario students who spend their summers working in provincial parks say the government is ripping them off by $400 to $600 each by refusing to give them holiday pay � a move they say is an abuse of labour laws.

For years, summer students received an 8.16 per cent top-up in lieu of having a paid vacation and statutory holidays off � a practice the government says was a mistake and should never have occurred.

During bargaining talks last December with the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, the province told the union it would no longer pay the top-up amount.

Student protests took place at four provincial parks on the weekend � Algonquin, Pinery, Sibbald Point and Wheatley.

Without this money, argues Seneca College student Helena Whale, most park workers make less on a statutory holiday than do employees at McDonald�s.

�Any other employer in Ontario has to pay compensation for these holidays, except for the government,� said Whale, a shift supervisor at Sibbald Point Provincial Park.

�They�ve exempted themselves. You�d think the Ontario government would be willing to pay their students, the future of Ontario, more than that.�

Students employed in the Ontario public service are not eligible to receive pay-in-lieu for vacation and holidays, said Ciaran Ganley, a spokesperson for the government services ministry.

The government pays 73 per cent of OPSEU-represented summer students $11.10 an hour, he said, a higher rate than the $9.50 minimum wage.

Cheers to Mandi Schubert (CEIU 20975) for forwarding these photos! PSAC and other Union members marched with “Pride in Labour” at the Victoria Pride Celebrations, Sunday July 5th.

For more about Pride in Victoria, visit victoriapridesociety.org and check out the Vancouver Sun news report.

Click for the photos …

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We�re back at the table but where are our agreements?

Negotiations have resumed with Treasury Board for our PA, SV, FB and EB units. Our TC team will be in mediation from October 8 to 10. Our Parks Canada team started mediation on September 29 and our CFIA team is back at the bargaining table this week. We�re back at the table but we�re still not close to settlements.

What�s the election got to do with it?

This federal election is critical for PSAC members and for the future of federal public services. What will happen to individual Canadians and to our communities if governments continue to cut budgets and programs, contract out, privatize or eliminate the services we deliver?

It�s also critical because PSAC members in the federal public sector are not just electing a government, we�re electing our employer.

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• July 9th, 5:30PM
• PSAC Vancouver RO, 200 – 5238 Joyce Street
• (1 1/2 blk south of the Skytrain)

Come and listen to bargaining updates from members of PSAC units that are currently in bargaining: Treasury Board, CFIA, Commissionaires and Parks. If time allows, there will be a question and answer session.

Please RSVP to Regina Brennan at (604) 430 5631 x 228 so we can plan for dinner.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada joins the Assembly of First Nations’ call for a National Day of Action in Support of First Nations on May 29, 2008.

The National Day of Action is an opportunity for First Nations and Canadians to stand together in a spirit of unity to support a better life for all First Nations and Aboriginal peoples, according to the AFN.

PSAC supports the AFN’s call for the federal government to work with First Nations to create a better future for all First Nations children by eradicating First Nations poverty – which many recognize as the greatest social injustice in Canada.

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OTTAWA – The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) doesn’t buy Treasury Board’s recent statement that they are committed to the bargaining process and achieving a fair settlement. Treasury Board has called on the union to respect bargaining dates that had been tentatively scheduled for June.

After a year at the bargaining table, PSAC is essentially in the same place as it was going into bargaining in 2007, according to PSAC’s National President John Gordon.

“In one year of bargaining, we’ve spent most of our time signing off articles in the collective agreement that are being renewed without change, or resisting Treasury Board’s attempts to reduce existing benefits,” says Gordon. “Many of the employer’s demands for take-aways are finally being withdrawn, but this only brings us back to the status quo.”

Gordon says the last straw was the unacceptable wage offer Treasury Board presented to our bargaining teams. At negotiation sessions that have been taking place over the last two weeks, PSAC members were offered increases of 1.5%. 1.5%, 1.2% and 1.2% over a four-year agreement; increases that will see the value of their salaries decrease as a result of inflation.

“Treasury Board has had ample opportunity in the last year to be more productive at the bargaining table and to negotiate towards a settlement,” says Gordon. “Given that their standard response so far has been to say no to most of our economic and non-monetary demands, another few days of meetings in June for each team wouldn’t make a difference.”

PSAC bargaining team members are now out across the country talking to members about the Treasury Board wage offer at workplace meetings, conferences and conventions, before the union returns to the bargaining table.

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source: The Ottawa Citizen, Friday, May 23, 2008

The stage is set for increased tension in negotiations between Treasury Board and the 120,000 federal public servants represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

John Gordon, the union’s national president, said last night that government negotiators yesterday afternoon put a monetary offer on the table, “which is, quite frankly, insulting.”

The four-year offer included annual wage increases of 1.5, 1.5, 1.2 and 1.2 per cent.

“We were looking for some respect from this employer, which has told us they were bargaining in good faith,” Mr. Gordon said. “We’ve been at this for a year and they come in and insult our members like that … those valuable employees they talk about at every turn. Well, I’ll tell you, those valuable employees are somewhat upset.”

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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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“Employees will not be worse off than the core of the Federal Public Service” – Tom Lee, CEO Parks Canada Agency

One of the priority bargaining proposals for the current round of bargaining with the Agency is protection against job loss. Parks Canada has announced that they intend to reduce the bargaining unit in a number of different ways.

The Agency issued a document called “Integrated Delivery Through Shared Leadership – Mountain Parks Business Plan – 2007/08-20011/12”. In this document under the “Recruiting” section Parks Canada states “An aggressive and coordinated mountain park student recruitment program will be put in place, targeting 50% of pure summer seasonal positions to be staffed by students within five years.”

Seasonal employment is but one aspect of the Agencies plan to attack the current size of our bargaining unit by taking away your seasonal work.

Contact a member of your Local’s Executive to find out what you can do to assist and support your bargaining team. United We Stand!

• Sign up for regional TB bargaining updates by email
• Contact your Area/Hub Strike Coordinator here.

Your PA negotiating team finished its work on our pay proposal and spent two days, April 23 and 24, with the Treasury Board team.

Our proposal has three significant elements:

1. Adjusting our salaries to keep them in line with other federal public sector employers

We’re proposing what are known as “market adjustments” so that salary rates in the PA unit are in line with comparable jobs in the federal public sector – particularly the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

Effective June 21, 2007, before applying an economic increase, we’re proposing that job rates (the maximum rate) for each classification, except WPs, be increased to the job rates for comparable positions at CRA when they were converted to their new classifications on November 1, 2007. To ensure that none of our members are left behind, we’ve also asked for increases to job rates for the small number of classifications and levels that can’t be compared to CRA. These market adjustments, if implemented, would result in increases to all pay rates.

In the case of WP positions, and two groups of PM-4 positions with enforcement responsibilities, we’re proposing adjustments based on the results of an Enforcement Study conducted for the Union by compensation consultants Morneau Sobeco. For WPs, we’re proposing to increase all job rates, which would result in an increase to all WP pay rates. For PM-4 wildlife officers and fishery officers with enforcement duties, we’re proposing an annual allowance, on top of the market adjustment for PM-4s, outlined above.

2. Changes to our system of increments

Right now there are differences in the number of increments for each of the groups in the PA bargaining unit. In order to even this out, we’re proposing that there be a job rate (the maximum rate) and two increments for most levels in each classification. The period between increments would in most cases be 52 weeks and the difference between most levels in each classification would be 4%.
Deep discounts shouldn’t apply to your job

We’re proposing this change to stop the employer’s practice of discounting your job. We understand that some members see the increments as a way for the employer to recognize their years of service. But think again. The actual value of each classification is the maximum rate. Increments are calculated downwards from that rate. In other words, every year that you are not at your maximum rate, the employer is devaluing your work, not recognizing it. We want to reduce the number of years the employer can take advantage and pay you less than your job is worth. Fewer increments mean more years at the maximum rate of pay.

3. A fair economic increase

After applying market adjustments and fixing up the increment system, we’re proposing economic increases of

• 4.5% – effective June 21, 2007
• 4.5% – effective June 21, 2008
• 4.5% – effective June 21, 2009

The full details of our pay proposal will be posted on the PSAC web site soon.

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The factors that go into developing a pay demand

Our Union considers a number of factors when putting together a pay demand.

1. We examine what other workers are being paid who are doing comparable work and we make direct comparisons with PSAC members working for other federal employers.

We use union research, sometimes supplemented by compensation studies, to see what workers are being paid for comparable jobs both in the public and private sectors. With this data, we can propose what are known as “market adjustment” increases. These increases are designed to keep the federal government competitive as an employer. In an economy with low rates of unemployment and an aging workforce, that’s important. Our negotiating teams for each Treasury Board unit are determining what “market adjustment” increases are needed for their members. Look for more information on proposed adjustments in upcoming bulletins from the negotiating teams.

1. We calculate what we need to give our members some real economic improvement that reflects the continued strength of the Canadian economy and protects against inflation.
2. We consider what kinds of increases other workers are negotiating.

Our demand for 2007-2008-2009

For this round of negotiations, we’re proposing:

• an economic increase of 4.5%,
• in each year of a three-year collective agreement,
• retroactive to the first day of the new three-year agreement (the date in 2007 will vary by bargaining unit),
• that applies to all members covered by the agreement.

This proposal has already been tabled with Treasury Board for the PA and FB units and will be soon for the SV unit.

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You are invited to a rally to help save the public school lands of British Columbia on Monday, April 7, at 11:30 a.m. These lands were given in public trust for all generations of children and they are not ours to sell. Universal public education is a cornerstone of our democracy and our economic security. Once these school lands are disposed of we will never get them back. Join us – if you can’t make it to Victoria on the 7th, please contact us for more information on how you can support this cause in your part of the province.
LANDS! (Let’s Agree Not to Dispose of Schools!) bc.lands@gmail.com
LANDS! Statement.   Backgrounder