Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Ottawa - The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) welcomes into its ranks all commissionnaires working in Health Canada buildings in the National Capital Region. For PSAC, this union victory is part of an extensive recruiting campaign aimed at better defending the rights of these workers.“We had to put in a lot of hard work to unionize this group of commissionnaires” , declared PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President, Ed Cashman. “Although they are spread out geographically which makes it difficult to organize them, these workers have the same rights as all Canadians, and it is our role as a union to ensure that these rights are protected.”

During the recruiting campaign, the union ran into opposition from the employer and was confronted by attempts to intimidate the employees.

“It is totally unacceptable that, in this day and age, an employer is so fiercely opposed to organizing a group of workers,” Cashman said. “The rights to associate and have union representation are recognized everywhere in Canada, and we should not have to fight to exercise them.

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GATINEAU, March 10 /CNW Telbec/ - The reinstatement of Edith Gendron at Canadian Heritage has sent a clear message to all workers in the Federal Public Service: you have political rights and you have the right to assert them.

According to the PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President for the National Capital Region, Ed Cashman, “the decision rendered by the Public Service Labour Relations Board yesterday is a victory for freedom of expression and association for our membership and for the entire Federal Public Service. The decision clearly spells out that, in this region, it is possible to freely express oneself politically and assert oneself without fear of reprisals.”

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The Department of Canadian Heritage has been ordered to reinstate a former employee who was fired because she belonged to a sovereigntist organization.

The Public Service Labour Relations Board has ruled that Edith Gendron was improperly fired two years ago.

Gendron may have been in conflict of interest when she was elected president of the group Le Quebec, un Pays in 2004, but the board found that Gendron’s termination was an excessive reaction, and ordered the government to give her back her job.

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After 12 years under the Liberals, government workers across the nation’s capital woke up to a new boss Tuesday morning.

“I feel a little bit like a virgin on her wedding night. It’s exciting, but there’s fear and trepidation to see what’s coming next,” said Ed Cashman, vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada in the National Capital Region.

Despite some anxiety, Cashman believes public service employees are bound to benefit from the new marriage.

One immediate advantage of the new Conservative goverment, in Cashman’s view, is the end of Reg Alcock’s term.

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