Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

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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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.

The federal budget will probably talk about both short term measures and long term measures to slay the deficit. Some of those measures could involve direct attacks on federal public sector workers. Read more at the national website, and download the budget background documents on …

• Child care
• Debt and deficits
• Destroying public services
• A healthy economy
• Taxes and public services

Powerful business interests, some corporate media, and corporate think-tanks such as the C.D. Howe Institute and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, are pressuring the Harper government to attack our pensions under the guise of reducing the deficit.

The PSAC is launching a campaign to stop the attack on our pension and to ensure that all Canadians have a safe and secure public pension when they retire.

Here are some of the campaign materials (all pdf):

• A petition that can be circulated and returned to PSAC,
• The ‘Retirement security for all‘ flyer which summarizes the issue and what we can do to take action to protect our pensions
• ‘Building on what works‘ – a series of myths and facts about public and defined pension plans.

Please give these wide circulation in your worksites. All of these materials, as well as an on-line petition, are available at the national website which will continue to be updated as the campaign progresses.

In B.C. we are organizing an M.P. lobby on the issue. Meetings of union officers and members will be held to ensure members are well-equipped to lobby their M.P.s; write letters to the editor; gather petitions; talk to co-workers, friends, and neighbours etc. Staff from the PSAC Regional Offices will contact you soon regarding these activities.

The Conservative Government will table a new budget on March 4th. Please join with me and PSAC members from coast-to-coast-to-coast-to-coast to let them know that we are against using federal public sector workers as scapegoats and attacking pension plans and the important public services we deliver.

We need you to be involved in this crucial campaign.

In Solidarity, Kay Sinclair, Regional Executive Vice-President, BC

Lobby groups with the Harper government’s ear are making much of the federal public service’s pension. They’re calling for cutbacks spreading misinformation and distortions to make their case for funding tax cuts and investment loopholes that would benefit their constituents.

We need to make sure Harper knows he’s in for a fight if he wants to pilfer our deferred wages or weaken our pension plan.

Take action to protect your pension:

• Sign our online petition calling for retirement security for all and to preserve federal public service pension plans.
• Follow us on Twitter: PSAC BC | PSAC National
• Join our Facebook Fan page: PSAC BC | PSAC National
• Forward this URL via email to co-workers, friends and family who share your concerns about federal public service pensions and retirement security.

National parks are more vulnerable to abuse now that the federal government has cut more than three-quarters of its park wardens, ex-wardens say.

As well, the downsizing � from more than 400 wardens to about 60 in Canada’s 42 national parks � has created uncertainty and distrust in the service as it gears up to celebrate its 100th year.

The new arrangement signals the end of what retired warden Scott Ward calls “the generalist warden” who took care of resource management, public safety and backcountry patrols.

“No two ways about it, I think that the parks are going to be exploited,” says Dale Portman, president of the Park Warden Service Alumni Society of Alberta. Portman, a warden of almost three decades who now lives in Cochrane, believes the new warden force will be too small to monitor ATVs, poaching and helicopter activity in remote wilderness areas. “It’s kind of like the Calgary city police losing three-quarters of their law enforcement capability but still saying that they’ll still be able to deal with the crime.”

Kathy Calvert, another retired warden who spent 25 years in the service, believes parks will have more illegal fishing, hunting and perhaps even logging. “There’s not going to be anybody there to even know when it’s happening,” says Calvert, who’s married to Portman. “The absence will be palpable.”

About 300 former wardens have been demoted, rebranded as resource management and public safety personnel. They’re responsible for jobs like trail maintenance, ecological studies and fire management.

… continue reading at straightgoods.ca

OTTAWA � The Public Service Alliance of Canada is thrilled with the results of a new study proving that public services make a significant contribution to Canadians� standard of living � worth at least 50 per cent of their income.

The study, released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, thoroughly debunks the notion that tax cuts put money in people�s pockets. In fact, authors Hugh Mackenzie and Richard Shillington prove that tax cuts actually take money away from most workers and would be better spent by investing in public services for Canadians.

�Quality public services improve Canadians� lives in so many immeasurable ways. But this new study demonstrates the fact that middle-income Canadian families benefit from public services that are worth about $41,000 per year � or 63 per cent of their income,� says John Gordon, PSAC�s National President.

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In response to the world-wide financial instability affecting global equity markets, stakeholder concerns have prompted the federal government to undertake cross country hearings to examine the state of pension funds and the regulations that govern them.

The federal government regulates a number of private pension plans governed by the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985. These plans cover many workers in the federal jurisdiction in transportation, telecommunications and banking, including PSAC members employed by Canada Post, Nav Canada, Purolator Courier, members who work for the many airport authorities across the country and members who participate in separate pension plans in the Yukon and Northwest Territories and Nunavut, as well as members employed with other bargaining units governed by the Canada Labour Code.

The government’s discussion paper, called Strengthening the Legislative and Regulatory Framework for Private Pension Plans Subject to the Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985, was released January 9 and is available at the Department of Finance website at www.fin.gc.ca.

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Federal legislation would let grain firms inspect own product for safety, expose farmers to new risks

Well-functioning regulatory systems tend to be invisible, until tragedy occurs. It is only after someone dies from drinking contaminated water or eating tainted food, a bank fails or a highway overpass collapses that the public realizes that something is wrong.

Citizens rightly expect their governments to protect them and to act in the public interest. Too often governments fail to do so, instead responding to corporate pressure to weaken regulations so that businesses can cut costs and increase profits. Recent outbreaks of food-borne illnesses — listeriosis in Canada, melamine contamination in China, and salmonella poisoning in the U.S. — underline the dangers to the public of cutting back on government oversight and inspections in the food system.

Yet these lessons seem to be lost on the Conservative federal government, which is threatening another of Canada’s highly successful regulatory systems. Legislation now before Parliament — Bill C-13 — would gut Canada’s world-class grain regulatory system.

Read more at The Edmonton Journal

Our parliamentary democracy continues to be tarnished with the passage into law of another Conservative omnibus budget bill. Unable to accept their position as a minority government, the Conservatives have chosen, once again, to ram through legislation completely unrelated to the budget without time for proper scrutiny.

Bill C-10 is full of poison pills including wage roll-backs, a new pay equity law for federal public sector workers that is anything but, watered down environmental protection of our navigable waters and considerable loosening of foreign investment limits, among many other changes.

At the same time, the budget and its stimulus measures provide virtually no help for social infrastructure such as child care or for industries and jobs that are not �shovel ready�.

The Conservatives’ callous use of the unemployed to get its budget bill passed � the extra five week’s of benefits only become effective once the bill becomes law � is reprehensible, as is their refusal to fix the system to allow more workers, particularly women, to access the benefits they have been paying for and to provide a reasonable level of benefits. They even reinforced this position when they recently voted against an opposition motion to improve EI. The motion passed but the government will take no action.

The Harper government had a choice. They could have introduced a budget that was just a budget. There was absolutely no reason to include such a wide range of legislative changes in the budget bill, changes that would normally have been introduced as separate pieces of legislation with sufficient time for proper scrutiny by the House of Commons and the Senate. Instead the Conservatives chose to abuse our parliamentary democracy.

More than 550 pages of a bill have been given Royal Assent and have become law. I doubt very few of our MPs and Senators can tell you the extent of Bill C-10, much less what impact it will have on us, our economy, our environment and our country.

C-10 became law but not without a valiant effort by our members and staff who met with, phoned, e-mailed and petitioned both MPs and Senators; who demonstrated and made their opposition known; who joined with women’s groups, the unemployed and other concerned citizens to protest against the ugliest features of this bill. I thank you for everything that you have done.

PSAC will continue its fight against unjust legislation. Challenging bad law in the courts is one avenue. But legal action isn’t enough. We all need to talk to our family, friends and neighbours and to connect with others in our community who believe that what this government is doing is unjust and undemocratic. We need to continue the pressure on our MPs to bring them to account. We need to be prepared for the next election. And we need to start this now.

John Gordon, PSAC National President

The Senate has an opportunity to remove the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act from the Budget Implementation Act, without delaying the passage of the budget and economic stimulus measures contained in C-10.

Please take a minute to send an email to the members of the Senate National Finance Committee and to the Senators in BC urging them to support the removal of the PSECA from Bill C-10!

For more information, see “Senators on the right track with budget bill” at the national website.

VANCOUVER, B.C. – B.C. fishermen are demanding the federal government take responsibility for the salmon farming industry, and start applying the same rules to the controversial operations as they apply to the commercial fishing sector.

A petition signed by hundreds of fishermen has been sent to Fisheries Minister Gail Shea and Paul Sprout, the Pacific director general of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

• Read the full text of the petition, and add your name to it here.

The petition notes last month’s B.C. Supreme Court ruling that salmon farms should be regulated by the federal department, not the province as they are now.

“Now that the regulatory agency is supposed to be the federal government, we’re saying that the regulations that apply to the commercial sector should also apply to the farm fish sector,” said Joy Thorkelson, with the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union.

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We may have to erect a tombstone on Parliament Hill and inscribe it “Here lies pay equity,” if Canada’s MPs support the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act, buried deep in C-10, the Conservative’s Budget Implementation Act.

Eleven recipients of the Governor General’s Award in Commemoration of the Persons Case, the country’s highest honour given to women, and more than 60 experts on women’s human rights have called on Stephen Harper to drop this legislation because it empties women’s right to equal pay for equal work of its meaning. But media space has more readily been given to those denigrating pay equity with such old saws as “Equal pay for work of equal value is like comparing apples and oranges.” In contrast to Canada, the EU has recently moved to strengthen its pay equity legislation. The European Parliament has called “for the organization of a European Equal Pay Day to contribute to raising awareness about the existing wage gap and to encourage all those involved to take additional initiatives to eliminate this gap.” Yet in Canada, conservative economists continue to posit, contrary to extensive evidence, that the market, if left unregulated, will resolve wage and other financial inequities. But history shows that the absence of market regulation leads to, rather than prevents, gender inequity. And recent global economic events further reveal the problem with unregulated markets.

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The Conservatives� Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-10) legislates rates of pay for employees of Treasury Board and all other federal agencies. The bill legislates wage increases of 2.5%, 2.3%, 1.5%, 1.5% and 1.5% from 2006-2011.

For PSAC members, who are covered by collective agreements, the provision that allows the government to roll back negotiated wage increases covers any increases during the period from December 8, 2008 to March 31, 2011. The Act explicitly states that it will roll back any wage increases that differ from this formula, stating that they �are of no effect and are� deemed never to have had effect,� during this period.

A string of broken agreements

This attempt to rewrite history will directly affect a large number of PSAC members who negotiated wage increases and collective agreements freely and fairly with their employers.

• Canada Revenue Agency: the 2009 negotiated increase of 2.5% will be rolled back, even though it was negotiated back in October 2007.
• National Gallery of Canada: the 2009 negotiated increase of 2.5% will be rolled back.
• Canada Council for the Arts: the 2.5% negotiated increases for 2009 and 2010 will both be rolled back.
  Canadian Museum of Nature: the 2009 negotiated increase of 2% will be rolled back.
• National Arts Centre: the 2009 negotiated increase of 2.5% for the ushers and tour guides will be rolled back and the 2.5% increases for 2009 and 2010 for property management, security and parking services will be rolled back.

Workers� rights under attack

PSAC is convinced that Bill C-10 violates a 2007 Supreme Court of Canada decision that found free collective bargaining to be encompassed and protected by the 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Court stated that: �Recognizing that workers have the right to bargain collectively as part of their freedom to associate reaffirms, enhances and promotes the values of dignity, personal autonomy, equality and democracy that are inherent in the Charter.� The 2007 ruling also made a point of rejecting earlier Supreme Court decisions that excluded collective bargaining from the Charter�s protection, saying those decisions would not stand up to principled scrutiny.

If workers have a Charter-protected right to bargain collectively, then it is reasonable to expect that the contracts they negotiate should be protected as well and not subject to the whims of politicians.

Download the fact sheet here (pdf).

Ottawa � The 166,000-member Public Service Alliance of Canada made its submission to the Standing Committee on Finance today, criticizing the federal government for only allowing three days of debate on the far-reaching Budget Implementation Act, given its serious implications for workers’ and women’s rights.

In particular, PSAC’s submission highlights the following problematic features of the Act:

• The Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act would make it virtually impossible for women in the federal public sector to be paid equal pay for work of equal value. It uses pay equity as a bargaining chip during negotiations where the employer historically holds the balance of power. It bars unions from supporting members who want to make pay equity claims. Bill C-10 would do nothing to narrow the income gap between women and men in the federal public service.
• The wage roll-backs contained in the Expenditure Restraint Act would overturn collective agreements that were fairly negotiated. Bill C-10 undermines workers’ constitutional right to free collective bargaining.

�Government officials have admitted that there’s no proof that the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act will save the government any money. So why is it in the budget bill?� asked John Gordon, PSAC National President. �It won’t help the economy or save jobs. It will prevent women in the federal public sector from demanding equal pay for work of equal value. It has no place in the budget.�

PSAC is demanding that Parliament remove the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act from Bill C-10 and halt the wage roll-backs contained in the Expenditure Restraint Act.

Ottawa didn’t do cost estimates for new Tory plan, senior officials acknowledge

OTTAWA � Ottawa prepared no estimates to demonstrate that a controversial and divisive shift in establishing pay equity for 400,000 federal public servants would ultimately save taxpayers money, senior officials acknowledged yesterday.

Under the new regime the Harper government first unveiled in a restraint package last fall, the Canadian Human Rights Commission will be forbidden from hearing complaints from federal public servants on pay equity. That has previously served as the first step in a dispute process that led to litigation forcing Ottawa to dole out big settlements for pay imbalances.

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Ottawa � The Public Service Alliance of Canada is encouraging opposition members to remove legislation from the budget bill that would prevent women in the federal public sector from demanding equal pay for work of equal value.

The 166,000-member union is concerned that the Public Sector Equitable Compensation Act will remove women’s ability to file pay equity complaints, making the process even more difficult than the current complaints-based system.

The �pay equity� bill is part of the omnibus Budget Implementation Act (Bill C-10), which was tabled on February 7, 2009. PSAC refutes the notion that this legislation is �proactive,� given that it ignores the recommendations made in the well-respected 2004 report from the federal Task Force on Pay Equity. The union contends that the new scheme would make a bad system much worse, removing pay equity’s status as a human right and opening it up to market forces.

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Union will challenge wage roll backs and the destruction of pay equity

On Friday, February 7, the Conservative government introduced an omnibus bill to implement the provisions of the federal budget that contains two �poison pills�: legislated wage rates for federal public sector workers and a problematic overhaul of federal pay equity legislation.

PSAC is committed to fighting wage legislation that would affect any of our members � especially if it threatens free collective bargaining. We also oppose changes to legislation that would undermine pay equity as a human right and make it much harder for women to demand equal pay for work of equal value.

Wage roll-backs

Bill C-10, An Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on January 27, 2009 and related fiscal measures, legislates national rates of pay of 2.3%, 1.5%, 1.5% and 1.5% from 2006-2011, for employees of Treasury Board and all other government-affiliated agencies.

The bill explicitly states that it will roll back any wage increases that differ from this formula, stating that they �are of no effect and are deemed never to have had effect.� (19 b)

This would directly affect PSAC’s members at the Canada Revenue Agency, who negotiated wage increases of 2.5% for 2007, 2008 and 2009. Bill C-10 would effectively break their collective agreement and override the 2009 wage increases that they freely and fairly negotiated with the federal government.

PSAC is convinced that Bill C-10 violates a 2007 Supreme Court of Canada decision that found free collective bargaining to be encompassed and protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The union will challenge Bill C-10 and its impact on workers at the CRA and elsewhere.

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OTTAWA � The Public Service Alliance of Canada is challenging the federal government�s definition of employee, claiming it denies certain federal public service workers the freedom of association guaranteed under section 2(d) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The definition of employee in the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA), excludes student, casual, and short-term workers from access to collective bargaining under the Act. This provision prevents these workers from becoming union members and denies them access to the collective bargaining process contrary to the freedom of association guarantee in the Charter. PSAC, the largest federal public service union in Canada, has filed its case at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

�It is time for the Federal Government to accept that the Charter is for all members of Canadian society including federal public service workers,� PSAC National President John Gordon says. �For the Federal Government to deny any worker a fundamental freedom guaranteed by the Charter sends the message that the Federal Government believes the Charter can be ignored. We do not agree and we intend to fight for the right of these workers to become union members and to bargain collectively with their co-workers.�

But PSAC commits to fighting federal wage legislation that would affect any of our members and threaten free collective bargaining

On January 27, the Harper government renewed its intention to introduce legislation to control the wage increases of federal public sector workers. This legislation � as alluded to in the federal budget — would cover the federal public administration, establishing wage increases of 2.3 per cent for 2007, and 1.5 per cent for 2008, 2009 and 2010. While the definition of �federal public administration’ has yet to be clarified, what is clear is that the federal government wants to clamp down on any spending which it can control.
PSAC can confirm that the recently ratified Treasury Board agreements for the PA, SV, FB and EB groups would not be subject to the legislation.

That’s because the economic increases contained in these agreements match those outlined in the federal budget: 2.3%, 1.5%, 1.5% and 1.5%. These agreements, as well as the many others negotiated in November 2008, all contain the government-mandated economic increases. More information on these negotiations can be found at the national website.

What we are concerned about is the possibility of wage roll-backs for any of our members who negotiated higher wage rates than the ones stipulated as �mandatory� in the federal budget. The November 27, 2008 Economic and Fiscal Update strongly indicated that negotiated collective agreements with a higher wage increase in 2009 and 2010 would be rolled back.

The January 27th budget is somewhat less clear. But the government’s recent announcement that it would roll back scheduled wage increases for the RCMP, combined with statements made in November by Treasury Board President Vic Toews, strongly suggest that the proposed legislation will roll back wage increases contained in previously signed collective agreements.

Any such action would violate a 2007 Supreme Court of Canada decision that found free collective bargaining to be encompassed and protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
PSAC will challenge any legislation that rolls back any of our agreements and we are working hard to find out which bargaining units will be impacted.

We will keep you up to date on this issue as more information becomes available. Members are encouraged to email their MP and the Prime Minister and tell them not to roll back fairly negotiated wage increases. Not only is this unfair � it violates Canadian law.