Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Labour Day is just around the corner … here are some events scheduled for Monday, September 6, 2010. PSAC members and staff will be at all three events – stop by the PSAC booth or table and say hi!

• Vancouver Labour Day Picnic – a celebration of Solidarity
• Sept 6th – 11:00 am to 2:00 pm
• Central Park, Burnaby, BC (map)
• Families welcome! Come join us for food, music and games for kids.
• Download a pdf copy of poster.

• 22nd Annual Victoria Labour Day Picnic – hosted by the Victoria Labour Council
• Sept 6th  – 11:00 am to 3:00 pm
• Irving Park, Victoria, BC (corner of Menzies & Michigan – map)
• Kids games – Clowns – Refreshments – Fun for the whole family!
• Volunteers and Donations are Welcome! Contact the Victoria Labour Council
• Download the poster as .pdf.

• 1st Annual Fraser Valley Labour Day Picnic – hosted by the Fraser Valley Labour Council
• Sept 6th – 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
• Mill Lake Park, 2310 Emerson St. Mill Lake, Abbotsford, (Bevan Road Entrance – map)
• East Meets West! Join members of the PSAC East and West Fraser Valley Area Councils and other Unions for entertainment, food, information booths, kids events and solidarity!
• Contact: Fraser Valley Labour Council, phone: 604 314-9867
• Download a poster as PDF: Labour Day Picnic Fraser Valley

Is there a Labour Day event happening in your community? Email Patrick and we’ll add it to the list!

During the Labour Day long week-end, I encourage PSAC members and all Canadians to take a moment to reflect on the exceptional contribution made to Canadian society by working people and their unions.

• Labour Day events in Vancouver | Victoria | All BC

Today, we enjoy a more compassionate and just world because of hard-won struggles of the labour movement. The right to a healthy and safe workplace, to Medicare, to unemployment insurance, to paid holidays and vacation, to public pensions, to living wages and maternity and parental leave – these were all fought for by the labour movement.

PSAC marks this day by celebrating the work done by its members who deliver quality public services to all Canadians. PSAC strongly believes that social services, including quality child and health care and environmental protection, are best delivered by those who do their jobs out of genuine concern for the collective welfare of Canadians and not by those who are motivated by profit.

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Join the PSAC Victoria Area Council, members and staff at the 21st annual Labour Day picnic in Victoria …

• Date: Monday, September 7, 2009
• Time: 11:00 am – 4:00 pm
• Location: Irving Park corner of Menzies & Michigan, Victoria
• Kids games – Clowns – Refreshments – Kids Eat Free – Fun for the whole family
• Volunteers and Donations are Welcome! Please come out and join us in solidarity to Celebrate Labour Day!! For more information, email the Victoria Labour Council.

Download the poster (pdf).

While Labour Day is a time to celebrate labour and our role in building a better world, it also provides us the opportunity to strategize and plan for upcoming challenges. All across the country we must be prepared to mobilize in support of collective bargaining, and, in the face of a looming federal election, to get our message out about the importance of defending quality public services for all Canadians.

It is also appropriate on this day to pay tribute to the many victories of organized labour in the struggle for workers’ rights, better pay and safer jobs. We must be ever vigilant in protecting our hard-won gains and our right to free collective bargaining.

Thinking about our role in building a better world, we must also defend the rights of our brothers and sisters who risk their lives daily fighting for the rights of labour in countries where to be a trade unionist may mark one for violence or murder.

In July, I joined the leaders of Canada’s largest public sector unions and undertook a fact-finding mission to Colombia to examine: human and labour rights, the privatization of public services, working conditions, the impact of free trade and the absence of labour and human rights guarantees. Meeting with union leaders, indigenous groups, politicians, diplomats, and human rights groups, we were able examine first-hand the problems that afflict Colombia, especially given the current government’s human rights record and the concerns about the recent free trade agreement with Canada.

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Greetings and Happy Labour Day! Here is some information regarding events taking place on September 1st.

In Vancouver, The BC Federation of Labour is organizing a rally to press for a $10 minimum wage and to overturn the massive pay increases the Campbell government has given politicians and top bureaucrats. The rally is at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Robson St. side, starting at 11AM and ending at noon. Look for the PSAC flags and join the contingent from our union. A convoy of trucks, cars, taxi, motorbikes, etc will also be travelling to the rally from Surrey. Help send Gordon Campbell a message he can’t ignore!

• More information at the BC Fed website
• Rally poster (pdf)
• Surrey convoy (pdf)

The BC Union Label Trades Council is sponsoring the annual Labour Day picnic in Confederation Park, just off Willingdon Ave. in Burnaby. Join us between 11AM and 4PM (rain or shine) for fun & games for the entire family. PSAC members will be staffing a Think Public! table – drop by to say hello and sign a postcard to your MP to remind them of the value of quality public services.

• Vancouver Labour Day picnic poster (pdf)

The annual Labour Day picnic in Victoria also takes place between 11AM and 4PM in Gorge Park. Stop by and meet members of the Southern Vancouver Island Area Council – they will also be staffing a Think Public! table.

• Victoria Labour Day picnic poster (pdf)

Events are taking place in more communities thoughout the province – contact your local Labour Council for details, or download this poster (pdf).

This Labour Day PSAC members took part in the “Public Services Are Cool” blitzes at the labour picnics at Confederation Park in Burnaby and Esquimalt Gorge Park in Victoria.

• Visit the photo gallery for lots of pictures.

We’re proud to report PSAC had excellent representation! In Victoria, PSAC staff and members of the Southern Vancouver Island Area Council set up a tent and spoke with the picnic-goers about the value of a strong public service as well as the save our fisheries campaign. Members from many components stopped by throughout the day and an excellent time was had by all.

In Burnaby, staff and members active with the Vancouver Area Council came out and helped with the table. They distributed PSAC materials and asked the public to sign letters to their MPs regarding the second phase of the federal building sell-off. National Vice-President Patty Ducharme was in town and visited the table for a while and REVP Kay Sinclair also joined in in the afternoon. Several PSAC members who were attending the picnic and weren’t aware of the table were there and very pleased to see PSAC out with the whole labour family.

On Labour Day this year, the Public Service Alliance of Canada celebrates with working Canadians the recent landmark decision of the Supreme Court of Canada, affirming that the right to collective bargaining is protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

That decision was a great victory for all working people and a stern reminder to governments that they cannot run roughshod over the rights of workers and erase the hard-won gains of collective bargaining by legislative fiat.

Looking forward, the PSAC remains committed to standing up for quality public services both as an expression of core Canadian values and as a legitimate and effective investment in the nation’s social and physical infrastructure. Many of our over 160,000 members work everyday to protect the health and safety of Canadians and to improve the nation’s environment and culture. The work they do for the public good is the very embodiment of the collective Canadian vision of a fair, equitable and healthy Canada where no one gets left behind.

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This Labour Day, PSAC reaffirms its commitment to helping build a just, inclusive, secure and prosperous society for workers and their families by defending quality public services. While challenging, this is a goal that we must achieve for the good of working Canadians across the country.

The Conservatives came into power earlier this year inheriting a strong economy, with low unemployment and a hefty budget surplus. Instead of building on these gains, the Harper government shifted to full reverse by implementing its declared priorities, which are designed to help the Conservatives win a majority in the next election rather than to respond in a sustainable way to what Canadians really want and need.

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A Labour Day Message from Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress

OTTAWA – This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Labour Congress.

When a milestone like this is reached, it is only natural to look back and marvel at what we have accomplished. And what a difference unions have made in people’s lives!

Over the span of two generations, the unions of the Canadian Labour Congress have improved the way we work and how we live.

Many of the benefits that were first bargained in collective agreements one workplace at a time are now enjoyed by all Canadians and their families. In fact, they have become so much a part of everyday life that most of us simply take them for granted.

Thus, today Canadians enjoy the security of the Canada Pension Plan, overtime and holiday pay, or universal public medicare. But in 1956, these were only dreams for most workers unless they belonged to a strong union.

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“Premier Campbell, give low income British Columbians a raise.”

Here’s a Labour Day challenge to Premier Gordon Campbell: give low income British Columbians a raise.

BC’s unions are challenging the Premier to take three simple steps to tackle inequality, poverty and homelessness: first, eliminate the training wage; second, raise the minimum wage, and third, increase welfare payments.

Polls show that despite strong economic growth, a majority of British Columbians feel the benefits are passing them by. They’re right.

In May 2006, Statistics Canada figures showed that BC’s average wage for full-time workers is below the Canadian average. So are personal savings and per person disposable income. Premier Campbell may believe BC is the “best place on earth,” but that’s hard to square with the fact that BC has the highest poverty rate in Canada.

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