Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Discussion Night: Decriminalization of Prostitution in Vancouver

• June 25, 5:30-8:30PM
• SFU Harbour Centre
• 580 West Hastings, Vancouver

Co-sponsored by the PSAC National Component, the PSAC Vancouver Regional Women’s Committee, and
Vancouver Area Council. For more information, please contact the PSAC at (604) 430 5631.

Program:

• 5:30: Reception
• 6:00: Opening remarks
• 6:30: Guest speakers include: Libby Davies, MP Van East; Representatives from Vancouver Rape Relief & Vancouver Women’s Shelter
• 7:10: Plenary session
• 8:30: Discussion

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation – Granville Island Office and the Public Service Alliance of Canada reached a tentative agreement on September 21, 2007. The three (3) year agreement was ratified by the membership on September 27, 2007.Some of the highlights of the agreement include:

• Effective April 1, 2007, an economic increase of 3.16%, an incentive pay of 3.07% (lump sum) and a corporate award of 2.5% (lump sum).
• Effective April 1, 2008, and April 1, 2009, economic increases, incentive pay and corporate awards as per other corporate employees.
• Effective April 1, 2007, the Granville Island Premium to be increased from 1% to 2%
• Improvements to the Vacation Leave - 2 1/12 days per calendar month after 18 years (from 19) and 2.5 days per calendar month after 28 years (from 30).

Over 40 PSAC members work at CMHC - Granville Island. They perform a variety of duties including Administration, Grounds Maintenance, Market and Events Coordination, Janitorial, Painting, Building Maintenance etc.

The revised collective agreement has an expiry date of March 31, 2010.

The second collective bargaining session between the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation – Granville Island Office and the Public Service Alliance of Canada was held from September 17 to 19, 2007. As with the first session held from June 19 to 22, 2007, the parties were unable to reach agreement because the employer representatives did not have the mandate to conclude a tentative agreement.

Your bargaining team had to wait several hours before being told by the employer that we needed to schedule an additional day since they could not get a hold of the CMHC President in Ottawa. The bargaining team is very disappointed by the lack of respect shown by the employer. The membership had written to the President in June for exactly that purpose - asking that the employer representatives be given the mandate to deal with the outstanding issues to reach a tentative agreement.

The outstanding issues include payment of Medical Services Plan premiums, duration and wages.

Over 40 PSAC members work at CMHC - Granville Island. They perform a variety of duties including Administration, Grounds Maintenance, Market and Events Coordination, Janitorial, Painting, Building Maintenance etc. The collective agreement expired March 31, 2007.

Negotiations between the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation - Granville Island Office and the Public Service Alliance of Canada were held from June 19 to 22, 2007. The parties exchanged proposals on June 19, 2007, and progress was very slow. As the Corporation representatives did not have a mandate to deal with several of the Union’s monetary proposals, the parties have agreed to meet again from September 17 to 19, 2007.

Over 40 PSAC members work at CMHC - Granville Island. They perform a variety of duties including Administration, Grounds Maintenance, Market and Events Coordination, Janitorial, Painting, Building Maintenance etc. The collective agreement expired March 31, 2007.

source: Vancouver Sun, Friday, May 04, 2007

What is it going to take for the managers at Passport Canada to get their act together? Furious people waiting in endless lines, angry letters and phone calls to Passport Canada staff and to newspapers, and media reports and editorials so far seem to have had little effect.

• Related: Passport Offices - Not enough staff, computers, to meet demand

The lineups continue, as does Passport Canada’s practice of telling people that they’re not going to be seen after they’ve waited hours in the cold and rain. In fact, the agency’s arrogance has reached new heights in the past few weeks.

Consider, for example, The Vancouver Sun’s attempts to find out merely who’s in charge of the Vancouver office. Calls to the offices of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day failed to yield an answer.

Letters and phone calls to Passport Canada CEO Gerald Cossette went unreturned, which suggests he has no interest in serving the public or taking responsibility for the mess he’s created. And Ottawa-based Passport Canada representative Fabian Lengelle told a reporter that he wasn’t sure whether he should release the name of the person in charge in Vancouver. Now that’s hardly the right attitude for a government agency that’s supposed to be serving the public.

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Kent Spencer, The Province, Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Canadians should brace themselves for long passport waits “for months” to come, says a spokeswoman for the workers who process passport applications.

“There is no end in sight,” Kay Sinclair, Vancouver-based vice-president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said yesterday.

“I’m told the situation could last for months. Employees could be asked to work all summer to keep up with demand.”

A backlog of applications has developed since the U.S. required all passengers arriving in the U.S. by air to carry passports starting Jan. 23.

About 2,000 PSAC members have been working overtime on weeknights and weekends to process applications, said Sinclair. Printers are running 24 hours a day.

“The job is really stressful,” she said. “Sometimes the public have taken out their frustrations. There’s pressure in terms of [not] taking breaks and holidays.”

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