Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Halifax- On Valentine’s Day, PSAC members working at IMP Group Limited poured their chocolate coated hearts out in an attempt to soften management’s stone cold heart.

In front of the company’s headquarters in Halifax, the workers distributed heart shaped chocolates to managers and other employees as they entered the building. The workers hoped their gesture will be seen as an expression of their heartfelt desire to reach a negotiated settlement with IMP Group Limited.

“We are hoping the company will realize the benefits of open and positive negotiations with the employees’ union,” said Greg Isberg, president of PSAC Union Local 21018 in Comox, British Columbia. Isberg is also a member of the PSAC negotiating team at IMP Group Limited. “We want to maintain peaceful and harmonious relationships with the company, but management seems intended in creating a confrontation,” he added.

|inline

Cheers to Jayne Johns, Fraser Valley Area Council, for forwarding this news item from the Abbotsford News. Chuck is the past President of USGE Local 20054 (Matsqui), as well as being active on the Fraser Valley Area Council, the BC Regional Council and the Regional Health & Safety Committee …

When Matsqui Institution employee Charles Leech read a letter penned by an inmate at Matsqui Institution that showered him with compliments, he said he was “shocked”.

The 55-year-old is retiring in April after working at Matsqui for 30 years as a food services officer. His retirement hasn’t gone unnoticed by one inmate who sent the Abbotsford News a letter paying tribute to Leech.

“It is rare that a group of inmates would want to speak up with respect for a staff member,” the inmate stated. “Being that we are willing to do so speaks volumes for the respect this individual has of the Matsqui Institution population.

“Upon his departure, there is no doubt he will be missed and a hard individual to replace.”

Read the full article, with a photo, at abbynews.com

James Little, reporting from CFB Comox … updated Feb 9: Thanks to Mark Miller (UNDE 21016) for some more photos.

PSAC members employed at IMP Group Limited set up information lines at the gates of CFB Comox in the early mornings of Feb. 6th and 7th. These members were informing their co-workers of the lack of progress five months of negotiations have achieved. The PSAC has recently asked the federal government to appoint a conciliation officer in an effort to speed up the bargaining process.

Each morning we set up the information lines at 06:30 hrs and the member participation was outstanding. The Commissionaires, the Military Police and members of the military with their loaded guns, greeted us each morning. Turns out the military was also conducting an identification search at the same time as our plant gate. This actually turned out to be a benefit for our members as the military was slowing traffic making it easier for us to distribute the over 400 flyers each day.

|inline

Representatives of the BC Coalition for Women’s Equality and Human Rights in Canada, an ad hoc coalition of women’s organizations, met with Minister Bev Oda by teleconference for one hour this afternoon. This hastily scheduled meeting was convened as a result of a demonstration and a brief occupation of the Status of Women Canada office in Vancouver yesterday.

Coalition representatives expressed disappointment with Minister Oda’s explanations and defense of the Harper Governments decisions to:

• slash $5m dollars from the SWC budget
• close 12 of 16 regional offices of SWC
• remove women’s equality from the program mandate
• make research, advocacy and lobbying ineligible for funding
• cancel the Court Challenges Program
• refuse to move forward on proactive pay equity legislation
• cancel the Pan-Canadian child-care program
• fail to move forward on its CEDAW obligations.

In the face of Oda’s defense of these decisions, the Coalition is determined to redouble its efforts to have them reversed.

|inline

PS to probe why minorities don’t get jobs : Despite one-in-five benchmark, only 10% of applicants land posts

The watchdog of Canada’s non-partisan public service is launching an investigation into why visible minorities aren’t landing jobs in the public service in anywhere near the large numbers that apply.

But Maria Barrados, president of the Public Service Commission, said the one-in-five hiring targets for visible minorities that have been promoted since 2000 may be too high, and the study will help determine what the rate should be to ensure their numbers within the bureaucracy reflect the Canadian workforce.

“My preoccupation is how long will it take us to get a more representative public service,” she said in an interview.
“Those benchmarks were set in a very different environment and we have a much higher turnover now, and with that higher turnover, what kind of target should we be setting? … I am not sure 20 per cent is the right number.”

|inline

It’s time to raise the province’s $8 per hour minimum wage and eliminate the even lower $6 an hour training wage for new entrants to the labour force, says the B.C. Federation of Labour.

President Jim Sinclair wants the government to boost the base wage to $10 an hour.

“It’s time to share the gains of a strong economy,” he said.

Sinclair said a poll conducted last fall shows nearly 80 per cent of those surveyed support a $2 jump in the minimum wage, and 73.5 per cent agree it’s time to eliminate the training wage.

|inline

The votes have been counted and the results are in; members of the Technical Services Group have chosen arbitration as their method of dispute mechanism for the upcoming round of collective bargaining with Treasury Board. What this means is that should a collective agreement not be achieved via negotiation, Technical Service members would use arbitration, and not the conciliation/strike route, as a way to resolve negotiations.

As the Public Service Labour Relations Act requires that the method of dispute resolution be chosen before the commencement of negotiations, this vote was conducted amongst the 10,000 Technical Service members across the country now, well in advance of serving notice to bargain with Treasury Board.

The work of preparing for negotiations continues, with the National Bargaining Conference taking place in February, 2007. Technical Service members are encouraged to get involved in the negotiation of their next collective agreement; as membership solidarity will be as important as ever in this upcoming round of collective bargaining.

an update from CEM, via Multi-Union Pride

Prime Minister says the issue is settled

After more than a year of facing the threat that equal marriage would be taken away, we can breathe easy and rejoice: on December 7, 2006 Members of Parliament rejected Stephen Harper’s motion to re-open the divisive equal marriage debate.

The vote wasn’t even close, with the motion being defeated by a vote of 123 to 175. In every single party the percentage of MPs that voted for equality increased. That increase reflects the growing consensus among Canadians that equal marriage is settled. Even in the Conservative caucus, 13 members voted against their own government’s motion, including Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, Treasury Board President John Baird and four other cabinet ministers.

|inline

via Multi-Union Pride

A motion to reopen the same-sex marriage debate was easily defeated in Parliament on Thursday, as expected. MPs voted 175-123 against the controversial motion tabled by the ruling Conservatives.

The motion had asked the government to introduce legislation to restore the traditional definition of marriage without affecting civil unions and while respecting existing same-sex marriages.

The Liberal and Conservative parties allowed their members to vote freely, and there were some surprises.

Twelve Tories broke from party lines and voted against the motion. They included cabinet ministers Peter MacKay, David Emerson, John Baird, Jim Prentice, Lawrence Cannon and Josée Verner.

Most Liberals also gave the motion the thumbs down. Among them were Joe Comuzzi, who gave up his cabinet post in 2005 so he could vote against a same-sex marriage bill proposed by the Liberal government.

All Bloc Québécois and NDP members present voted against Thursday’s motion, as directed to by their party leaders.

The vote should put an end to parliamentary wrangling about same-sex marriage, as Prime Minister Stephen Harper had said a free vote - promised during January’s general election campaign - would settle the matter.

|inline

The PSAC Scholarship Awards Committee has chosen the recipients of this year scholarships.The PSAC offers 12 scholarships valued at $30,000 to the sons and daughters of PSAC members who attend a university, college or an institute of higher learning.

These scholarships are awarded on the basis of an 800-word essay, scholastic achievement and community and union involvement. This year, the topic of the essay was:

Tell us why you think Canada needs quality, publicly funded and publicly delivered social programs and services.

• $4,000 Groulx - PSAC National scholarship: Jeremy Brouillard (parent: Christiane Allaire / CEIU/Quebec)
• $4,000 Coughlin – PSAC National scholarship: Amanda Long (parent: Colleen Whiteley / CEIU/Ontario)
• $3,000 Groulx – PSAC National scholarship: Michael Drew (parent: Dorothy Drew / Agriculture/Ontario)
• $3,000 Coughlin – PSAC National scholarship: Anna Lambert (parent: George Lambert / UPCE/NCR)
• $3,000 Groulx – PSAC National scholarship: Jason Harvey (parent: Doug Harvey /National /NCR)
• $3,000 Coughlin – PSAC National scholarship: Judith Jayasuriya (parent: Hycinth Jayasuriya / GSU /Prairies)
• J.R. (Joe) Power $2,000 National Scholarship: Katherine Fane (parent: Ruth McDiarmid / Agriculture/BC)
• $1,000 PSAC National Scholarship: Meghan Donovan (parents: Joyce and Reg Donovan /CEIU/Atlantic)
• $1,000 scholarship Atlantic: Brittany Churchill (parent: Helen Churchill / UTE/Atlantic)
• $1,000 scholarship Quebec: Sebastien Rioux (member / UQAM/Quebec)
• $1,000 scholarship National Capital Region : Greer Brabazon (parent: Kirsten Kizolanka / National/NCR)
• $1,000 scholarship Ontario: Kelly Manweiler (member / National/Ontario)
• $1,000 scholarship Prairies: Nathan Huisman LaBerge (parent: Sharon Laberge / UNDE/Prairies)
• $1,000 scholarship British Columbia: Michael Munro (member/ UTE/BC)
• $1,000 scholarship North: Christine Miller (parent: William Miller / UEW/North)

Public services better at ensuring accessibility

The Harper government has been delivering on its philosophy of smaller government and dominance of the “free” market in the past year. The Conservatives have made deeper cuts to government services and reduced federal revenues by introducing more tax cuts. Their policies have fast-tracked the conditions for rampant privatization and further cuts to social services and programs which in turn, will further marginalize equity groups, including people with disabilities.

The Tories announced program cuts in September that will reduce or eliminate funding to programs that benefited equity groups. There have been severe cuts to Status of Women, the Court Challenges Program and social development programs under the Human Resources and Social Development Canada (HRSDC). These cuts will roll back the gains made by persons with disabilities and will further affect their accessibility and full participation to our society’s economic, political and social life.

The PSAC’s recently adopted “Defending Quality Public Services” policy will focus our union’s efforts to fight against privatization and globalization with a goal, not only to support a strong economy, but also to ensure fairness and equality.

|inline

via Muti-Union Pride

A gay Israeli couple who married in Canada has won a legal battle to have the union recognized in Israel.

In a precedent-setting ruling Tuesday, Israel’s High Court of Justice decided that the couple, as well as four others wedded abroad, should be allowed to register their marriages, and have the same rights as heterosexual couples marrying out of country in civil ceremonies.

The court has ordered the government to adopt its stand.

“We’re delighted but the struggle is not over,” Yossi Ben-Ari said in the Jerusalem Post.

|inline

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today established an Advisory Committee of nine eminent Canadians to advise him and the Clerk of the Privy Council on the renewal and future development of the Public Service of Canada. The Advisory Committee will also report annually as part of the Clerk’s report to the Prime Minister on the state of the Public Service, which is tabled in Parliament.

“The public service must continue to adapt to meet the changing realities of Canadian society and be well equipped to best serve Canadians in the coming years,” the Prime Minister said. “This is particularly true as the current baby boom generation retires. The future development of the Public Service requires sound advice, innovative solutions and strong support from both within and outside government.”

Read more at pm.gc.ca.

Vancouver - It’s time to scrap the training wage and raise BC’s minimum wage to $10.00 per hour says B.C. Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair.

“BC’s lowest paid workers deserve a raise,” Sinclair said. “Minimum wage earners working full-time should earn enough to stay above the poverty line. That can only be achieved by immediately raising the minimum wage to at least $10.00 per hour.”

“The provincial government likes to crow about a booming economy, but it’s only booming for a few. BC’s lowest paid workers have been left behind,” Sinclair said. Sinclair’s comments came on the fifth anniversary of BC’s last increase to the minimum wage.

|inline

(VANCOUVER) The federal government needs to address the fish habitat protection crisis, demonstrate the will to protect the environment and allow public service professionals to do their jobs.

The funding and management crisis currently paralyzing the Department of Fisheries and Oceans was detailed at a joint press conference held today by the David Suzuki Foundation and the federal Union of Environment Workers.

“We have dedicated members who are being prevented from doing their job of protecting and enhancing Canada’s fish stocks and environment,” said Nick Humphreys, Regional Vice-President, BC/Yukon, Union of Environment Workers.

|inline

Via PSAC BC Human Rights Committee

This is the office building I work in. It would be good if the Union (PSAC) or union’s EO committee could issue a statement in support of the demand for name change. If not, then UEW. - Anne Marie Sleeman, UEW 20729

Japanese-Canadians want MP’s named removed from building: Accuse Howard Green of racist remarks in ’30s, ’40s

Japanese-Canadians are demanding Ottawa change the name of a building it named after a former Conservative MP known for his racist remarks in the 1930s and ’40s.

They say that honouring Howard Green is wrong and that Ottawa should change the building’s name.
“I was pretty shocked myself,” said Prof. Roy Miki at Simon Fraser University and author of Redress: Inside the Japanese Canadian Call for Justice.

“From a Japanese-Canadian point of view, he was one of the most feared politicians in Canada because he was pretty relentless in his hatred of Japanese-Canadians.”

Public Works Minister Michael Fortier announced in September that an eco-friendly federal building at 401 Burrard St. would be named after Green. A dedication ceremony was held at the 19-storey building, whose tenants include Environment Canada and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

“Howard Green exemplifies the notion of service to one’s country,” Fortier said at the time.

But yesterday, after criticism from Japanese-Canadians, Fortier said he will ask a volunteer committee that recommended the name to review its recommendation.

Fortier, who made the final decision, was not aware of Green’s past of making racist remarks, ministry spokesman Jean-Luc Benoit said.

The volunteer committee of community representatives evaluated more than 350 names and gave Fortier a short list including Green and Rosemary Brown, a former MLA and human-rights advocate, Terry Fox, artist Toni Onley, Pierre Trudeau and W.A.C. Bennett.

Mary Kitagawa, a member of the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens Association for Human Rights, said she wrote to Fortier in September asking for Green’s name to be erased from the building.

“What we want to do is have that name removed from that building because to us, he is not a hero by any measure,” said Kitagawa.

The National Association of Japanese Canadians has also written to Fortier and Prime Minister Stephen Harper asking for Green’s name to be removed from the building.

Newspaper stories from the ’30s and ’40s document Green’s campaign to oust Japanese-Canadians from B.C.
“Our stand is, and always has been, that we won’t have Japs in the province,” Green said in a Province article dated May 27, 1945. “The Liberal policy is to scatter them; the CCF want to scatter them and give them the vote. If they ever get the vote, nothing more will be done about them.”

In a Province article dated April 22, 1946, Green “warned of the danger that all Japanese might again be back on the coast.”

A Vancouver Sun article on May 17, 1945, quotes Green as saying “the Japs must never be allowed to return to British Columbia.”

The Public Works Ministry said earlier Green was chosen because he was a strong advocate of nuclear disarmament. He was also a First World War soldier and the second-longest serving MP from Vancouver, elected 11 times in Vancouver South and later Vancouver Quadra.

He died in 1989 at age 93.

source: Vancouver Province, Oct 25, pg A14.

Union members are meeting with Members of Parliament October 23-25, 2006, to secure their support for the second reading of Bill C-257, which will amend the Canadian Labour Code to prohibit the use of replacement workers during a labour dispute. PSAC members across the country have been busy over the summer and fall contacting and meeting with their MPs to build support for the vote which is scheduled for Wednesday, October 25, 2006, at 5:00pm.

• Email your MP - ask them to support Bill C-257

Four PSAC – Union of Northern Workers members participating in the lobby, Andy Anderson, Richard J. Charlo, Ian Kelly and Troy Oslanki, have recent first-hand knowledge of the reasons why Canada needs anti-scab legislation. They walked the picket line this past spring during the strike against the multinational corporation BHP Billiton at the Ekati Mine in the Northwest Territories. They experienced the negative effects replacement workers can have on a community during a labour conflict.

“Scabs make a labour conflict last longer because some employers choose to hire them instead of negotiating with the unions,” said Troy Oslanki, vice-president PSAC Local 3050 in Yellowknife. “Also scabs create deep and long lasting divisions in the small communities where the workers live.”

Continue reading about the anti-scab legislation lobby at the national website.

As victories go, this was a big one. A memorandum of agreement signed October 5th with Correctional Service Canada will see the Penological Factor Allowance restored to the roughly 2,000 USGE members who have been denied the longstanding allowance since the summer of 2005.

The official signing capped a 14-month struggle to see the restoration of PFA. Last July, a joint union-employer fact-finding tour of several British Columbia institutions provided all parties a thorough understanding of the workplace realities faced by the affected members.

“The loss of the PFA was a significant hardship for our members who work in federal correctional institutions” said John Gordon, PSAC National President. “I am proud that PSAC and USGE were successful in restoring the PFA, as it recognizes the dangerous work environment faced by the membership”.

|inline

Public Service Alliance executive Patty Ducharme believes that unions are still relevant to workers, and plans to march at the annual Labour Day parade in Toronto

Doug Ward, Vancouver Sun, Saturday, September 02, 2006

Patty Ducharme is talking about her smile. The one that pushed her into the labour movement. The one that makes her convinced that unions are still relevant today.

Ducharme recognizes that Labour Day for most Canadians is just another holiday — not the celebration of workers and unionism that marked the day’s beginnings in the late 19th century.

But that doesn’t mean unions are outmoded, says the Vancouver woman who was recently elected national executive vice-president for the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Which brings us back to Ducharme’s story about her smile.

|inline

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.

|inline