Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

“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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OTTAWA - The federal government is refusing to release hundreds of pages of information regarding options for potential job cuts in the public service.In May, CanWest News Service made a specific request under the Access to Information Act for government documents which ”analyse or discuss job cuts in the public service, or the moving of positions out of the national capital region.”

Of the 484 pages identified as relevant to the request, only four containing benign talking points were released. They say only that government departments are ”developing options to restrain spending growth, while minimizing disruptions to the delivery of programs and services.”

To keep those options out of the public eye, Privy Council Office bureaucrats turned a Section 69 exemption under the access act, which apply to what the government considers cabinet confidences. It is the only one that can’t be reviewed by Canada’s information commissioner to ensure the censorship is legitimate.

Although the Stephen Harper-led Conservatives have said on numerous occasions that billions in proposed spending cuts will be ”friendly” to the public service, the union representing federal bureaucrats has expressed fear that longer-term plans may involve layoffs.

John Gordon, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said in an interview the government’s refusal to release so many pages leads him to believe the prime minister ”is not willing to show his true colours” on the subject.

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Starting August 17, almost 5,000 PSAC members in the Treasury Board, Parks Canada, Canada Revenue Agency and Canadian Food Inspection Agency bargaining units will be getting a call at home from their union.The union has prepared a survey that will be conducted by the Environics Research Group, asking members about bargaining issues and their priorities. The survey will help the union prepare its negotiating and political strategy for the next round of bargaining for these units.

Over the last several weeks, the survey has been tested in a series of focus groups involving about 80 rank and file and activist members. Now it’s ready to go.

If you are one of the members called by Environics, we hope you’ll participate. Individual information is completely confidential and at no time will the opinions of individual members be identified.

If you participate in the survey, consider sharing the experience with others in your Local and conduct your own mini-survey to find out what other members see as bargaining concerns and priorities. It’s never too early to get ready for the next round of negotiations

On August 6, Prime Minister Stephen Harper came one step closer to issuing a federal apology over the Komagata Maru incident. At a meeting with Indo-Canadian community leaders in Surrey, Harper declared that the federal government’s decision in 1914 to refuse entry to more than 350 South Asian passengers—all British subjects—“remains a source of sorrow”.

“I also want you to know that the government of Canada acknowledges the Maru incident and we will soon undertake consultations with the Indo-Canadian community on how best to recognize this sad moment in our history,” Harper said.

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OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government has quietly handed senior government officials and the heads of Crown corporations pay raises and increased bonuses, sounding alarm bells from a tax watchdog and the biggest public service union.

Government executives and deputy ministers, the highest ranking public servants, are in line to get a 2.5-per-cent pay raise.

The chief executives of Crown corporations, such as the CBC and Canada Post, are slated to get three-per-cent raises.

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PSAC is going to be surveying members in preparation for the next round of bargaining with Treasury Board, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Parks Canada and the Canada Revenue Agency.

Environics Research Group, a well-known and respected polling firm will be conducting the survey for PSAC, asking questions about bargaining issues and priorities.

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“Why are so many gays still hiding in the closet? Prominent Persons Need to Come Out for Sake of Young People”

Toronto Pride has chosen the theme “Fearless” this year. Yet the number of gay and lesbian athletes, politicians, business and labour leaders who are still in the closet gives the theme a tinge of irony.

Being out of the closet starts when you stop speaking in the third person about a group of which you are a member.

When I was 16, it confronted me for the first time. A football player made a really denigrating joke about “fags”. Do I defend “us” or “them”?

When my father told me he beat up queers when he was a teenager, do I say “we” or “they” have a right to live without constant fear of being bashed?

When you are rising in Parliament to fight for equal marriage, do you refer to them or us?

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A long-time face of tax advice in the Okanagan retired last week.

Gail Riddall, probably best known in the valley for her television appearances as an income tax expert, worked as a client service agent for Canada Revenue Agency for 32 years.

During that time she was featured regularly on television and radio with hosts such as Jack Webster and Rafe Mair. When she moved from the Lower Mainland to Penticton 16 years ago, she made appearances on CHBC with hosts such as Chris Cleaver and Mike Roberts.

“The shows were literally about putting a face to Revenue Canada,” she said. “And that’s probably my favourite part of (my career).”

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Descendants of passengers on ill-fated ship call on Ottawa

VANCOUVER - Descendants of passengers aboard the ill-fated Komagata Maru want to open discussions with the federal government about a formal apology and possible compensation over Canada’s racist immigration laws early this century.

Three grandsons and a great-grandson of some of those aboard the infamous ship that tried to land in Vancouver in 1914 gathered in Richmond Monday to address community leaders and the media about a coordinated strategy on the issue.

Jas Toor said his grandfather was arrested as an independence leader after he was forced back to India with the other 375 on the chartered vessel.

“My grandfather and other passengers on that ship were jailed for at least two years,” Toor said. “We are looking for the help of all our politicians…. An official apology we expect from the government.”

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The 4th edition of the National Day Against Homophobia will take place on May 17th, 2006.

Its objective is to fight homophobia in the job world and in the sport. The job world is not spared from homophobia. It is an extremely difficult environment for gays and lesbians, even if some environments may be more tolerant than others. As is often the case for other forms of discrimination, the workplace needs to make it a point to offer a homophobia-free environment.

Discrimination in the workplace is the concern of all those involved, workers, unions, employees, the Minister of Labour and the Commission des normes du travail. Client-worker relations, employer-employee relations and relations between employees themselves must be through respect. Homophobia needs to be listed on anti-discrimination programmes; it should also go hand in hand with an implementation policy and include any necessary corrective measures.

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OTTAWA — The Public Service Alliance of Canada is planning its first organizing drive of the thousands of students it claims the federal government hires every year as ”cheap labour.”

John Gordon, PSAC’s newly elected president, said the campaign is aimed at ensuring students get top-notch job opportunities and income without being ”exploited as cheap labour” and undermining the jobs and security of regular public servants.

”The youth today aren’t much different than the youth of yesterday,” said Gordon. ”When you join the workforce as a student, you learn pretty quickly that you are doing the same job as the colleague next to you but you’re not getting the same pay and benefits.”

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Eliminating separate assistance program reduces Ottawa’s payment to most needy

OTTAWA — Low- and middle-income families will realize the smallest net benefit from the Harper government’s $1,200-a-year child-care payment in part because the Conservatives are scrapping a separate assistance program.

The Conservative plan for meeting the country’s child-care needs is to give families a direct payment of $100 a month, $1,200 annually, for every child under 6. The specifics of how that plan will be unveiled are expected to be in next Tuesday’s budget.

But the young-child supplement of the Canada Child Tax Benefit, which currently pays $20.25 a month to parents who do not claim child-care expenses for their preschool-age children, will be eliminated at the same time. The benefit is due to increase in July to $249 annually.

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Georgetti says it’s time to enforce the rules and protect workers’ health and safety

OTTAWA – On Friday, flags will be lowered and working people across the country will take a few moments to remember their friends, family and colleagues who have died from workplace injuries. For the past 22 years, April 28 has been recognized as a National Day of Mourning to both reflect and focus on making Canada’s workplaces healthier and safer.

“People go to work so they can build a better life for themselves and their families. Nothing is more important for a worker, especially a young worker, than having the confidence that their workplace is safe and they are protected from harm,” says Ken Georgetti, president of the Canadian Labour Congress, marking the day with workers at a ceremony in Kamloops, British Columbia.

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By 2050, aboriginals will comprise half of Sask. population

Aboriginals will comprise 50 per cent of Saskatchewan people by 2050, and they will “catch up” to the rest of the population in education and earning potential this century, a University of Saskatchewan professor says.

In a paper, as yet unpublished, exploring the future of the province’s aboriginal people, economics Prof. Eric Howe says early 20th century Eastern European immigrants overcame discrimination, poverty and a lack of education, and aboriginals will too.

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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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SUSAN SACHS, Special to The Globe and Mail, March 2nd

PARIS — Few travellers think they are helping the less fortunate when they buy a plane ticket. But soon everyone flying from airports in France, Britain and 11 other countries will be making a charitable contribution, like it or not, to the global fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

In France, the donation will take the form of a “solidarity tax,” as President Jacques Chirac has called it, on all international and domestic flights. The tax will range from €1 (about $1.35) to €40, depending on the class of ticket and the destination, and will take effect on July 1. The other countries have a year to figure out how they will impose the charge.

Mr. Chirac has campaigned energetically to persuade other countries to impose a similar tax on airline tickets and he made it the centrepiece of his address to an international conference on alternative methods of development aid that opened Tuesday in Paris.

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Twenty-five years after working as a community organizer with the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association in Vancouver, I’ve come back to the community as a retired person, volunteering at the Carnegie Centre.

One good thing about being older is that you have actually experienced a little history. I believe there are some lessons for policy-makers in what I can remember about the Downtown Eastside.

Thirty years ago, as now, the Downtown Eastside was a poor neighbourhood. Then, as now, people with addictions were visible on the street. In those days alcohol was the drug used most often. Now it’s other drugs.

But 30 years ago the stores along East Hastings Street weren’t boarded up. We bought newspapers at Universal News. Residents could afford a few breakfasts a month at the Princess Cafe, a hot plate at Benmors, a coconut bun at the local bakery, a cheap shirt at Fields, a coffee at the Two Eagles Cafe.

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A vote to take away equal marriage is coming, and we must take action to defend our rights. That’s why Egale has decided to resurrect Canadians for Equal Marriage.

After years of debate and unanimous rulings by courts in 8 provinces and the Yukon, on Wednesday, July 20, 2005 equal marriage became the law of the land.

Parliament decided. It clearly and loudly proclaimed that same sex couples are equal in value and equal in law.

Now that is threatened. Despite polls showing 2/3 of Canadians do not want a Harper government to bring the equal marriage issue back to Parliament, Prime Minister Harper insists there will be a vote on rolling back equality.

Read more at Canadians for Equal Marriage.

VICTORIA - The B.C. Liberal government has been told its $1 billion bonus fund for early settlements with unionized government employees won’t make up for further contracting out of provincial civil service jobs.

The 25,000-member B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union has responded to the government’s new bargaining structure in a traditional way, announcing a strike vote that is to be held over the next three weeks.

BCGEU president George Heyman said while he is encouraged by the government’s offer of signing bonuses and an end to the two-year wage freeze, a plan to privatize 700 more union positions is not acceptable.

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Canadian border services agents returned to work early Saturday at three Vancouver-area crossings, a day after they walked off the job over an ongoing safety dispute.They left their posts on Friday after their U.S. counterparts warned them that an armed fugitive might be headed their way.

Their labour contract allows the unarmed officers to leave their posts if they believe they’re in danger.

Read the rest of this story at cbc.ca