Union of Environment Workers Local 20147

The Annual General Meeting of UEW 20147 will be held Thursday, February 19th, 2009 in Courtenay BC at the Coast Hotel. More information will be provided once an agenda and times are set.

UEW 20147 is proud to announce its latest scholarship recipient: Scott Snelgrove. Scott received $500 from the local to assist with his university studies in 2008/09.There is still another $500 to be awarded to a student in a technical or trades program this year - so if you are a member of UEW 20147 and have a child in technical or trades education this year, please encourage them to apply.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada will be holding its Triennial Convention in Vancouver in April, 2009 which provides an opportunity for more local members of the PSAC to participate as observers to the convention. If you are interested in attending, please see the convention registration website to do so - however, note that observers from Local 20147 will be responsible for their own convention observer fee of $225 plus any loss of salary incurred through attendance, as we do not have the funds to sponsor people for this event.

JLP BC/Yukon Region will be co sponsoring a Facilitator Orientation in collaboration with the Prairies Region during the week of January 26-30 in Vancouver.  If you know of anyone who may wish to become a JLP Facilitator please direct them to the JLP web site www.JLP-PAM.ca to obtain information and to fill out an application. It is important that they have a discussion with their manager or supervisor regarding the JLP Orientation and the support and commitment required.  JLP Program Officers are happy to answer any questions of potential facilitators and/or their managers and in Pacific Region can be reached at the below contacts:

Angela Foraaunet
Regional Field Coordinator - BC/Yukon Region
Joint Learning Program (JLP)
Office: (604) 666-8217
Fax: (604) 666-6124
Email: foraaua@psac-afpc.com

Susan Jardine
Joint Learning Program
BC -Yukon Regional Field Coordinator
Ste 210 757 West Hastings
Vancouver BC    V6C3M2
Bus: 604-666-7799
Cell: 604-202-5469
jardins@psac-afpc.com

PA, SV and EB Group members of Treasury Board (formerly Tables 1, 2, & 5) are expected to vote on the tentative collective agreement before January 22, 2009. Voting times and locations posted below the cut. Members in remote communities should receive a ballot in the mail. For more information on the agreement and ratification kit, please go to the PSAC TB Negotiations website.

Continue reading ‘Remaining Treasury Board Ratification Vote Meetings’

Although it is not listed in your collective agreement, it is the practice of the employer to grant leave for up to half a day for medical and dental appointments without charge to the employee’s leave credits. This applies only in the case of routine, periodic check-ups or an appointment related to a particular complaint. Information related to this may be found on the Treasury Board website.

Unless you sign a Union Card (provided by your representative), you are not considered a full member of the union, and are not eligible to participate in union decision-making processes such as local elections, strike votes and collective agreement votes? Although you may have dues being deducted from your paycheque, you are considered “Rand”, and thus not a full union participant until you sign that card!

If you have moved since joining the workplace, and haven’t updated your mailing address with the union, you are missing valuable information and news in your mailbox. The PSAC regularly does mail-outs that contain vital information for members. You can change your address online at http://www.psac.com/address-e.shtml.

Members on Leave Without Pay for reasons including disability, maternity leave, paternity, adoption or care of family members” and “dues paying and non-dues paying seasonal indeterminate or equivalent members” are defined as members in good standing only if they write a letter to the National President’s Office with a copy to the Component Office requesting that their status remain current.

Grievances are filed by employees as a mechanism to dispute resolution in the workplace. They may be filed in response to a breach of any aspect of the collective agreement, or any other laws, procedures, policies as set out by the employer. If you are unsure about filing a grievance, or need to find a representative for a grievance, please contact one of the local executive members for assistance in finding a representative in your area.

The following forms are provided for your convenience, they are all .pdf documents. There is also more information on grievances on the PSAC regional website.

Grievance Presentation Form

Grievance Transmittal Form

Grievance Factsheet for Stewards

The Annual General Meeting of UEW Local 20147 will be held January 19th, starting at 4:15 at 401 Burrard Street, Vancouver BC (RHQ) in Boardroom B. Agenda items to include:

• Executive elections
• By-law changes
• Executive and ctte reports
• New business and issues

Although a full convention report will be posted at http://www.psac.com/environment shortly, Local 20147 delegates would like to take this opportunity to give a brief report on our participation in the Triennial National Convention of the Environment Component, PSAC in the second week of August.

Overall, the convention went well – for the component as a whole and for our local. Delegates passed several resolutions, the most notable being one changing the name of the component to the Union of Environment Workers, which took effect at convention close. A new logo for the component was also unveiled at the convention and is included at the top of this report.

A new three-year budget was passed, and several resolutions were referred up to the PSAC Triennial convention in May 2006 dealing with amendments to the hardship fund, a new vote for Table 3 dispute resolution in the next round of collective bargaining, and democratic dispute resolution between components within the PSAC. Tom Hopkins and Murray McPherson were active during the debates on the floor on many issues and raised many good points on convention motions. Although it was difficult for convention participants to agree to, there was a dues increase voted on in the new budget which will take effect in 2006. This was seen as necessary to offset the losses incurred due to recent decreases in membership and a projected increase in representation needs under Public Service Modernization. You will receive more information on this increase in an upcoming bulletin.

Continue reading ‘Union of Environment Workers Convention Report’

Although a full convention report will be posted on the PSAC regional website shortly, Local 20147 delegates would like to take this opportunity to report on the following positions that members of our component were elected to this weekend:

Metro Vancouver Co-ordinator - Megan Adam
North Island Co-ordinator - Gail Jewsbury
National Officers Co-ordinator - Nick Humphreys
Aboriginal Co-ordinator Alternate - Mike Ballard
North Island Co-ordinator Alternate - Tom Hopkins

The term of office for these positions is three years.

Although the convention was largely focused on procedural issues rather than political ones - we think it was very successful and that our component (and in particular our local) had good representation there. The main change coming out of this convention was an alteration to the BC PSAC By-laws which changes the delegate selection process for the next regional convention. This new process will put the delegate selection process into the hands of the locals and each local will be allocated a certain number of delegates based on the formula adopted by convention. There will be more information developed on this in time.

For more information on the BC Regional Council and what it does - please see the BC Regional Council pages on the PSAC BC website. Thanks to all our members who supported our delegates to the regional convention - the delegates from 20147 present at the convention agree that our continued involvement in the BC Regional Convention is to our benefit as well as the Region’s.