Union of Environment Workers Local 20147

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.

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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.

The Annual General Meeting of Local 20147 was held January 27th, 2005 at the Coast Westerley Hotel in Courtenay, BC. This was a well-attended event, with many items and issues coming to the floor to be discussed and decided on. This recap is provided for those members who could not be in attendance.

• Local Officers Election: Five positions came up for election this time around and the following individuals were elected: Murray McPherson, President; George McElwee, 2nd Vice-President; Monique Bakker, Chief Health & Safety; Bettie-Anne Thompson, Secretary; Frank Snelgrove, Treasurer. The Executive welcomes new Secretary, Bettie-Anne Thompson, and thanks Murray Gilchrist (outgoing) for his years of service to the local.
• Convention Delegates: Those in attendance selected the following delegates for the Environment Component National Convention (happening this August in Winnipeg) – Murray McPherson, Tom Hopkins, George McElwee and Megan Adam. Alternates selected were Stephen Stewart, Monique Bakker, Frank Snelgrove and Perry Powers.
• Executive Report: A brief executive report was presented by Brother McPherson touching on the activities of the local executive over the previous year (grievances, fishery officer reclassification & strike organizing mainly)
• Address by Bill Pynn, National ENV Component President: Brother Pynn talked about the ongoing jurisdictional dispute between the ENV and UCTE components, issues with the hardship fund, and ongoing reclassification efforts.
• General Discussion with Nick Humphreys Regional Vice-President: Regarding ongoing job losses in the Pacific Region and new campaign being launched by the PSAC in BC to address program cuts that are impeding our members from fulfilling their legal mandates.

Here are some photos of Local 20147 members …

TB Strike 2004 – Annacis Island

Strike 2004 – 401 Burrard

Strike 2004 – 401 Burrard

Strike 2004 – 401 Burrard

Strike 2004 – 401 Burrard

3rd VP Megan Adam celebrating MayDay 2004 with other PSAC members

Strike 2004 – Kitimat Hatchery

Strike 2004 – Kitimat Hatchery

20147 Exec in Kamploops – May 2004

2nd VP George McElwee supporting HEU Picket Lines

Welcome to the new website for Local 20147. This site is part of an effort to improve communications within the local and provide information that is relevant and of interest to our members in a timely fashion.
With the Christmas and New Year’s festivities behind us, Local 20147 is into another new year. The Annual General Meeting was held February 12th where elections of Executive Officers took place. Tom Hopkins, Megan Adam, Perry Powers, and Stephen Stewart were elected into their positions for another two-year term. Also at the AGM, the membership voted for an increase in local dues of $1 per month to cover rising costs in member representation. This marks the first dues increase on a local level in over five years and was passed unanimously after a presentation by Treasurer, Frank Snelgrove.

All PSAC Bargaining Tables are back at the table this February after a brief hiatus due to challenges caused by Paul Martin’s December 12th changes to government. So far, our bargaining teams have made little progress with the Treasury Board negotiators and in the last couple of weeks have had to send a strong message that – “No, we will not accept rollbacks in benefits”. Solidarity actions supporting our negotiating teams have been happening across the country, and you will be hearing from your local Strike Co-ordinators shortly about what actions are being planned at DFO to support the bargaining process.Reports that PSAC Table negotiating teams are now bargaining with
representatives from Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) are false. Negotiations are still taking place with Treasury Board representatives. The federal government’s announcement in December that PWGSC would be responsible for negotiations also stated that this would happen sometime in the future after consultation with the unions. Any change will be reported in union bulletins.

At all Regional DFO worksites, our members continue to express concern over the financial situation and rumours of workforce adjustment, term layoffs, and site closures. It is clear that due to budget shortfalls there will be some changes in the Pacific Region, but Senior Management has not made any official announcements as to their decisions. At the last Regional Union Management Consultation Committee Meeting, the Acting RDG made a commitment to keeping information flowing to the union representatives, even if that meant calling special meetings once decisions are made. I will be working to ensure that we are kept in the information loop, and that our members receive the information they need as soon as it is provided to us.

If you feel you may be affected by Pacific Region budget cuts, you can find the Workforce Adjustment Guidelines as an appendix in your collective agreement, and information on the Treasury Board’s Term Policy is available at http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/TB_856/tep-pep_e.asp. For questions or clarifications on these policies and how they are being applied in the region, please contact your Shop Steward or a Member of the Executive.
Your union reps continue to be busy with member representation at grievance hearings, OSH, RUMCC and UMCC meetings, throughout the region. In the past few years, local activity has increased dramatically as we have put more shop stewarts in place and as the executive has focused more on meeting members’ needs on a daily basis. We have also been making an attempt to get out to more worksites with a variety of meeting formats, thus engaging more members and have held meetings with members in Kamloops, Prince Rupert, Terrace, Nanaimo, Victoria and Vancouver in the past year. Our next General Meeting will be held in Kamloops in May.

We encourange members needing assistance to contact your union rep for help, and we are encouraging more of you to also get involved in your union local as a strike captain for your area, a local co-ordinator in your site, or a shop steward. Let us know what you can do for your local.