As a PSAC member, you or your child could be eligible for a postsecondary scholarship – more information and application process here.

Missed the deadline for the PSAC scholarship? UEW 20147 provides for two $750 scholarships aimed at the children of local members attending postsecondary education. Find information and a downloadable application form here.

And good luck!

April 10th, 2010, a small delegation of PSAC members travelled to Bolivia to meet with social justice project partner CEPROMIN. Thanks to the PSAC Social Justice Fund the small delegation was able to bear witness to the tremendous impact our union is having on small groups of miners in Bolivia. The trip started out with five delegates who are from the furthest reaches of Canada. From the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, North to Ekati diamond mine, two hundred miles below the Arctic Circle, all the way to the center of Canada in Ottawa. I was thrilled to be amongst the delegation who attended on behalf of PSAC and the Social Justice Fund. I am by no means a world traveler so I really have no reference, but I can tell you this, I see through new eyes now, I am changed and I can’t go back.

The delegates set out on the 15 day journey arriving on the 12th of April in La Paz, Bolivia one of the world’s highest airports at 4006 meters above sea level. We were greeted by representatives of CEPROMIN and after a few sips of coca tea (to combat altitude sickness) and no time to waste, we found ourselves in a meeting with the President of CEPROMIN and CEPROMIN founders Pedro Gomez, retired mineworker and Pedro Medriobo who is also the former Vice Minister of mines for Bolivia, under the Evo Morales government. For the next several days the delegates learn through stories and through visits to neighbouring mine sites just how CEPROMIN is improving literacy and providing opportunities for health and nutritional programs for the mine workers, in particular the women and children who work and live on the mine sites. Our next stop on the trip is a visit to the historic mining city of Potosi, an emotional experience I will never forget.

Potosí is full of the kind of hustle and bustle you would expect to find in a mining city with one of the worlds oldest and most productive silver mines. Filled with open markets and the constant beep beep of every kind of vehicle that moves, Potosí hums to a chaotic cadence that could only work in this place. It is a city rich with tradition, beautiful architecture and lush garden plazas. Nearby we visit Cerro Rico and meet the miners and the women and children who work and live in the mine sites. The conditions are indescribable and we listen to the men and women tell us what they think they need to make the mines more productive.

I kept waiting to hear about the living conditions but we never did, we had to ask. I guess if you’re from the north or any other developed country you have seen the commercials, you know the poor children, please send money. But these people were real, their poverty was real and I was really standing in their place and I felt a deep sense of guilt for every selfish impulse of envy and greed that I ever had. Afterward we visited the newly constructed school and health center located in another area of the mine site.
It was almost as though we had left the mine itself and were somehow transported somewhere entirely different. It stood out like a new building in a big empty dirt lot until we opened the door and realized we were still in Bolivia. Four small children sit in a room filled with charts and posters and large chalk board wide eyed at our presence. A young woman welcomes us in and we greet the children our eyes darting around at all the work which was proudly displayed on the walls. Soon more children arrive with several young women. We learn that the women are about to serve a hot meal for all the school aged children which should be arriving soon. It wasn’t long before the room was filled with more wide eyed children. A young boy ‘Pedro’ becomes interested in my camera and we begin to take pictures and isn’t long before they are all taking turns laughing at their own pictures. Following the luncheon we talk outside and soon we are all in tears trying to comprehend what we have just witnessed and somehow understand how people who live in such impossible conditions could find such joy. I searched my mind for some possible explanation but there was none. Perhaps the Oasis center created through CEPROMIN and the Social Justice Fund had somehow inspired some new seed of hope, a new realm of possibility. Over the next several days I came to realize that these women had done something truly incredible. They had taken what amounts to less than pennies per member per year and provided three separate programs in three different mining communities impacting literally hundreds if not thousands of miners and their families. I can not put into words how it felt to be amongst people who were so grateful for everything they had, for their very existence and for their love of the communities they lived in. They were not anything I ever imagined them to be. They were a proud, independent people who had deep inside them an indescribable almost unattainable joy.

Perhaps the kind of joy one feels when one has the power to change the world.

I cannot thank PSAC and the Social Justice Fund enough for what they have done for this small delegation of members who now see through different eyes. I am a witness to the power of benevolence and to the richness Canadians all take for granted. We can do more than we think and we owe it to all those less fortunate than us to do what we can.

To do what we must, to give thanks for our own fortune and for the honour of helping others like the miners of Bolivia.

I want to thank all the members of PSAC delegation especially staff member Louise Casselman, and PSAC members Barbara Paul, Amanda Brown and Teagen Nelson.

Most of all I want to thank the women and children of CEPROMIN for their dedication and struggle in making the mining communities of Bolivia a better place to work and live.

One world one people.

Yours in solidarity,
Michael Ballard

Our last meeting took place on June 10, 2010 in Courtenay BC and was well-attended by the staff that were in Courtenay for OHEB meetings. Several things were accomplished at the meeting including:

• a member-initiated vote to increase the local-sponsored postsecondary scholarships to $750 each from $500 each
• a vote on a package of collective bargaining demands to be submitted to the PSAC for consideration in the next round of bargaining, and
• the election of a new Recording Secretary of the local – Jacquelyn Paterson, based out of Capilano Hatchery

We thank everyone who came out to the meeting in June. Our next meeting will take place in September in the Lower Mainland – details to be announced.

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.

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

Mission
Best Western
32281 Lougheed Hwy
Jan 5
3PM – 6PM

Chilliwack
Rhombus Hotel
45920 First Ave
Jan 6
3PM – 6PM

Abbotsford
Ramada Inn
36035 N. Parallel Rd
Jan 7
3PM – 6PM

Agassiz
Agricultural Association
6800 Pioneer Ave
Jan 8
3PM – 6PM

North Vancouver
Lonsdale Quay Hotel
123 Carrie Cates Court
Jan 12
11AM – 6PM

Port Moody
Legion
2513 Clarke Street
Jan 13
11AM – 6PM

Downtown Vancouver
Vancouver Public Library
350 West Georgia
Jan 14
11:15 – 5:15

Nelson     Hume Hotel
422 Vernon Street
Jan 15
12 – 5PM

Vancouver
PSAC Van RO
200 – 5238 Joyce Street
Jan 15
8AM – 8PM

Richmond
Richmond Inn
7551 Westminster Hwy
Jan 16
11AM – 6PM

Downtown Vancouver
SFU Harbour Centre
515 West Hastings
Jan 19
11:15AM – 5:15PM

Downtown Vancouver
UBC Robson Square
800 Robson Street
Jan 20
11:15AM – 5:15PM

Vancouver
Jewish Community Centre
950 West 41st
Jan 21
11:30AM – 5:30PM

Vancouver
Ukrainian Church
154 E 10th
Jan 22
11:30AM – 5:30PM

Esquimalt
Esquimalt Legion
Dec 15
11:30AM – 7PM

Victoria
Bedford Regency Hotel
Dec 16
11:30AM – 6PM

Sidney
Airport Travelodge
Dec 17
11:30AM – 6PM

Campbell River
Coast Discovery Inn
Jan 5
11:30AM – 6PM

Courtenay
Best Western Westerly
Jan 6
11:30AM – 6PM

Nanaimo
Coast Bastion Inn
Jan 7
11:30AM – 6PM

Esquimalt
Esquimalt Legion
Jan 8
11:30AM – 7PM

Victoria
Bedford Regency Hotel
Jan 9
11:30AM – 6PM

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.

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