 |
Union UpdateMarch 29 - April 16, 2004 Acrobat format In this issue:
Solidarity is strong and it showsPSAC members across the country continued to show their support for their negotiating teams by holding information lines and demonstrations in front of federal buildings, leafletting, wearing t-shirts with slogans in their places of work and many other ways. During the last month, reports of these activities reached the PSAC national office from all the regions of Canada. The members were very creative in the ways they showed their support for their negotiating teams, but everywhere the message was the same: The government is obviously not taking the negotiations seriously and the membership is insulted by the employer's ridiculous wage offers and demands for concessions that are currently on the table. Here is a small sample of the ways the members decided to send their message to the government. You can read the complete reports of Solidarity Activities on the PSAC Web site. Click here
In St. John, Treasury Board, CRA and CFIA members demonstrated their support for their negotiating team by walking in front of the CRA building.
In Halifax, a PSAC member dressed up as The Phantom of Ottawa (aka the PM) who raised the salary of cabinet ministers' senior political staff by more than $32,000 a year but offered peanuts to the PSAC members.
Members representing TB, CRA, CFIA and even the CLC were present to deliver a letter to Labour Minister Claudette Bradshaw asking her to give the Prime Minister a clear message that the PSAC members want a fair contract. In Windsor, members of PSAC Local 576 were celebrating solidarity and sending a clear message to the employer: "We are ready to walk if we don't get a contract." These sisters are Service Delivery Representatives in the Leamington Human Resource Centre.
PSAC members working at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Coast Guard and Environment Canada held a plant-gate information session at lunchtime in front of a federal office building in downtown Vancouver. The members handed out information on the upcoming strike vote, distributed ribbons that say "I know that I deserve more." It was very early in the morning and it was very cold on the outskirts of Winnipeg, but that did not prevent PSAC members from plant-gating in front of the Stony Mountain penitentiary to inform members about planned strike vote meetings.
PSAC members are taking strike votes all over CanadaWhile PSAC members at Treasury Board continue to participate in a strike vote, 4,000 PSAC members at Parks Canada are also mobilizing for a vote to give their union a strike mandate. The result of the vote will be announced in May 2004. Talks with the Canada Revenue Agency broke off on March 17. The Conciliation Officer could not convince management to take the negotiations seriously. The union applied on March 24th for the establishment of a Conciliation Board. A strike vote was taken last November/December and the members gave their team an 85% vote in favour of strike. PSAC members at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency voted 89% in favour of strike action if the current negotiations don't produce a settlement. The PSAC represents 4,000 workers at the CFIA. This strike vote had become necessary, as Agency management kept refusing to take the contract negotiations seriously. CFIA management needed to be told by the membership loud and clear that employer promises have been broken constantly since the creation of the Agency in 1997 and that it will take more than a wage offer of 1% to achieve a fair collective agreement.
Conference raises profile of workplace health and safety issuesAbout 300 delegates to the PSAC National Health and Safety Conference passed resolutions that, for the most part, seek to lobby government and employers to adopt policies and make improvements around health and safety issues in the workplace. Delegates passed seven resolutions, including calls for the federal public sector to have an effective Environmental Illness policy implementation and for the establishment of an employer-provided joint occupational health and safety training fund. Also, in line with the PSAC National Board of Directors' priorities, a resolution was passed calling on the union executive to review and publicly decry globalization and privatization initiatives by all levels of government as "being detrimental to the health and safety of our members and contrary to the public interest." The highlight of this resolution session was the standing ovation received when late Resolution no. 1 called for the government to proclaim Health and Safety legislation for Parliament Hill workers. It was carried unanimously. Prior to the resolutions debate, delegates heard from guest speakers and participated in workshops dealing with globalization and emerging health and safety issues. Rory O'Neill, the editor of Hazards Magazine in the United Kingdom and of Workers' Health International News, and Cathy Walker of the Canadian Auto Workers discussed how globalization, through deregulation and privatization, is bringing about the "brutalization of work" and about the increasing importance of unions to counteract this trend. The panel on Emerging Workplace Issues included the director of University of Massachusetts' Labour Extension Program, Charley Richardson, who spoke about the negative impacts of work re-organization and restructuring on workers. Canadian Labour Congress's Hassan Yussuff presented the Prevent Cancer Campaign on the panel, and legal expert Katherine Lippel discussed Quebec's law on workplace harassment and how it can inspire similar legislation at the federal level. "The PSAC is committed to connecting all parts of the union on issues that affect our members and their workplaces," said PSAC National President Nycole Turmel during her address at the conference. "Connecting the dots is also why health and safety issues are increasingly finding their way to the negotiating table." The conference also gave delegates and guests the opportunity to show union solidarity as they raised more than $600 in support of the PSAC strikers at the Quebec City Airport and as they gave a standing ovation to welcome new PSAC members who work at BHP mining in the North.
On April 22, 2004, Celebrate Earth Day!On April 22, we should all remember the importance of our continued support for the implementation of the Kyoto Accord. The PSAC supports the Kyoto Accord and hopes that every industrialized country will ratify the Accord. This is essential to ensure that all key players are part of the global effort to address climate change. Effective measures to address climate change will protect the environment, improve the environmental health of Canadian citizens and benefit Canadian livelihoods through the creation of many thousands of clean jobs in a more sustainable economy. What is KyotoUnder the Kyoto Protocol, industrialized countries and countries in transition to a market economy agreed to bring their emissions of greenhouse gases to 5% less than 1990 levels. What Canada agrees to doUnder Kyoto, Canada agrees to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 6% below 1990 levels by 2012. This would represent a 26% reduction from projected 2012 levels. Two years ago, Canada had surpassed its 1990 levels by close to 20%. Looking forwardThe protocol will only become legally binding when it is ratified by at least 55 countries, covering at least 55% of the emissions addressed by the protocol. The 55-country benchmark has been passed, but the 23 industrialized countries that have ratified represent only 36.6% of 1990 emission levels. Canada represents 3% of these emissions. We encourage all our members to make Earth Day a day to celebrate our achievements with regard to the environment. It is also, more importantly, a day to raise the consciousness of every citizen around the world on environmental issues critical to the surviving of our planet. For additional information on Earth Day 2004, please consult our PSAC Web site.
|
