Union Update

June 19 to July 7, 2006

Acrobat format

In this issue:

• First Collective agreement at the Ekati diamond mine
• PSAC National Pay Zone Committee advocates conciliation-strike route
• Bargaining Update
• When the phone rings, it could be your union calling!
• Discontent Public Service workers: The PSAC wants to be part of the solution
• National President at his first area council
• PSAC wins two communications awards

First Collective agreement at the Ekati diamond mine

PSAC members working at the Ekati diamond mine, 300 kilometres northeast of Yellowknife have ratified their first collective agreement. The tentative agreement was reached between the PSAC and mine owner BHP Billiton on June 23, and the vote was held among the nearly 400 PSAC members over the following week.

The collective agreement takes effect on the date of ratification and will expire on August 31, 2007
The workers will receive a $1000 bonus when they return to work and will be entitled to a Retention Bonus of 8% for Northern Residents and 4% for non-Northern Residents. The retention bonus will be paid out to workers still employed at the Ekati Diamond mine on December 31, 2006.

The agreement also provides minimum guaranteed annual increase of 1.5% for each worker and an average annual increase of 4% across the bargaining unit. All new employees hired must be members of the Union in good standing as a condition of employment.

The ratification ended a three month strike by the PSAC members. PSAC National President John Gordon said Ekati workers can be proud of their fight to win the first-ever contract at a Canadian diamond mine against BHP Billiton, the largest mining company in the world.

“When less than 400 union members take on a giant multinational corporation with $7.5 billion in annual profits to try and win a first contract, it’s hardly a fair fight,” Gordon said.  “But our members can hold their heads high.  They reached an agreement against the odds in an extremely tough strike where the employer did everything it could to defeat them and failed to do so.”

PSAC National Pay Zone Committee advocates conciliation-strike route

The National Pay Zone Committee has taken the position that conciliation with the right to strike is our best chance at eliminating pay zones.

The Committee recently met and discussed the two possible dispute settlement routes in the next round of bargaining with Treasury Board. The Committee agreed that the concilation-strike route is the best tool for PSAC members for putting collective pressure on the employer to eliminate pay zones.  The arbitration route would mean handing over decisions on important issues such as eliminating pay zones to a third party.  An arbitration board’s decision is binding, which means our members will not be able to vote on the board’s decision, whether it eliminates them or not, nor have a say on what the rate would be if an arbitration board were to decide to set a national rate. The conciliation route keeps decision making in the hands of the members.

The Committee members remain committed to the fight to eliminate regional rates of pay and continue their activities toward this goal, with plans to lobby Members of Parliament over the summer and throughout the upcoming round of bargaining.

For additional information, visit the Pay Zones section of the PSAC website:
www.psac-afpc.org/what/payequity/pay_zones/pay_zones-e.shtml

Bargaining Update

Notices to bargain were sent to the Nunavut Tunngavik Incoporated, the Library of Parliament, the Nishnawbe-Aski Police Services

PSAC members ratified a collective agreement at the North Peace Airport in Fort St. John, B.C. The agreement contains annual pay increases of 3%, 2.75%, 2.75% and 3% starting March 1 2006 and improvements to Vision Care, Dental Care, employer paid premiums for LTD among others.

PSAC members workings at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, voted overwhelmingly to reject the employer’s so called “Final Offer” on June 28, 2006.

The Employer’s offer included wage increases of $0.35, $0.30 and $0.25 in each of three years. In addition, the Employer was refusing retroactivity to August 2005, the time when the last collective agreement expired. The membership of Local 802 wanted to give the Union a strong strike mandate by rejecting this offer. A conciliation officer will be given the task of getting the Employer back to the table.  The bargaining team is ready to return to the table and work towards a collective agreement as soon as possible.

PSAC has issued the input call for bargaining proposals for the next round of negotiations on behalf of members working at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Bargaining proposal forms can be downloaded at: www.agrunion.com/en/news.html

When the phone rings, it could be your union calling!

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. 

Here are some things you should know about the survey:

• The survey will be conducted by phone starting in mid to late August and continuing until the end of September. 
• A sample of members from all the Treasury Board Tables, CFIA, Parks and CRA, across the country, will be called. 
• Members may accept or decline to participate in the survey.  When calling, Environics will identify that they are calling on behalf of the PSAC.
• The survey will take approximately 20 minutes to complete.
• Individual information collected through the survey is confidential.  At no time will the opinions of individual members be identified.
• The data collected will be used to help in the formulating bargaining demands and determining priorities and will be provided at the respective bargaining conferences.

If you’re called to participate in the survey, we hope you’ll say yes.  Your opinions are important!

The PSAC wants to be part of the solution

The PSAC is determined to cooperate with the federal government to find remedies to the many problems that plague the workplaces within the federal public service sector.

A newly-released survey of more than 100,000 workers in the federal government suggests about a third of public service workers are not content with their work. They said they are stressed and overworked and they cannot find a balance between family and work. The survey also indicates the workers feel trapped with few career options and have little trust in senior management.

The PSAC National President, John Gordon said that the PSAC was invited to participate in the survey and fully expects to be involved with the government in addressing the issues raised in the survey.

“In many occasions in the past, we have provided the federal government with ways to improve the quality of the workplaces”, Gordon said. “We will continue to work to improve our members’ working conditions.”

Gordon indicated that where respondents report a high level of satisfaction, as in flexible work arrangements, those flexible work arrangements exist because the union bargained to enshrine them in collective agreements.

In spite of the survey’s many negative results, public service workers say they are still determined to provide quality services to Canadians. Ninety per cent of federal public service workers admit to being proud of the public services they deliver, and 96 per cent say they are committed to making their organization successful.

For Gordon, these results confirm what the PSAC has been saying all along:  The PSAC members care deeply about their work and that public services need to be defended from cutbacks and privatization.

Indeed, the survey indicates that cutbacks in resources are posing challenges to federal public service workers as 42 per cent say that the quality of their work suffers from having to do the same or more work with fewer resources.  As well, 41 per cent of respondents say that their ability to provide quality services is compromised by the frequent organizational changes that are occurring in the federal government. In the meantime, a majority of respondents feel they have very little say in important decisions affecting their workplaces, with 61 per cent saying they are left out of important decisions.

National President at his first area council

John Gordon paid his first visit to a PSAC area council since his election as PSAC National President on May 5. Gordon met with the members of the Conseil régional d’action politique de l’Outaouais (CRAPO) in Gatineau to discuss union members’ political involvement.

Gordon’s message was clear: The work of area councils is an essential element to PSAC’s success when it comes to political action. “There’s a political action element to almost everything we do,” Gordon said. “Given that for many of our members, the government is also the employer, it’s one of our most important tools we have to make change and to achieve gains for our members – during bargaining and during elections.”

He said that anti-scab legislation is now a top priority for the Canadian Labour Congress and that the PSAC will be an active participant in CLC activities on this subject. He added that Patty Ducharme, NEVP, has taken the lead on this issue and will coordinate PSAC’s anti-scab fight. Gordon believes there is a good chance the federal government will pass an anti-scab bill in the fall because of the increased pressure from the Canadian labour movement.

He congratulated CRAPO members for their lobbying work on this.

PSAC wins two communications awards

PSAC has won two awards for the excellence of its communications at the Canadian Association of Labour Media conference in Winnipeg in May.  The video produced for the union leaders’ training course won the best audiovisual production for membership education and info.  PSAC also won an award for the best print ad for its advertisement on the Social Justice Fund, Helping make poverty history, which appeared in Our Times magazine.  Congratulations to the creators of both productions.