Report of the Third National Vice-President
CIU National Board of Directors
October 2009

It has been a very busy seven months, including the busiest summer in seven years. I attended the Alberta Branch AGM and the BC Southern District Branch AGM in April, as well as the Saskatchewan District Branch General Meeting on Sept. 26/09 where Sister Brea Lewis was confirmed as Branch President. I hope that you will join me in welcoming her to the Board. I thank all three Branches for their hospitality. On June 10/09, I attended as an observer, in Brother Moran’s place, the Assembly of First Nations/Indian and Northern Affairs Joint Technical Working Group in Gatineau. The next meeting of the Working Group will take place in British Columbia.  I attended BC Regional LMCC on Sept. 23/09. I also participated in three Prairies Regional LMCC Conference Calls.  Sister Donna Gagnon, Brother Mark West and I appeared before the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence on Sept. 8/09 in Calgary. Among the issues we discussed were the authority of our members to pursue beyond the perimeter of a port, the arming of inland BSO’s and escort ratios. The Chair, Senator Kenny, expressed surprise that he had not heard more concern in the field regarding the position that the Agency has taken with regard to not arming inland BSO’s. Brother Moran, Sister Gagnon and I attended a General Membership Meeting in Coutts on Sept. 9/09. On Sept. 22/09, while in Vancouver on other business, Brother Don Turner and I had the chance to go to the new facility at the Port of Douglas for a tour of this very impressive facility. I would like to thank Sister Nicole Turner for taking us on this tour and to the members for their hospitality. While in Vancouver on VSSA negotiations, on Aug. 25/09, I attended a meeting with Sister Sue Neumann and two representatives from the Pacific Region Enforcement Centre and was briefed on problems they are encountering regarding ECOMM and escort ratios. We then did a tour of PREC.

I have been given a couple of assignments by the National President. The first assignment was to lobby the Agency to grant authorization to our officers to march in Gay Pride Parades in uniform.  This has been a battle that started about 15 years ago in Vancouver. I made my first request to march in uniform 11 years ago in Calgary. More recently, the issue was raised at the NLMCC. At his last meeting, Jolicoeur committed to a review of the uniform policy. At the last NLMCC on June 8/09, Barbara Hébert announced that the uniform policy had been modified. Subject to case by case requests, it was modified such that she believed authorization would be granted for Gay Pride Parades. As a result, I submitted my request to my RDG to march in Vancouver and Brother Alexander Bishop submitted a request on behalf of a number of members in the Vancouver District Branch. Both requests were accepted. As a result, for the first time in history, CIU members marched in uniform at the Vancouver Gay Pride Parade on Aug.2/09. I was honoured to join the members from the Vancouver District Branch in the parade and was gratified at how well our delegation was received. It seems very appropriate that our first breakthrough was in Vancouver, given the Little Sisters controversies. Ironically, the owner of Little Sisters was the Grand Marshall of the parade this year.  Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to meet her. I want to thank the members that participated and acknowledge their pioneering efforts. I especially want to acknowledge Brother Bruce Ritchie who has been part of this project for 15 years. I have had discussions with Brother Carmen Filice who has asked me to lead the drive in Toronto to ensure that we have a delegation in the Toronto Gay Pride Parade next year, which is the biggest parade in North America. I had invited Barbara Hébert to join us, but apparently she has chosen to retire instead.     

My second assignment has been less successful. I have been charged with handling the Agency’s Cell Phone Policy. I met with Camille Therriault-Power on July 16/09 to discuss  the policy and she confirmed that there is no national policy, just guidelines, which is why we have seen varied application of the policy in different parts of the country. I also asked for a decision on the CIU request that Branch Presidents or their designate be granted an exemption. We followed up with a conference call Aug. 26/09 when management announced that they would not consider such an exemption. They are prepared to update Questions and Answers on the Agency website as opposed to drafting a national policy. I expressed opposition to the policy as I believe it is a “knee jerk” reaction to some bad press. They asked what I would propose as an alternative. While I do not believe they genuinely intended to open the door to further discussions, I told them that I would consult with Sister Randle and Brother Loranger, who sat in on the call and get back to them. I hope to do this over the next two weeks.   

BY-LAWS

The By-Law Committee met in Ottawa July 14-15/09 at the CIU National Office in order to review the Board Regulations. This is the third stage in the long term project to revamp our Component documentation and to hopefully make it a bit more user friendly. The first major modifications were made to the By-Law at the 2005 National Convention.  Our two-day meeting was productive. We will be making 27 recommendations during our report. I have attached the Committee Report to my report so that Board members will have a bit more time to review them.   Sister Diane Lacombe joined the Committee, replacing Brother Lafleur who was on leave. I would like to thank her for her participation. She obviously brought significant knowledge and experience to the discussions. I would also like to welcome Brother Erik Lupien back to the Committee. The timing of his term assignment was very convenient. His experience with this file is extensive and very valuable.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

Considering we are between rounds of negotiations, I have been kept busy with this portfolio primarily due to some provisions in the new FB Collective Agreement.
Pursuant to the MOA in the FB Agreement, the AWA Committee has begun its work. I met for the first time with management representatives (Maureen Tracy and Jennifer McKinley) in Ottawa on April 14/09. We discussed methodology and terms of reference. This was followed up by a conference call on May 12/09 to confirm the details for the first meeting and set the date for the first Joint Committee meeting. The union side members are: Steve Pellerin-Fowlie, Co-chair, Morgan Gay, PSAC Technical Advisor, Daniel Lalonde, Québec, Mark Kuderian, GTA, Carmen Filice, GTA, Alec Goertzen, Prairies, Carolyn McGillivray, BC, and Audrey Smith, Atlantic. We held a union-side conference call where I gave an overview leading up to collective bargaining and Morgan gave an overview of negotiations leading up to the MOA. While there has been some controversy over the mandate of the Committee, it was decided to proceed with the June 9/09 meeting.  We also discussed the possibility of drafting a flyer and follow up with buttons.  The Joint Committee met in Ottawa on June 9, with Sisters Audrey Smith and Carolyn McGillivray participating by conference call. The discussion circled around the interpretation of Appendix H of the FB Collective Agreement and the mandate of the Committee. I announced that I had had discussions with Morgan Gay, who had consulted with Marc Thibodeau (TB Negotiator) and that our position is that the mandate is to study any viable form of Alternate Work Arrangements that fall within the TB Telework Policy. The Management position seemed limited to the “hard wire” option only. The Committee members were asked to provide sample questions for a questionnaire and for focus groups by June 22/09 and we scheduled the next conference call of the Joint Committee for June 25/09. That call was postponed because the minutes of the previous meeting had not returned from translation. I held a conference call with Elizabeth Childers and Jennifer McKinley and we discussed the submissions from the Committee members on questions and an action plan. We rescheduled the next conference call for July 15/09. Management was now saying that we are “saying the same thing”. This was confirmed on the July 15th conference call. It was decided to send the questions that had been selected to Communications for review. I advised that I would want them reviewed by the PSAC when Communications was done. Security is preparing a presentation for our next meeting. Also, Brother Howie West is preparing a presentation on the union view of AWA. There is a conference call tentatively scheduled with the co-chairs for Oct.9/09 I hope to have a union side conference call next week and hope to be able to report to the Board when the next meeting will be held and what the next steps are.

PENSION ADVISORY BOARD LETTER

As mandated by the NBoD, I have drafted a letter to the Pension Advisory Board. I need to verify some information and it will be sent to Brother James Infantino this week for review, as was recommended by Brother Jerome Turcq. I should be on its way to the Pension Advisory Board through our representatives, Brothers Gordon and Turcq by the time we meet.

APPENDIX B – VSSA NEGOTIATIONS

Pursuant to Appendix B, I have been invoked in negotiations at the regional level for two ports –Northgate and Nelway. Sister Lewis and I met with management in Winnipeg on Aug. 11/09 and agreed on a set of recommendations for the outstanding issues for the Port of Northgate. Consistent with our recommendations, a local member has come up with a proposed template that meets all of the conditions and the early indications seem to be that local management is still being obstructive. Hopefully we will have some news to report at the Board.
I attended two meetings in Vancouver for negotiations pursuant to Appendix B for the Port of Nelway. Brother Sullivan and I met with regional representatives on Aug. 24/09. Management was still finalizing their numbers using the new Resource Model. We agreed to meet again on Sept. 2/09. At this meeting, Brother Don Turner, VP Communications, BC Southern District Branch, joined me. He has been very involved in the local negotiation. We had not seemed to make much progress, but the following day at the BC RLMCC, Brother Turner made a proposal to the BC Region RDG, Blake Delgaty, and we are waiting to hear if he will accept it. We should know this week and should be able to report to the Board.
I attended a meeting at Calgary International Airport on Aug 18/09. The A/manager for the North Central Alberta District wanted to have a discussion regarding the VSSA’s in his district. They made a presentation on the Resource Model. The VSSA’s at CIA and EIA are both reopened and are currently into negotiations. What seems clear is that every VSSA in the country is under review.

ESSENTIAL SERVICE AGREEMENTS

The first hearings before the Public Service Labour Relations Board involving CBSA positions were held in Ottawa Sept. 16-17/09. These hearings are to deal with the BSO position and will focus on the “bundling” issue. The focus seems to be around the collection of revenue, but I believe that there are a number of other non-essential services that we perform, such as the collection of statistics. The next set of meetings are scheduled for Nov. 2-6/09. Dates have not yet been set for all of the other FB positions or any of the positions in the other TB Bargaining Units. The infamous Andrew Raven and Sister Helen Berry acted as counsel. Brother Bruno Loranger and I attended as observers. Since the entire two days involved testimony from an Agency representative, you will appreciate how exciting this experience was.

CONCLUSION

This has been the busiest year in my career as a National Vice President. It has also been very exciting.  The new Collective Agreement has brought on new responsibilities. There is no question that we have some “clean up“ to do in the next round. Our VSSA’s are under attack. The application of seniority is also in question. I do believe that we are getting closer to an Essential Services Agreement which will get us closer to an effective strike threat.  I would like to remind everyone that we are months away from the next input call. Please make sure that your Branch Collective Bargaining Committees are active.

In solidarity,

Steve Pellerin-Fowlie