Report of the National President
National Board of Directors Meeting
October 2009

 

Preamble

As always it gives me great pleasure to welcome the members of the National Board of Directors to Ottawa for this, the October 2009 meeting of the CIU National Board of Directors. As is also always the case, this report endeavors to report on activities and issues that have retained the Union’s attention since we last met in March of this year.

We have witnessed a virtually unprecedented amount of activity in the months following the CIU October 2008 Triennial Convention which included a federal election, a devastating economic downturn, and the closing of the Cornwall Border crossing. Of further particular interest to our organization was of course the fact that the work aimed at achieving new collective agreements for CBSA workers belonging to every bargaining unit was completed. While indications to the contrary continue to come in, particularly from the Headquarters Region, our understanding is nonetheless that the pay adjustments and retro payments will virtually all have been made within the negotiated 150 days window, though barely in some cases. During this meeting Brother Pellerin-Fowlie will be providing us with a detailed implementation update in relation to pay adjustments and new contract language such as the seniority rights provisions, as well as a progress report on the ongoing Essential Service Agreement talks. 

The other substantial issues keeping us busy include the fact that CBSA continues to move forward in a somewhat meaningful way on the doubling-up and arming initiatives; these initiatives continue to generate many issues requiring the Union’s sometimes immediate attention, not the least of which is the fact that CBSA is now re-evaluating Intelligence Officer arming. We continue to lobby aggressively on the arming initiative given some of our fundamental training and implementation concerns haven’t been addressed to the full satisfaction of the affected members, and given the fact a commitment to fully arm airport Officers still hasn’t been achieved.

As you know, collectively, we continue to lobby very aggressively for a CBSA led Border Patrol and we will be attempting to provide you with as much information as possible on the related developments during this meeting.

 

Meetings and Field Visits

A list of the meetings and field visits I have undertaken since our last meeting is attached to this report under Appendix “A”.

 

Collective Bargaining

In my almost thirty (30) years of Union involvement, I have never witnessed a level of overall membership satisfaction such as it currently is. Members continue to provide us with the input we are seeking from them on how we will continue the work aimed at improving working conditions, pay & benefits. As well, many specific groups continue to have outstanding issues. That said, the appreciation for the work undertaken thus far by the union is omnipresent and I find my meetings with members in the field have accordingly been overall very reflective of this fact. What was surprising to all of us is the fact that the gains obtained during the last round of bargaining were attained without any form of strike or labour dispute. The reality is that the high-end majority of CBSA’s current workforce wouldn’t remember this ever happening to them in the past.

While it didn’t represent all of what we had hoped for, those of us belonging to the FB Bargaining Unit nonetheless saw what can only be described as an appreciable wage adjustment. When the Union was successful at obtaining a separate FB bargaining certificate from the Public Service Labour Relations Board, most had no appreciation for what this really meant. The announcement of this victory came at the same time the Union was also announcing it had successfully lobbied the government into arming and doubling-up the country’s front-lines; understandably, arming and doubling-up overshadowed the FB Certificate announcement at the time.

To the average member, the fact that the Union had been successful at establishing a separate bargaining unit for those CBSA workers who perform law-enforcement duties didn’t mean much; that is, until the FB tentative agreement was reached. The first FB collective agreement makes it crystal clear what can be achieved when negotiating at a separate table. And the advancements weren’t only noticeable in the area of wages, but also in contractual language improvements which include seniority rights, arming implementation job security rights, and alternate work arrangement provisions. What is now also clear in everyone’s mind is that negotiating at a distinct table is certain to continue generating dividends in future rounds of collective bargaining for generations of workers to come.

Essential Service Agreements
Unlike the designations process where a ratified settlement ended the process of identifying positions to be ‘designated’ in the event of a strike, the Public Service Labour Relations Act (PSLRA) now obligates the parties to reach Essential Services Agreements (ESA’s) once notice of essential services has been filed, blind to the status of current bargaining. Therefore, PSAC and the various employers governed by the PSLRA will continue negotiating ESA’s until signed agreements are reached.

While the CIU National Vice-President responsible for the Collective Bargaining portfolio will be providing us with an ESA update for all bargaining units, we already know the employer has filed approximately 9,000 proposals for essential positions in the FB Bargaining Unit. The vast majority of these are for the Border Services Officer (BSO) positions; the employer is seeking 100% of the BSOs be deemed essential. The Union has recently filed an Unfair Labour Practice Complaint with the Public Service Labour Relations Board arguing that under the legislation the employer (or the Board itself) can "bundle" essential services duties, and therefore have fewer members doing a higher percentage of essential services during a strike. This provision in the new legislation has not yet been litigated. As such, the Union is requesting an interpretation of the legislation from the Board on this important matter which will potentially affect ongoing essential service negotiations in other bargaining units. These hearings began in the early Fall; as mentioned, the CIU National Vice-President responsible for the Union’s Collective Bargaining Portfolio will be providing us with a detailed update during this meeting having participated in these hearings.

 

National Office Operations

Specific information relating to staffing and other aspects of National Office Operations including finances will be provided to you through the report of the CIU National Vice-President responsible for the National Office Operations portfolio, Brother Jean-Pierre Fortin.  I do wish to underscore that since we last met, we have a couple of new staff members at the National Office. Sister Cécile Ventura-Fornos has accepted a six (6) month term in the grievance administration section. It is with equal pleasure that I confirm the hiring (or re-hiring) of Brother Erik Lupien who has accepted a one (1) year Labour Relations Officer term with the Union; I know you all join me in wishing them both a warm welcome to the CIU Team. On a different note, the departure of Sister Isabelle Legault came as undesirable news to all of us; while we all understand that an organization of our size can only provide very limited chances of advancement for individuals seeking progression, we were all nonetheless quite saddened by the news that Sister Legault has accepted a position at PSAC Centre. I know you all join me in wishing Sister Legault all the best in her future endeavors.

Staffing of Finance Officer Position
During recent weeks the members of the National Executive informed both the affected members of the staff as well as their Union that the aforementioned position, which had until now been filled on an interim bases by Sister Chantal Ladouceur, would be permanently staffed. The National Executive will be staffing the position by someone possessing either a CGA or CMA designation. We do want to underscore the fact that this decision is in no way reflective of Sister Ladouceur’s performance in the position. In fact, I personally informed Sister Ladouceur that, if anything, she had done remarkably well for the organization.

National Office Renovations
As the CIU National Vice-President responsible for office operations, Brother Fortin will be in a position to provide you with details regarding the recent office renovations. I do however wish to underscore what I see as an inappropriate manner of financing these renovations as these ended being dealt with using a clearly upside-down approach. I am the first to appreciate that Convention Finance Committees will always try to come in with a no-dues-increase budget, and this is what happened during the 2008 Convention. When the 2008 Convention Finance Committee met, while they agreed the renovations were warranted and should proceed, they concluded that enough money was available in surplus and therefore their draft three (3) year budget didn’t need to reflect this anticipated expenditure. The funds are indeed available in surplus and while the committee’s intentions were of course very noble (no increase in dues), it is nonetheless inappropriate for you as Board members to now find yourself having to vote on a surplus appropriation after the renovations have already been completed. We definitely have to review how this situation came to happen in a view to never allowing it to happen again.  

Staff and AEU Meetings
Brother Fortin and I continue to meet regularly with Alliance Employees Union (AEU) representatives as well as with all National Office staff. We do so in the spirit of better planning our workload, working proactively to address issues that arise in National Office operations, and in an effort to maintain transparent lines of communication and good working relations with our staff and their Union.

 

 

Predominating Issues

Of particular concern at this stage is the fact that CBSA has chosen to reduce its Front-Line Officer recruitment intake by more than three quarters compared to the 08/09 fiscal year. During the 08/09 intake period, 1,155 recruits were invited to the College (with 923 making it through); CBSA’s plan for the 09/10 fiscal year is to only invite 284 recruits to the College. When you subtract the 107 recruits coming in through dedicated doubling-up initiative funding, this leaves only 177 recruits for all other categories (keeping in mind the current high failure rate). CBSA’s explanation for this dreadfully colossal reduction is the requested cuts expected by all Departments, the economic slow-down which has affected the Agency’s business volumes, and the fact that they are counting on Officers now sticking around longer to improve their pensions in light of the recent pay raises. In our view, this phenomenal intake reduction is a train wreck in the making given the economy is prudently yet steadily on its way up and given the reduction is taking place simultaneous to the elimination of the student program at marine points-of-entry and land-border crossings. If the CBSA was the vibrant proactive law enforcement organization that it should be, the expectation that many Officers would actually want to keep working for sustained periods of time once eligible for full pension would be realistic; however given the current reality…..      

Since we last met, I also continue to be involved in making a series of Agriculture and Immigration specific issues move forward including the outstanding Immigration classification files and the Agriculture Inspection shortfalls which I continue to work on with the Agriculture Union.

 

CIU Lobbying

Cornwall
The closing of Akwesasne’s Cornwall border crossing on June 1st has, understandably, affected our lobbying priorities. The Mohawk Council of Akwesasne has taken the position that they will not allow armed CBSA officers on their territory. We have thus been very aggressively pushing the Union’s long standing position which is that this Customs & Immigration facility should have never been built on Native land in the first place and must now, more than ever, be moved from Cornwall Island. All of the tensions which have erupted over the past decades between the Service and the Mohawk community have stemmed from the fact that the facility is located in the heart of the Akwesasne Reserve. Further, reality is that the intimidation tactics used against the Officers posted at Cornwall by some members of this Native community during the weeks and particularly the days which led to the government closing the office were such that the differences between the Akwesasne community and these Officers are now well beyond being irreconcilable. The intimidation tactics included members of this native community gathering around the facility with some walking through the office for no other purpose than to stare-down the Officers. Their tactics also included making public statements through the Warriors that they would swarm the office and disarm the Officers themselves should arming occur. The intimidation escalation culminated on May 30th with four (4) fires being lit around the facility and with between 150 and 200 members of the Native community gathered around it, many in camouflage clothing and scarves hiding their faces; a bulldozer was also present and ready to roll. By closing the Cornwall Island facility the Canadian Government has confirmed that, in their minds, the Akwesasne community is ungovernable, meaning any form of safety assurances are now impossible to provide to the men and women who used to staff this office. The rest of us

are left trying to imagine what it must have been like for these Officers having to work under such extremely stressful conditions. Reality also is that the developments have a majority of these Officers being told by their respective doctors that, medically, they will never be able to work at that particular facility again. Simply put, the bottom line is that even if the government were to try re-opening the Cornwall Island facility, with or without side-arms, they would not have enough of a complement of Officers to run it. We have been in contact or contacted by a countless number of stakeholders, MP’s (including the Minister), and media reporters regarding this issue and have used every one of these opportunities to galvanize the moving of the facility off-island. We also met the Mayor of Cornwall as an Executive during our June 2009 National Executive meeting. Indications remain strong that the government will not try to re-open the facility on the reserve (Cornwall Island). The enforcement stats made possible by the fact that the Customs and Immigration facility is now on the Canadian mainland are very impressive and thus helpful in justifying a permanent re-location. I have attached the related news release that we issued on July 8th, 2009 as Appendix “B” of this report.            

Other Lobbying
Our other lobbying efforts continue to be predominately focused on the government’s Border Patrol project; Brother Jean-Pierre Fortin and I had our first meeting with Minister Van Loan (Public Safety Canada) on March 11th of this year and our meeting was almost exclusively dedicated to this initiative though we also raised our arming initiative related concerns with him. We explained to the Minister that our predominating concern regarding the Border Patrol project is the fact that the Agency is going out of its way to exclude us from the internal talks that are currently ongoing between the CBSA, RCMP and Canadian Coast Guard. Though recently appointed to the Department of Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness with a pair of very big shoes to fill, Minister Van Loan was impressively on top of all of the issues we discussed with him and confirmed he wished for us to play a central role in the roll-out of the Border Patrol project, recognizing that we were, after all, the organization that prompted this initiative.

Also noteworthy is the very good Border Patrol related media run we got during the week of February 9th, as well as the publication of the Border Patrol article I was asked to write for the Frontline Security magazine which they published in their border protection focused winter 08/09 edition. Copies of this issue have been obtained and were distributed to each member of the CIU Board during our March meeting. Frontline Security magazine is regarded as an authority in the field of national security, public safety & emergency preparedness; the magazine circulates literally everywhere within the law enforcement community.

SCONSAD Appearance
On June 22nd, Brother Fortin and I testified before the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defense (SCONSAD). Our presentation and Brief aimed to update CIU’s Secure Border Action Plan (SBAP) which we had presented to Minister Day as well as to SCONSAD in November of 2006. Our presentation and Brief also focused on a series of new issues. The SBAP portion of our presentation/Brief offered updates under the following headings: Point-of-Entry Connectivity, Point-of-Entry Lookout System, Port Runners, Border Patrol, Pre-Border Clearance, The Arming Initiative, and Ending Work-alone. The new issues which made up our presentation/Brief were under the headings: Staffing Concerns, The Auditor General’s 2008 Report, Seaport Security Issues, and Corporate CanPass. All in all, our appearance went very well with the Senators asking very pertinent questions as is always the case. The working relationship CIU has maintained with SCONSAD over the years has been extremely productive to say the least. Our appearances have featured presentations of specific factual circumstances as well as offered improvement suggestions for areas of inquiry by the Committee with CBSA management and others.

 

Occupational Group Structure and Classification Reform – PM Group

The PSAC has now had three (3) meetings with Treasury Board officials as part of the consultation process on occupational group structure (OGS).

This consultation process is taking place subsequent to the Memorandum of Agreement the union negotiated into the PA Collective Agreement last year. The review of the occupational groups will be followed by consultation on classification reform, which is designed to replace Treasury Board's outdated classification standards.

The OGS consultation is still in its very early stages, and the meetings have concentrated thus far on the processes and data sources which will be used to review the occupational groups. The PSAC has made it clear to Treasury Board that it be providing regular updates to members on the subject. To date, the Centre has done a web posting and produced an article in "Our Union Voice" that provides a basic introduction to the process. This fall, PSAC will be doing a mailing to all PA Group members, which will be sent via regular mail as well as through the PSAC listservs.

 

CIU Membership Figures

The total number of deductees for the month of July 2009 was 11,334, which included 10,756 signed members and 578 Rands.

Since December 2008, the membership has increased by a total of 61 deductees. The percentage of Rands was 10% in December 2008 and is now at 5.1% as of the July 2009 Check-Off, a decrease of 4.9%. The decrease is primarily due to the hard work to sign-up members in the field as well as the ratification vote which took place earlier this year since Individuals who were listed as Rands that wanted to vote had to fill out an Application for Membership card.

Following is the membership statistical chart broken down by Branch which is based on the July 2009 Check-Off (this is the most recent data available at the time of finalizing this report).

 

MEMBERSHIP STATISTICS
JULY 2009 CHECK-OFF

 

Communications

 

The Union’s New Name
Since the October 2008 National Convention, our focus has been on three communications priorities. First, the new name and logo were to appear on all CIU communication tools.  With the exception a few residual documents such as the balance of cheques bearing the CEUDA logo, this huge project is now complete with the National Office signage changeover completed during the summer.

Replacement of all of the Union’s Computers and IT Infrastructure
The second priority was the complete replacement of the aging computer equipment for members of the CIU Board of Directors and National Office staff with the latter being particularly dated.  After a relatively long migration period, since the full network infrastructure was changed and planned from scratch, the CIU network is now stable with a few minor adjustments remaining which continue to be done in collaboration with our new IT provider, Nova Networks.

The New CIU Website
We are proud to say that our third priority, the long awaited website revamp, has been finalized and will be officially launched during this meeting. With a more modern infrastructure, a new redesigned platform, new functionalities and much more to come, the new website represents a very good stepping-stone for the new image of CIU since the change of name.

It remains important to keep in mind however that for our website to be efficient, transparent, and up-to-date, it needs to be populated with the latest information of what goes on not only at the national level, but in all parts of the country. In that regard, it is extremely important that everyone participate and keep the National Office informed of the latest news from the field, in the Branches, and from committees. The Union website, just like the magazine, is created for us, by us.

CIU Magazine
As for the magazine, unfortunately, since this publication is financed solely by advertisement, with the economy crisis it was impossible for our publisher to produce a 2009 Spring/Summer edition as planned. Nonetheless, a new edition of the magazine will be in preparation immediately following this Board meeting and is expected to be ready to be sent out by early December.

Membership Survey
As already mentioned, in June of this year following our appearance before the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence, we tabled a new report entitled “Updating the Secure Border Action Plan”. This brief was focusing on how the situation at the different Points-of-Entry have changed since we published the “Secure Border Action Plan”, how many of our recommendations were followed, and which new issues we now wish to raise.

Following on that initiative, we are, currently, in the process of completing the creation of a new Members’ Survey, just like the one done in 2006 (for which we had received 100% response rate), to get the feedback on those issues from the field. Expect that the 2009 Members’ Survey will be sent in the different working areas within a few weeks.

 

PSAC Communication- Launch of the E-Train
New for PSAC since we last met was the launch and promotion of E-Train, PSAC's on-line educational training modules. Prominently displayed at PSAC Convention at the PSAC kiosque, the E-Train was also promoted in PSAC publications, on customized mouse pads and PSAC's national website. Please encourage all members and activists to take advantage of this wealth of educational material now available at their fingertips.

 

Safety & Health

While I continue to fully monitor and even maintain direct involvement in some of the work generated by the current health and safety issues, as you know I have stepped down as a full member of the Policy Health & Safety Committee (PHSC), thus allowing the involvement of another member of the NBoD Occupational Safety & Health Committee to take part in the PHSC. We were please that Sister Leanne Hughes accepted this appointment as she brings quite a varied perspective to the table linked to the very wide range of work she performs in Victoria. We also want to thank Brother Mike Matuzic who continues to be part of this committee bringing in all of his invaluable Immigration background and knowledge.

PSAC 2009 National Health and Safety Conference
The 2009 National Health and Safety Conference will be held November 20 to 22, 2009 at the Sheraton Hotel in Montréal, Québec under the theme “Workplace Alliances for Healthy Environments:  Regulate - Agitate - Enforce”. The Steering Committee is chaired by Sister Kay Sinclair and the Resolutions Committee is chaired by Brother Gerry Halabecki. The PSAC received over 650 applications. We expect delegate selection to be completed by the time we meet as a Board.

Report of the Auditor General of Canada
As a follow-up to the 2009 spring Report of the Auditor General demonstrating that the federal government is failing to ensure the safety of thousands of workers and members of the public by not properly enforcing fire safety rules and regulations, the PSAC prepared a publication entitled: Tools for Workplace Actions. Health and safety activists and members of Joint Health and Safety Committees will find useful information that also includes an Employer-Compliance Checklist specifically designed for Fire Safety Planning and Fire Emergency Organization.

 

Pensions

Bill C-78 (Federal Superannuation Surplus) Litigation
On December 19, 2007, the PSAC served notice to the Attorney General of Canada of its intention to appeal the decision of Ontario Superior Court of Justice Antoine de Lotbinière Panet which dismissed all of the claims made by the plaintiffs against the federal government for breaches of trust, fiduciary duty and contractual obligations to plan members in the case of the Federal Superannuation Surplus dispute. Formal appeal documents were filed by PSAC counsel with the Ontario Court of Appeal on December 28, 2007.
Due to the complexity of the issues involved in this dispute, legal preparations for proceeding on appeal to the Ontario Court of Appeal have been lengthy. The parties to the litigation have been working with a Coordinating Judge to prepare and exchange appropriate transcripts and factum reports. Given the significance of this issue to current, former and future members of the PSAC, it is important that the best possible legal arguments are prepared in an effort to overturn the decision at the Ontario Court of Appeal.
PSAC Legal Counsel had originally anticipated that this case would proceed before the Ontario Court of Appeal in the fall of 2009. Unfortunately, due to scheduling difficulties, the parties to this case are now canvassing the Ontario Court of Appeal for available court dates in February, March or April of 2010. The PSAC will be keeping the membership informed of any developments of significance in this case through postings on the PSAC national web site.
CIU Pension Reform Lobbying – FB Group
As had been directed by the members of the CIU Board during our March 2009 meeting, consultations have taken place with the union-side representatives of the Superannuation Public Service Pension Advisory Committee (PSPAC) as well as with the PSAC Pension Officer. These discussions were followed up by a recent letter addressed to the PSPAC outlining our Plan improvement demands.

With such things as arming and the establishment of a separate bargaining unit for the CBSA law enforcement community, our next logical target has become the establishment of the same 25 year retirement options already offered to the wider law enforcement community, including the RCMP and, at least in part, the CX Group (Federal Prison Guards). We continue to assemble the required data and intend to sit down with the CBSA Vice-President for Human Resources in short order to engage CBSA in this initiative which, in our view, will benefit the employer as much as it will the employees given the new accommodation realities the CBSA is now confronted with. The goal is to hopefully eventually make a joint presentation to Treasury Board on these required Superannuation changes.

 

Grievance Backlog Project

As you are aware, we have been working with CBSA Labour Relations to establish an updated (common inventory) list of all outstanding CIU grievances at the 4th level. The goal is for CIU to have a list that matches the two CBSA lists (CBSA has one list for labour relations grievances and a second list for job-content/classification grievances – these two types of grievances are managed by two different CBSA Sections). The following information captures what has so far been identified from the respective grievance inventories recorded in the CIU and CBSA databases.

Labour Relations Grievances

• 1,712 as per CIU database
• 2,144 as per CBSA database
• 1,099 matching records are found on both the CIU & CBSA databases

At this point 1,045 labour relations grievances appear on the CBSA database that are not found on the CIU database (2144 minus the 1099 matching), the CBSA Redress and Compensation Unit is working to provide us with more information on 415 of these records for which we cannot identify the grievors in the PSAC database and, therefore, are unable to establish which Branch we should be writing to obtain the required information/documentation. Once CBSA provides us with this information, which we expect will take place within the weeks ahead, we will write each of the affected Branches and ask for the grievance information/documentation; we will then be able to proceed and consult with the CBSA at the 4th level for these files. If CIU cannot obtain the required information or if the grievors cannot be located, we will have no choice but to close such files.

As we move forward, the expectation is that our respective lists will match entirely. Once this is accomplished and to maintain current, CIU and CBSA have agreed to exchange monthly lists that will capture newly opened and closed grievances from the previous month. In addition, we are working to identify potential group grievances for which we could enter into memoranda of agreements and test one grievance per group.

Job Content & Classification Grievances

• 567 as per CIU database
• 6,350 as per CBSA database (2,000 of these are not yet entered in the CBSA database)
• 347 matching records found on both the CIU & CBSA database

The remarkable discrepancy in numbers between CIU and CBSA in this area is primarily caused by the fact that CIU does not enter classification group grievances as unique records in the CIU database. The CBSA does not proactively address job content or classification grievances. We will be meeting with the CBSA Classification Programs in the near future to establish how we will proceed to address these grievances. We expect we will take a similar approach to the one currently undertaken with the CBSA Redress and Compensation Unit. The commitment remains that we will prioritize all outstanding classification files on a first in first out bases; which in part means we will finalize all grievances under the PM Standard prior to addressing the ones filed under the FB Standard.

As Board members are aware, we have hired an additional Labour Relations Officer on a term assignment to assist with the grievance backlog. Our instructions are that this additional resource focus on the oldest grievance files, regardless of which Branch the grievances are from. Since our March 2009 Board meeting, CIU has been able to address literally hundreds of grievance files, finalizing 4th level work on 858 of these files. We expect that the current exercise of regrouping all alike grievances to address them as groups will have significant results on our 4th level grievance inventory.

I wish to take this opportunity to thank all who have and continue to be involved in addressing the task at hand. We fully realize and appreciate that the work is often very difficult; it is our collective efforts that are making a difference and these same efforts are on their way to resolving the backlog.

 

PSAC Representation Section

Backlog Project Update
The backlog pilot project with Treasury Board moved to the BC Region. Hearing and mediation dates were held in April and May 2009. The pilot involved the review of over 200 grievance files arising in BC. The PSAC is currently evaluating the overall success of the project and discussions with Treasury Board and the PSLRB are ongoing regarding next steps.

Representation Symposium
Planning is underway for the representation symposium which is being scheduled for three days in April/May 2010. Surveys were sent out throughout the union leadership and staff providing representation to facilitate the planning by identifying core issues and the practical needs of those engaged in representation. The PSAC has received over 185 survey responses. Firm dates for the symposium and an analysis of the responses were expected to be completed by the end of September. Furthermore, as part of the strategy to address the adjudication backlog, the Section has hired an additional three (3) Grievance & Adjudication Officers, an Analyst and an Administrative Assistant.

 

Tele-work

In the 1990s, the PSAC prepared several extensive studies on Tele-work and developed a comprehensive Tele-work Policy. The current Treasury Board Tele-work Policy considered the PSAC's findings when it was created, although it was not as comprehensive as the union would have liked. Inconceivably, and out of step with much of the public sector in other countries, the Treasury Board is abandoning its Tele-work Policy and devolving responsibility for it to Departments. Departments will have discretion to create a Tele-work Policy or not.

The modern work environment, plagued by increased work life conflict, pandemic concerns, the requirement to address climate change within the government workplace and increased member demand suggests that the PSAC needs to revisit and update the work that it undertook a decade ago. The Work Reorganization Office of the PSAC has started to do this work.

 

PSAC NBOD Duties

As a member of the PSAC National Board of Directors, I attend the three (3) yearly meetings of the Board, the latest of which was held October 5 to 9 of this year. As a committee member, I also participate in meetings of the PSAC NBoD Health & Safety and Collective Bargaining Committees. I further continue representing the employer side of all PSAC Components on the Joint Pension Advisory Committee which is the committee that governs the union employee’s pension fund.

 

Provincial Federations of Labour Affiliations

It has been brought to my attention that of the 23 CIU Branches, six (6) are not affiliated to their respective federations of labour. The affiliation process is relatively simple and can be explained to branches by the National Office. Once affiliated, it is PSAC Centre that pays the related affiliation fees directly to the Federations meaning affiliation involves no direct costs or related administration to the Branches. The networking and mobilization which exist when affiliated to a Federation of labour are endless and we strongly encourage that those CIU Branches not already affiliated proceed to doing so in the shortest order possible.

 

NJC Seminar and Visit of Northern Worksites

At the end of this past September, I attended the National Joint Council (NJC) Seminar on behalf of the PSAC. Many do not realize that the NJC is the oldest federal public service joint process through which employer and employee representatives try to find middle-ground on such things as the medical & dental plans, the Travel Directive, the Relocation Directive, etc. The NJC actually predates collective bargaining which for its part began in 1966. The seminar was held in Whitehorse this year, with the theme of the conference being the challenges faced in the North, focusing on such things as the NJC Isolated Post Allowance provisions. The conclusion, from both the Treasury Board (TB) and employee representative sides of the table, was that much work is ahead of us given the formulas being used for calculating such things as isolation expenses and compensation are archaic to the point of no longer adequately serving the purpose for which they were created.

Given already being in the North represented a rare opportunity; I remained in the Yukon for a few extra days following the NJC conference and tried to meet with as many CIU members from the North as possible. Unfortunately, between the time I planned these visits and the time I was actually there, we were informed that the port of Little Gold was closing earlier this year due primarily to insurmountable Officer housing issues on the US side as well as repeated failures with the satellite telephone system. When you look at the geography involved you can see that not being able to access Alaska via Little Gold made it impossible for me to visit as many crossings as I would have wanted to during the short time I was there. Nonetheless, I was able to meet with members from Whitehorse, Beaver Creek, Dawson City, Little Gold and Frazer BC. Though it was my second time visiting northern worksites and/or meeting with Northern members, it remained as eye-opening as the first time I visited the North with Brother George Scott many years back. While many of the issues which interest these members are common to all of us (arming, an improved pension plan, improvements to the collective agreement, etc.), these members are confronted with many other challenges specific to their work location. Imagine for example having to drive six (6) hours for your groceries (Beaver Creek to Whitehorse); that’s the equivalent of me having go to Toronto for groceries. Many of the issues raised by these members confirmed the conclusions of the NJC Seminar in that the formulas currently being used by TB to compensate those working in isolated locations are outdated and in desperate need of fundamental modifications.    

I’ve included a few pictures from these field visits:

 

 

 

Picture 1: (left to right) Brothers Dan Robitaille (Whitehorse), Dan Robinson (Beaver Creek), Gary Knickle (Frazer), and National President Ron Moran await a CanPass flight in Whitehorse which is to be cleared by Brother Robitaille.
Picture 2: Sister Alyson Feeney poses with Brother Moran at Dawson City Airport.
Picture 3: (left to right) Brother Ron Moran, Brother Gary Knickle, Sisters Dena Lomano and Suzanne Tremblay at the Port of Fraser BC.   

 

Human Rights Advocacy - PSAC

During the recent months the PSAC website featured Equity/Recognition Days postings which included:

• February          Black History Month (also featured in Union Update)
• March 8th         International Women's Day
• March 21st       International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
• April 28th          National Day of Mourning (also featured in Union Update)
• May 1st             May Day Statement

 

Conclusion

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the Union’s activists for their sustained involvement and participation in Union representation and training at all levels; without all of you, there would simply be no Union.

I also want to thank the members of the CIU National Office staff for all of their sustained hard work; we are fortunate to have such a qualified and dedicated team working for us and I know you all join me in expressing thanks and appreciation towards them.

It is of course impossible to capture all of the Union’s activities of the past six (6) months within a short report of this type; I would be pleased to respond to questions the members of the Board may have in relation to this report or regarding all other matters the Union is involved in.

 

Respectfully submitted for consideration

 

Ron Moran
National president