February is Black History Month – And Yes, it is still meaningful

By Hayley Millington

As recently as January 20^th, 2016, during a conversation about the 2016 Oscars, U.S. actress Stacy Dash said on Fox News that she wants to eliminate Black History Month (BHM). According to Ms. Dash as she addressed the ongoing outrage over the lack of minority nominees in major categories;

“I think it’s ludicrous,” Dash, 49, said about the response to the lack of diversity surrounding the Oscar nominations. “We have to make up our minds. Either we want to have segregation or integration. If we don’t want segregation, then we need to get rid of channels like BET and the BET Awards and the [NAACP] Image Awards, where you’re only awarded if you’re black.”

Ms. Dash went a step further by saying “there shouldn’t be a Black History Month. We’re Americans, period.”

In 2005, Academy Award-winning actor Morgan Freeman said that having a Black History month was “ridiculous” and that the best way to end racism today is to “stop talking about it”. When questioned as to why, Mr. Freeman stated “You’re going to relegate my history to a month”.

The statements quoted here are a set of widely used, tried and tested propaganda used in America daily. The ideas themselves are used at any given time in discussions with other proponents who would like to remove Black History Month from the calendar with the premise that it hinders us (black folks) more than it helps us in achieving the American dream, not as a black person in America but as an American.

On this side of the border, attitudes towards BHM differ. All Canadians are invited to participate in BHM festivities as the legacy of black Canadians are remembered and celebrated. Canadians take the time to celebrate what Canadian people of colour have brought to the cultural mosaic that is Canada’s multicultural diversity.

It is important to recognize and not lose sight of the fact that Black History Month carries a significance that far outweighs the negativity as it allows people of colour to showcase their past and their present.

So while some to the south of us continue to devalue and misconstrue the importance of Black History Month, my point of view is that it certainly has a role to play in educating Canadians about its historical context and perspective.

For the next 29 days I am engaging my colleagues and friends with a BHM quiz that has been ongoing for the past 13 years in my place of work. When it opens up and creates a space for dialog about black history, the conversation becomes an opportunity to share my experiences openly and proudly with all who are interested.

Hayley Millington is the UNE’s National Equity Representative for Women.

2016/01/182016/02/08

Meeting of the National Executive

The National Executive of the Union of National Employees will be meeting from Tuesday, January 26 to Thursday, January 28, 2016 in Ottawa.

Should your Local have any item to be placed on the agenda for this meeting, please contact your Regional Vice-President and provide him or her with the necessary information in order that he or she will be in a position to place this matter before the Executive.

2015/12/142016/02/08

Rideau Carleton Raceway Slots Workers Facing Lockout During Holiday Season

Workers at the OLG-Rideau Carleton Raceway Slots (RCRS) facility in Ottawa are facing a lockout as early as 12:01am on December 16.

The 124 affected workers, represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), have been negotiating to reach a fair contract since May 2014 but have so far been unsuccessful. Key outstanding issues are reasonable wage increases and the future of the pension plan. Workers at the RCRS have not received a raise since 2008, and now earn significantly less than workers in comparable positions at other OLG facilities.

Workers will once again return to the bargaining table on December 14 in an attempt to reach a negotiated agreement that is fair and equitable.

On December 10, Slots management notified workers that if there was a labour dispute they would be denied access to health and dental benefits. PSAC has assured its members that should the RCRS not agree to the continuation of benefits, the union will provide health and dental coverage to all those involved in the labour disruption.

“We believe it’s only fair that after not receiving raises since 2008, the RCRS’s management should come to table with a reasonable offer that reflects the good work that our members do,” said Larry Rousseau, Regional Executive Vice-President for the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

“As we enter the busiest part of the holiday season, we really hope that this can be resolved at the bargaining table, without disruption to the RCRS’s operations, as we are sensitive to how many banquets and events have been booked at this location,” added Doug Marshall, President of the Union of National Employees, a component union of PSAC.

The 124 workers at the RCRS serve in a variety of roles, including as parking attendants, housekeepers, slot attendants, slot technicians, cashiers and money room clerks.

2015/12/092015/12/09

Register today for the NCR-SE Regional Seminar

The NCR – Separate Employer regional seminar is fast approaching and it’s the best place to learn about our union and the many things we do.

Join us February 26-28, 2016 for an event jam-packed with lectures and workshops to help you gain the knowledge and confidence you’ll need to help our members. It’s also a great place to meet active members just like you and forge long-lasting friendships.

During the seminar, youth delegates will elect two of their peers to represent them as delegates to our 2017 convention.

You must register by Friday, January 22, 2016.

Visit the events page for more information and register today.

2015/12/07

PSAC Takes Position with Labour Board

Union takes position that work of Constables and work of Scanner Operators are different, with specific bargaining issues.

The new employer for security services on Parliament Hill has made a proposal to the Public Service Labour Relations Board to merge both Constables bargaining units and the Scanners bargaining unit into one – meaning that there would be one contract for both Constables and Scanner Operators.

Constables and Scanners both play a role in ensuring the safety and security of the public, parliamentarians and their staff. But the work that each performs is substantially different, as are the issues and operational-settings, from scheduling to uniforms to firearms. As a union that represents thousands of law enforcement officers in the federal public service, PSAC has a great deal of first-hand knowledge about collective bargaining in a law-enforcement environment. In the case of PPS, the fact of the matter is that constables and scanners don’t do the same work.

As a result, PSAC is taking the position that Constables and Scanners should each have the ability to negotiate their own collective agreements. Regardless of the union that represents these groups, PSAC believes that the two groups should be separate in terms of their collective agreements. Just as the PSAC has taken the position that – despite the fact that both groups are represented by the PSAC – postal workers and editorial workers should each have their own collective agreements. The PSAC currently represents eight different, separate groups on Parliament Hill, each with its own collective agreement.

Also resolving this issue would ensure that PSAC can get back to the bargaining table in a more timely fashion and resolve issues related to the work of Scanner Operators.

We’ll be sure to update as things progress. If you have any questions or wish to see a copy of our proposals contact a member of our Bargaining Team.

2015/12/04

December 6: National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Being tasked to write this article presented me with a challenge. I wasn’t sure of the best way to approach the topic of violence against women in order to deliver a piece that was insightful to the reader and meaningful to me. In my brainstorming sessions, I kept thinking of the 14 women who were killed on December 6th, 1989 simply for the fact that they were women. Images and thoughts from that horrific day resonated so strongly within me and kept repeating like a song on a continuous loop.

A chance conversation with one of my closest and dearest friends provided me with a “eureka” moment that gave me focus and reminded me of the enormity and severity of violence against women and how some of our sisters are continually living this reality – this perpetual motion. When you think about it, everyone knows someone or about someone who has been the victim of violence. As I sat there listening and bearing witness to the experience of a domestic abuse survivor, I was reminded about that continuous loop. And I was reminded that this wasn’t the first time I’d been privy to such tales of violence and triumph. The importance of being there to listen and lend support is integral to the victim’s support network.

(Thank you, Stacy, for bringing into focus the direction I needed as inspiration for this article.)

According to Status of Women in Canada, these are the facts:

FACT: Women are 11 times more likely than men to be victims of sexual offences
FACT: Women are 4 times more likely than men to experience intimate partner violence
FACT: Women with disabilities are at 4 times greater risk of experiencing sexual assault
FACT: The RCMP reports that nearly 1,200 Aboriginal women and girls have been murdered or gone missing in Canada
FACT: Young women between the ages of 15 and 24 experience the highest rates of violence
FACT: Since 1980, the number of non-Aboriginal female victims of homicide has been declining while the number of Aboriginal female victims has remained relatively constant
FACT: 8 out of 10 victims of intimate partner violence are women
FACT: Data suggests that one quarter of female students in college or university have experienced sexual assault or attempted sexual assault; 90% of these students knew their attacker
FACT: Women are 3 times more likely than men to experience criminal harassment
FACT: Aboriginal women are 3 times more likely to report experiencing violence than non-Aboriginal women
FACT: Aboriginal women are over-represented among Canada’s murdered women; they make up 4% of the female population but represent 16% of all murdered women
FACT: Sexual offences are 8 times more likely to be committed against girls ages 12-17 than male youth
FACT: 90% of Sexual assaults against women by a non-spousal accused are never reported to police
FACT: Women know their sexual attacker in three quarters of incidents

The facts here speak for themselves – women are targets simply because of their gender. So on this National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women in Canada I strongly urge you to acknowledge without pride or prejudice, as an individual and a society, that gender-based violence is not just a women’s issue, it’s an everybody issue. Ignoring and sweeping it under the carpet is no longer an option or an alternative.

Instead, we must address the issue; face the FACTs head-on.

Together, we can root out this malignancy that has us hobbled and look towards engendering a society where respect for women is the new norm rather than the exception. It is left to us to facilitate spaces where victims feel free to express their experiences and lend support where we must to enable the healing of all those who have been affected by gender-based acts of violence.
In closing, I would like to share this poem with you…

Victim

VICTIMS, each and every one of us
In one way or another – Victim
The unknowingly conscious recipient of some or other crime against
humanity – Victim

VICTIMS, each and every one of us
Properly thrashed and subjected, to some or another of society’s ills
Dissected and Rejected, ready to occupy another space on humanity’s
landfill – Victim

VICTIMS, each and every one of us
Pillaged and Plundered, left falling, failing, floundering for – just give me
just one more chance, come on give me just one more chance, ready for
another option outside of that of – Victim

VICTIMS, each and every one of us
Desperate for movement, anywhere else but between a rock and its hardest
place
Rendered incapable, unable to gasp for breath as life holds us each
immobilized, comatose and in a state of suspended animation – Victim

VICTIMS, each and every one of us

Hayley Millington is the UNE’s National Equity Representative for Women.

2015/11/202015/12/03

Trans Day of Remembrance

This Friday is TDOR – Trans Day of Remembrance. A night we honour our dead and memorialize those we know were murdered simply because they were trans.

They were sons and daughters, mothers and fathers, grandparents, aunts and uncles….and every other combination of family that you can think of. And probably some you can’t – like family by choice. And they were friends.

But for many of us in the trans community it is not solely about memorializing the murdered. For many TDOR has a multitude of meanings – yes, memorializing the murdered; but for me it is also about remembering and memorializing all those other brothers and sisters in the trans community who have died no matter how – whether by accident, suicide, natural causes – what have you. It is a day to remember our friends and family who no longer walk alongside us. For others it is a way of bringing into the light the bigotry and hate that impacts our lives so deeply and asking you to help us stop it. And for others still, it is a poke in the eye to those bigots, in some way saying “you may kill us, but you can never silence us and we will stand up and fight against you”.

Last year I was in Ottawa for TDOR and I attended the vigil held there. I was in Ottawa for bargaining as part of the PA group bargaining team. And coincidentally one of the things we are bargaining for is to get gender identity and expression put into the non-discrimination clauses of our collective agreements. It was a fairly cold night and the vigil was held at the Canadian Human Rights Monument on Elgin Street. A cold, yet appropriate location I thought. There was actually a fairly large crowd, and the speaker did a very nice job with the memorial. Nice enough that after the vigil I asked her if she could email me a copy of what she read because it was so incredibly touching to me.

But I have to say what made me most proud and honoured was the support from my bargaining team, my component and the national executive of the PSAC. Our National President, Robyn Benson attended and stood beside me during the entire vigil – her presence was both very comforting and very empowering. As well, National Executive Vice President Chris Aylward attended, as did REVP Ontario Sharon DeSousa, and a number of the PSAC staff. The entire PA Group bargaining team was there in support, as was my UNE President, Doug Marshall. To me their presence said “trans lives matter” and that we, as a union, care about all members; and that I – and the things that matter to me – are important. I know I am an extreme minority within the PSAC – having met only 5 other trans members over the past 8 years and the union has always been good to me, but that night it really hit home. They care. They do give a damn. And it doesn’t matter if it is 1 member or 1000 members. The union will be there for you if it can be. Thank you to all of you who came and showed your support for me and my community. I am not sure that I can adequately express what it meant to me.

That night, and every TDOR, for me personally was also remembering a friend who I did not know for that many years, but who I knew better than some of my own family. Like many in the community we met online, and over time we met in 3D. She was a lovely woman, very down to earth and we could talk for hours (and often did) about just about anything under the sun.

We had a ritual of sorts. Whenever we happened to be in the same city at the same time, we would get together for dinner and drinks and spend the evening chatting. Well actually, we would find a restaurant, order all the appetizers on the menu (except for stuff we both absolutely hated or were allergic to) and a couple of bottles (or more) of wine, and we would chat. I suspect restaurants hated us, because we were there for hours and they didn’t turn the table over. But we ate and drank and talked the night away.

There would be weeks I didn’t hear from her due to her job – and the fact that she wasn’t out to her spouse and family and sometimes had to lay low – but it wasn’t abnormal. Sad isn’t it? That “going dark” and lying low because you might be outed isn’t considered abnormal in my community. So after she finally disclosed to her spouse, I didn’t hear from her for a while. I wasn’t concerned – there had been other times she had gone quiet, so it wasn’t that unusual.

Then I got a message from a mutual friend from online. Our mutual friend knew her boyname and had seen an obituary for her. She messaged me that she was dead. I didn’t know her boyname and really didn’t care, because as far as I was concerned, she was always “Char”. Charlene – a friend and a sister by choice. When I enquired with our mutual friend, I found out that she had finally done what she always said she would do if the pain got too bad. To quote Char, when it got too bad “I would rather suck off a .45 than live like that”. Apparently it did, and then she did.

She, and the too many others like her, also need to be remembered on TDOR. Because while the statistics around TDOR are those that were murdered because they were trans (and to reiterate, those are only confirmed cases that we know about and are reported); there are many, many more that die because they can no longer suffer the pain of rejection, abuse, harassment, violence and the thousand other indignities heaped on trans people on a daily basis. And it depends on whose stats you read, and how they were reported, but the successful (wow, there’s an oxymoron!) and attempted suicide rates within the trans community are absolutely staggering. Some put the successful suicide rate at over 20 percent and the attempted rate at over 45 percent. But it is hard to get accurate readings on this as sometimes you never know what drives a person to that place; and many unsuccessful suicides are so ashamed they won’t admit why they really tried it.

Sad to say, but I do not personally know a trans person who doesn’t have an “exit strategy”. Nice euphemism isn’t it? “Exit strategy” I may as well say it as it is – suicide plan. And those plans are as wide and varied as the people. What does it say about our society that an entire subgroup of our population looks at suicide as a viable daily option? A subgroup that is already a part of an already marginalized community.

And I have to admit, I often wonder how many of those suicides are in fact murders in their own right. Pushing people until they finally snap and “rid the world of freaks like you”. And yes, I have had comments like that directed at me, and I suspect most trans people have as well, at one time or another.

So in memory of my friend Char, after the vigil, I took a couple of friends to a restaurant where we ordered a whole lot of appetizers, had some drinks and chatted the rest of the evening away. Something I have done every year on TDOR since she died. And I ate too much, and I definitely drank too much – to say I got a bit “squiffy” would be an extreme understatement – something I rarely do, and remembered my friend. And in her own way she was there that night because I remembered her, and told my friends a bit about her. And as long as someone remembers you, one never truly dies.

So on this day, remember ALL of those in the community who have left us, no matter how. They deserve to be remembered. And celebrated for the lives they lived.

Kate Hart is the UNE’s National Equity Representative for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender People

2015/11/19

No significant movement from Senate administration in negotiations on Monday

On Monday November 16^th our Bargaining Team met with Senate Administration to continue negotiations for a new collective agreement.

In negotiations we again re-iterated that we seeking the same protections and rights that already exist for other workers on Parliament Hill, and that the PSAC has successfully negotiated with other federal employers.

This includes fair access to training and career advancement opportunities, family-related responsibility leave, access of union representatives to the workplace, provision of clothing and uniforms.

In our session last week, the Senate indicated that “there have been no problems” with respect to clothing provision at the Senate, and instead proposed to remove certain items from the collective agreement.

On Monday, we saw no movement on any of the issues outstanding between the parties, with the exception of family-related responsibility leave, where the Senate continues to insist that we agree to less than what the PSAC has negotiated for tens of thousands of other federal workers. We will not agree to less.

We are scheduled to meet again in December. Our hope is that the Senate will return to finally bargain with our team. If you have any questions or concerns, contact a member of our Bargaining Team. We’ll be sure to update as things progress.

Source: PSAC

2015/10/282015/10/28

In case you missed it – SSO National Bargaining Conference

SSOBargaining

The collective agreements for SSO regional office interviewers and field survey interviewers expired November 30, 2014 and PSAC served notice to bargain on March 31st, 2015. In preparation for bargaining, PSAC will hold a national Bargaining Conference in Ottawa. The Conference provides and important opportunity to discuss bargaining demands and strategy for the coming round of negotiations.

Key Details about the Conference

Date: January 9-10, 2016

1 delegate per local for locals with fewer than 50 members.
2 delegates per local for locals with 50 or more members.
3 delegates per local for locals with 100 or more members.

For a copy of the callout letter, please click here. Notwithstanding this letter, the following applies:

The list of delegates’ names and contact information must be received by the UNE National Office no later than November 19, 2015. Please send your list by email to Emily.Gault-Due@une-sen.org.

For a copy of the callout letter, please click here. Notwithstanding this letter, the following applies:

Delegates to the bargaining conference must be elected at a Local meeting, held in accordance with UNE bylaws and policies. Because of the short notice that was received for the conference, I realize that it may be difficult to provide the required 30 days’ notice to members. Therefore, on an exceptional basis, Locals must provide members at least 21 days’ notice of the meeting.

There is also a separate process for equity members to apply individually. For more information, please click here. http://psacunion.ca/psac-equity-activists-women-and-young-workers

Thank you for your cooperation.

Doug Marshall
National President

2015/10/202015/12/03

Harper Stopped

After ten years of cuts to government services, lies about security and climate change, disrespect to indigenous people and deception to Canadians on so many other levels, voters stormed the polls and finally put a stop to Stephen Harper and his conservative regime. Canada has voted to stop the cuts.

“It has been obvious to our members and it became obvious to Canadians during this election that parliament was broken, ruled by a secretive and dishonest government,” said UNE national president Doug Marshall. “We hope to work with the incoming government to establish positive labour relations and hold the Liberals to the promises they outlined in their party’s platform.”

Some of those promises we will watch closely include:

Restoring a public service where employees are respected and valued
Increasing taxes for our country’s highest earners
Increasing the funding for needed infrastructure projects
Establishing an inquiry into missing and murdered aboriginal women
Repealing various anti-worker and anti-union laws

The Union of National Employees is prepared to work with the new government in order to achieve positive change for Canadians and a strong and effective public service.