Page 72 – UNE News Room // Salle des médias du SEN

2014/12/122014/12/12

Former NCC members get their day in court

Our union presented arguments to the Public Service Labour Relations and Employment Board, earlier this week. This case centres on a number of employees who worked for the National Capital Commission before being transferred to Canadian Heritage in 2013 – a situation that arose when the federal government decided to entrust Canadian Heritage with Winterlude and Canada Day celebrations.

A portion of these members saw their rate of pay decrease when they were moved from a separate employer to the core public service. The union represented its members by filing over 80 related grievances.

Representatives from PSAC and the UNE – along with other components – attended Wednesday’s hearing. National President Doug Marshall, who was in attendance, remarked that the union had been especially well represented by lawyer David Yazbeck, who works for the same law firm that represented our SSO members during their recent federal court hearing.

Although we don’t know when the Board will issue a decision, we will bring you updates on this story as soon as they are available.

2014/12/11

Office closure – Dec 25 to Jan 4

The Union of National Employees will be closed from 4:30 p.m. (EST), Wednesday, December 24, 2014 and will re-open on Monday January 5, 2015.

In case of emergency, please leave a message at 613-741-8954.

2014/12/112014/12/17

What a difference your union has made! – The story of the OAG

There’s been great improvement in the work climate at the Office of the Auditor General, thanks to the hard work of the Local and the UNE. For the diligent Local executive there, a special meeting held last week provided an opportunity to showcase the progress that they have cultivated over the last two years.

“We recognized early on that there were a number of concerns at this particular workplace,” explained National President Doug Marshall. “I personally met with the Auditor General in January 2012 to talk about the workplace.”

“That’s what started the ball rolling.”

The UNE and the Local kept management’s feet to the fire; eventually management agreed to implement a number of changes to our members’ benefit.

These days, the Local is finding it easier to approach management and is often reaching solutions without having to resort to the formal grievance process.

“Management is now listening,” explained Local president Viviane Dugas Patry. “We also have noticed that members and employees feel safe to approach the Local and feel confident that the Local represents them.”

That’s a trend that also extended to health and safety, according to Franco Picciano, coordinator of member representation at the UNE, who also spoke during the meeting.

“There’s been a massive transformation,” declared Picciano. “We now get calls from people in the workplace who want to move health and safety issues forward because they feel comfortable going to the UNE. So, they are coming to us because (a) it gets dealt with and (b) they recognize that it gets dealt with in a professional manner.”

Viviane Patry Dugas, the Local president, has been assigned to a health and safety project aimed at bringing the OAG up to code. The Policy Health and Safety Committee has already conducted a comprehensive hazard assessment. There’s also a greater appreciation on the part of management of off-site risks, regional office issues and risks facing employees who work outside regular business hours.

There have also been some significant successes with regard to labour relations issues. Labour Relations Officer Leslie Sanderson informed the members that there is a greater deal of transparency when it comes to human resources processes. The resurgence of Union Management Consultation Committee meetings with senior management at the OAG has provided a valuable forum in which to engage the employer in discussions that concern our members. Also, the employer will be conducting its first classification review in 15 years and has started to apply the staffing policy more consistently.

“This just goes to show that when the union and the employer work together, everyone benefits,” concluded UNE National President Doug Marshall. “When labour-management consultation committees work well, both parties can come to solutions informally – can come to solutions faster – and can come to solutions that work for everyone.”

“We are here to fight for you and make positive changes in the workplace.”

The meeting was also the occasion for the Local to approve its standard local bylaws (reminder: a template for standard local bylaws can be found here). Regional Vice-President Patrice Rémillard was on hand to hold the vote, which yielded a unanimous approval.

The meeting concluded with an update on collective bargaining by PSAC Research Officer Shawn Vincent. The bargaining team is currently reviewing input it has received since February from the membership; it will be assembling a package of proposals shortly.

Vincent took the opportunity to talk about the tough battle ahead over sick leave. The government has been very vocal in its desire to drastically change our sick leave program as we know.

“That item has been the subject of discussion already – not just with PSAC, but with several other unions in the federal sphere,” explained Vincent.

“One of the very interesting things about this particular round of bargaining for federal public service workers – for the first time that I can remember, the federal unions that are party to the National Joint Council have signed a solidarity pact on this issue; none of them is interested in taking what the federal government is trying to sell us in terms of this radical change in sick leave.”

If you haven’t already, please visit the PSAC website and sign the pledge in support of paid sick leave for all Canadians.

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Looking for more information? Download the brochure that was distributed during this meeting.

E-friendly English brochure
Print-friendly English brochure

2014/12/102014/12/10

Human Rights Day – Dec. 10

by Geoff Ryan

The United Nations chose December 10 as the day to celebrate human rights achievements – but human rights really ought to occupy a place in our daily lives, beyond just one cold December day. That’s why the UN is celebrating this Human Rights Day under the banner of Human Rights 365 – to bring home the idea that every day is Human Rights Day.

I believe that this concept holds true at the Union of National Employees. I’m so proud to be part of a union that places so much importance on human rights. During the last few months, I’ve had the tremendous pleasure of working with the passionate members who make up our human rights committee. I’ve been touched by how everyone at the table is so willing to share their experiences – and how everyone grows as a result.

This capacity to put ourselves in the shoes of others is what propels us forward. So, for the next 365 days and beyond, open your mind and be compassionate. That’s the first step to becoming an ally.

Geoff Ryan is the National Vice-President for Human Rights. This article was written as part of our union’s member journalism program. If you’d like to find out more, click here – to pitch a story or for any questions, please send an email to communications@une-sen.org.

2014/12/042014/12/08

National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women – Dec. 6

Recently, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated that “everyone has a responsibility to prevent and end violence against women and girls, starting by challenging the culture of discrimination that allows it to continue”. For me, this statement is key for the elimination of violence against women. In my opinion, we first need to go to the root of the idea that violence against women is an acceptable or reasonable method of response. As a young girl, growing up in the Caribbean, I was raised in a culture that undeniably held boy children to a different measuring stick; this in itself began the discriminations of socializing. Violence can start from very early on, however, girls are expected to live by the credo “little girls must be seen and not heard”.

This, too, has resulted in the silencing of many little girls voices to the atrocities of hidden violence.

As I grew, I recall encounters between spouses or partners where physical violence and verbal abuse was a regular occurrence; the sight of it was “normal”. In some instances, when the police would be called, the female involved would beg the officer not to take the man, even to the point of becoming violent if the authorities persisted in the arrest.

The acceptance of violence against women is a true cultural disparity and a phenomenon that has been handed down the generations as an “accepted” practice.

With the progression of time, the females in the island have not only grown in strength but they have come together to dispel the notion that violence against women is acceptable as a cultural practice. They continue to educate themselves and fight for the elimination of violence against women. So as we recognize the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, remember that hope springs eternal.

___________________________________________________________

Episodes of drama and tensions noticeably present

Linking each encounter, making things unbearable

Inflicting harm and injury, causing irreparable damage

More often than not

In an effort to remove oneself

Negotiations become tenuous

And things fall apart

To the detriment of she

Everything out of reach

Vulnerable and distressed

I your target

Only knowing abuse

Live a life, a lie camouflaged

Escape appears pointless as running not even optional

Nowhere else to hide

Conditions remain stalemated

Exceptions to be expected as the end becomes inevitable

Hayley Millington is the Union of National Employees’ national equity representative for women. This article was written as part of our union’s member journalism program. If you’d like to find out more, click here – to pitch a story or for any questions, please send an email to communications@une-sen.org.

2014/12/022014/12/02

International Day for Persons with Disabilities – Dec. 3

by Michael Freeman

Not every challenge that I have faced as a person with a physical disability has been physical; some of my greatest challenges have been of the mind.

While in Ottawa for one of the recent human rights committee meetings, I was faced with one of my life-long fears. It was almost crippling for me, but no one else could even recognize that there was an issue… until I finally started sharing.

Why do I feel like I have to hide behind a cheery disposition? Why do I feel alone in my thoughts and unable to share the truth about how I am feeling?

My degenerative physical condition is leading me down a path that makes me feel, at times, helpless and hopeless, forcing me to accept that which I am powerless to change.

Even as I write, I am reluctant to share for fear of my monumental challenge being dismissed as trivial.

As the committee members and I stood in the lobby of our hotel after a long day of meetings, we discussed having supper just four short blocks from where we stood. I began to think about ways to excuse myself. I was not going to call a taxi for a distance I once walked with relative ease. I told everyone that I was too tired to attend – that I would just go to my room and order room-service. One committee member suggested that I could use a wheelchair and they volunteered to push it for me.

There it was: my fears were becoming a reality. I now needed help – mechanical help – to do something I once did with relative ease.

There before me was a wheelchair. I had a traumatically difficult decision to make: eat room service food, alone, yet again or swallow my pride and anything else that was keeping me from accepting the assistance offered.

That was the beginning of what I understood to be a very slippery slope. There would be no turning back.

In reality, I had been using assistive devices throughout my life and had never thought of them that way. I don’t know why it was harder for me to use the wheelchair, but it was. I had a real mental block that caused stress, panic and adverse emotion. I was surprised to find that some of that melted away as soon as I sat in the chair.

The mental stress of living with a physical disability has been a monkey on my back for many years. I went from a rather happy-go-lucky kid to an angry and confused teenager to an isolating and insulating adult. The mental stress almost took over at the time I wrote the poem “Self Imposed Prison”.

Self-Imposed Prison
By Michael Patrick Freeman

Here I sit
Alone at last
My thoughts are mine
But mine alone.

No one wants to know how the mind works
Or the things it thinks
When it belongs to a man
like me
Alone at last.

Here I sit
Waiting
Wanting
Searching for a reason
To leave this self imposed prison.

Times have changed for me; I am less isolated. I get involved in activities that interest and challenge me. I do less insulating because I have started to share my burden with those who will listen. I understand this world uniquely because of how I have worked through my disability, both physical and mental.

By sharing our life’s story with others, we all heal as individuals. Share your story today.

December 3 is the International Day for Persons with Disabilities; if you’d like to share your story with us, please leave a comment below.

Michael Freeman is the Union of National Employees’ national equity representative for persons with disabilities. This article was written as part of our union’s member journalism program. If you’d like to find out more, click here – to pitch a story or for any questions, please send an email to communications@une-sen.org.

2014/11/252014/11/25

D’oh! Public Health Agency of Canada contradicts Tony Clement

We don’t have a resident astrologer at the UNE, but if we did, he’d probably tell us that the planets aligned for maximum irony last week, when the Public Health Agency of Canada tweeted the following:

Don’t get us wrong: we totally agree with the Public Health Agency. We just wish Tony Clement would listen to public health experts instead of being hell-bent on making us come to work sick.

Take a stand for paid sick leave – for all Canadians – by signing the PSAC’s pledge.

2014/11/21

Our deteriorating heritage

In case you missed it, last week, the Royal Society of Canada released its expert panel report on Canada’s libraries, archives and public memory. Its analysis of the current state of Library and Archives Canada is scathing to say the least.

The expert panel used words like “embarrassment” and “appalling” to describe what’s happened to the institution responsible for our collective documentary heritage. The main sources of frustration among Canada’s academic community stem, in part, from the 2004 merger of the National Archives and the National Library and the 2012 budget cuts.

“In Australia, New Zealand and the EU, the merger of LAC is presented as an appalling model to be avoided by libraries and archives,” declared the authors.

The merger promised easy and integrated access to our national documentary heritage. Instead of reaping the benefits of convergence, the authors contend that the merger resulted in discord between librarians, archivists and record managers.

“We are told that morale is at an absolute low, with some of the morale deficit attributed to human resource issues associated with the merger of the organizations.”

Enter the April 30, 2012 budget cuts; a day that is colloquially called “Black Monday” in the archivist community. A reduction of 23% of LAC’s full-time employees is expected by 2016. The Royal Society has called these service reductions “draconian”.

In the report, Dr. Ronald Rudin, a Concordia University professor of history, details his recent frustrating experience dealing with LAC. With the loss of specialised staff and no access to digitized finding aids, Rudin ultimately had to make a second trip to Ottawa to accomplish his research.

“I am sure that there are stories that are more dramatic,” he wrote, “but you might keep in mind that I have 40 years of experience with using the LAC, and so I can only imagine how the various barriers would have discouraged someone doing this for the first time.”

Rudin remarked that he had no complaints about the LAC staff, “all of whom were courteous and clearly overworked.” He did note, however, that the absence of sufficient staff made his experience unnecessarily complicated.

The report also points to some of the programs that have either been eliminated or curtailed as a result of the 2012 budget cuts. Gone is the National Archival Development program, which helped support over 800 archives across Canada over the last 26 years. Scrapped are public exhibitions and the Portrait Gallery initiative. Digitization keeps dragging on (the Canadian Association of University Teachers estimates that at the current rate of spending on digitization, it would take LAC 300 to 700 years to digitize its published holdings). And since LAC’s budget for acquisitions has been slashed, more and more of our national treasures are ending up in the hands of foreign private collectors.

The Royal Society has offered a number of practical recommendations that could dramatically improve things at LAC.

“We sympathize with the challenges presented to LAC by budget reduction, as do the majority of LAC’s institutional stakeholders who know that changes are required to cope with declining resources, since they have been similarly tested,” the authors wrote.

“But, dialogue – lacking in LAC decision-making for a decade or more – can often achieve compromise solutions. In this regard, stakeholders also know that with some consultation they can help coordinate new processes to address service gaps.”

2014/11/202014/11/24

Rally in Sherbrooke for StatCan and SSO members

Our members have been rallying on the 19^th of every month in order to raise awareness of the upcoming federal election. Yesterday, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, members held a rally to call attention to the cuts’ severe impact to Statistics Canada and to shed some light on what our members at Statistical Survey Operations have to deal with.

When we last reported on the status of bargaining for our members at SSO, our case had just been presented in federal court. At present, we are still waiting to hear a decision.

The following is a speech that National President Doug Marshall delivered at yesterday’s rally:

I don’t think that I need to describe how this government treats science and statistics; it makes a mockery of them. By 2016, Statistics Canada will have lost a third of its staff.

What can we expect as citizens?

Less data

Less information

More decisions based on ideology instead of facts.

The disdain that this government seems to have for statistics apparently trickles down to the employees who are responsible for collecting the data.

Our members at Statistical Survey Operations have been working without a contract since November 2011. These are the men and women who collect data by going door-to-door or from a call centre.

Their work hours depend entirely on workload.

Those members who go door-to-door – a group made up primarily of women – have no guaranteed work or minimum number of hours. Their salary is totally unpredictable.

In other words, they have no minimum wage.

In one year alone, several of our members have suffered a drop in salary of more than 50%.

Work hours vary from week to week. It’s either feast or famine. Several members at Statistical Survey Operations live below the poverty level.

Work hours are assigned entirely at the discretion of managers. Seniority is not taken into account.

As one member put it, “If they don’t like you, you don’t get any work.”

Since 2011, our union has been fighting to ensure the fair treatment of our members and to eliminate favouritism by applying a system based on seniority as opposed to the whims of managers.

But this government has constantly undermined these efforts and opposed seniority from the start. We are currently awaiting a federal court decision that will enable us to pursue negotiations.

We hope that the employer will return to the negotiating table to improve the working conditions of our members.

We look forward to the end of negotiations with this employer … and the end of the Harper government.

2014/11/192014/11/19

Trans Day of Remembrance – Nov. 20

Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) occurs annually on 20 November; it’s “a day to memorialize those who have been killed as a result of transphobia or the hatred or fear of transgender and gender non-conforming people, and acts to bring attention to the continued violence endured by the transgender community”.

TDOR was founded in 1998 by Gwendolyn Ann Smith, a trans woman and activist, who wanted to memorialize Rita Hester, a trans woman who was stabbed to death in Alliston, Massachusetts. Since its inception, TDOR has been held annually on November 20^th each year.

Specifically, it memorializes our dead brothers and sisters that have been killed because they dared to be themselves.

Killed because of human intolerance and bigotry.

Killed because they did not fit into someone’s viewpoint on what makes a man or a woman.

They came from all races, religions, ages and countries around the world. And they died horrible deaths – beaten to death, shot, stabbed, beheaded, run over by cars….

We remember and honour them because it is important to honour their bravery and conviction to live their lives honestly, and to be the person they were meant to be. It’s important to remember them because we all know that this could happen to us.

And we know that it is up to us to continue to fight for rights and protections that will make all of us safe.

And to stand up and say: “NO! This is not right!”

Personally, it is also a time to remember other brothers and sisters in the trans community that didn’t make it out alive for a variety of other reasons: those that could no longer live with the pain and checked out, those that died before they could complete transition and those that left us with a hole in our hearts where they used to be.

So, on November 20^th, please remember my fallen brothers and sisters. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Attend a TDOR ceremony in your community, if you can. And support the efforts of all of those who are trying to advance the cause of getting trans rights enshrined in law, in all the countries of the world.

Let all of us help stop the killing.

Finally, as union activists, please, please get out and support the passage of Bill C-279, which would insert gender identity into the Canadian Human Rights Code and into hate crimes legislation. The bill has been passed in the House of Commons and is currently sitting in a senate committee. Contact the senators on the senate committee and tell them over and over and over again that they need to support passage of this bill in its current form.

We are your friends; we are your brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, mothers and fathers, and even your grandparents. Help us get the same rights of all Canadians. Help us to truly take our place in this society.

Kate Hart is the Union of National Employees’ national equity representative for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. This article was written as part of our union’s member journalism program. If you’d like to find out more, click here – to pitch a story or for any questions, please send an email tocommunications@une-sen.org.