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Biohazard in the workplace

Imagine your workplace becomes quarantined. A team of hazardous materials specialists is brought in. That’s what happened at the Passport Canada mail-in centre in Gatineau just before the holidays.

At 9:30 a.m., on December 19, one of our members opened an envelope that contained white powder. Emergency procedures were put into place. After being quarantined for part of the afternoon, the hazmat team deemed the powder harmless and allowed our members to go home.

“We’ve had this happen before,” explained Local President Rose Touhey.

This time, additional precautions were taken (luckily!) including a lock-down of the employees.

But every emergency situation has its hiccups. In this case, some members got locked outside during a break. A city bus was brought on-site to shelter them from the cold.

The risk of exposure to anthrax has to be taken very seriously. Just one week after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, letters laced with anthrax started circulating. The 2001 letters killed 5 individuals; two of whom were postal workers. Many more were affected, including public servants working in the US Senate.

On our side of the border, the first “anthrax letter” was delivered in January 2001 at a Citizenship and Immigration Canada office in Ottawa. While the letter was found to be a hoax, it nonetheless was responsible for shutting down an entire government building.

That same year, Canada Post reported 277 anthrax-scare incidents. In the first half of October 2001 alone, the FBI had responded to over 2,300 such incidents, according to then-FBI Director Robert Mueller.

And while most of these turned out to be hoaxes, every instance where a person could be coming into contact with a bio-threat has to be treated with the utmost caution. A letter laced with just a tenth of a gram of anthrax can deliver 15 to 320 times the lethal dose of spores to whomever is opening the envelope. One gram can deliver up to 2,680 times the lethal dose.

Given the heightened state of stress, the increased breathing rate can double or triple these figures.

Last month’s hoax is an important reminder that we can never be too prepared.

“The good news is that we’re going to be developing an enhanced procedure,” explained Touhey.

The incident will be the topic of the next health and safety meeting.

“Whether you’re blue-collar or white-collar, we all face threats in the workplace,” said National President Doug Marshall. “It’s a reminder to be prepared and to be vigilant.”

“I also understand that Rose Touhey and Karl Lafrenière handled this unusual situation with a great deal of professionalism,” added Marshall. “Kudos to both of them!”

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Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

Dear brothers and sisters,

I’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year.

Over the past year, I’ve seen a tremendous amount of dedication to our cause and a greater interest in activism emerging. I can’t stress enough how much I appreciate everyone’s hard work.

Let’s face it; being a union activist is too often a very thankless job. But your work should be recognized – we simply wouldn’t be able to accomplish the things we do without your contributions.

So, thank you. Thank you for everything you do for our union.

If 2012 was the year of cuts, 2013 was most certainly the year when the government decided to kick us while we were down. As we approach the threshold of a new year, let’s commit to making 2014 the year we really fight back.

We’re going to need a whole lot of passion and momentum to do it, so don’t forget to recharge your batteries during the holidays.

Above all, please take advantage of this precious time with friends and family to relax and re-energize. After all, these are the moments that make all our hard work worth it!

Be safe, stay warm and have a Happy New Year.

In solidarity,

Doug Marshall
National President
Union of National Employees

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Update on Passport Canada

Thanks to the Harper government slicing and dicing Passport Canada, we have a few updates for the members who now work for the passport program at Employment and Social Development Canada and Citizenship and Immigration Canada.

Transitions, transitions…

The transition is now progressing through the first phase, which saw Passport Canada’s responsibilities transferred to Citizenship and Immigration Canada and service-delivery become the domain of Employment and Social Development Canada and the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development.

Starting in April 2014, phase one will progress to the stage where members working in internal services who directly support passport operations will be divvied up proportionally between the two departments; in other words, this transition will see some members who are now with Citizenship and Immigration Canada get transferred to Service Canada.

“Right now, I might be dealing with a single person in labour relations who can address issues affecting all former passport members, whether they now belong to Service Canada or Citizenship and Immigration Canada,” explained Rose Touhey, an assistant regional vice-president for the Outside Canada region and President of Local 70130. “After April 1, nobody will be intermingling anymore.”

The final step is really separating the operations of what’s left of Passport Canada. The Union of National Employees is concerned that this step might lead to some job cuts.

“The employer recently told us that some of the internal services positions allocated to the passport program at Citizenship and Immigration Canada are likely to be abolished,” explained National President Doug Marshall.

The employer plans to achieve these reductions by eliminating vacant positions and through attrition – but we haven’t been provided with specific numbers.

“They originally told us everything would stay the same – but that was in phase one.”

Then there’s that huge grievance…

This all started when some employers decided to hit the pause button on the Treasury Board directive that sees term employees become indeterminate after three years of service.

“Term employees filed grievances at all major passport offices across Canada,” said Marshall.

After a brief discussion with the employer on November 6, the parties agreed to combine these grievances into one group grievance.

“The employer and the union also agreed that these grievances would go directly to the third level,” added Marshall.

This ensures that any response we get comes from the person at the right decision-making level.

The outcome of these grievances will apply to all term employees who were formerly employed by Passport Canada, and who continue to be term employees of the passport program as of August 2, 2013 – even those who didn’t sign the initial group grievances.

“The really mind-boggling issue here is that Passport Canada was never affected by the freeze that affected so many terms across Treasury Board,” said Marshall. “It didn’t affect them because Passport Canada is self-funded; the program continues to be self-funded. So, there’s simply no reason why the freeze should suddenly apply to these term employees.”

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Are you happy with your life?

We don’t want to be the cause of any existential crises, but it’s an interesting question – and one that the United Nations is interested in as a measure of social progress.

So how happy are Canadians? As of this year, we’re number 6 on a list of 156 countries in the U.N.’s World Happiness Report. Let’s face it: we have it good (despite who’s running the country!).

But what does the data tell us about world happiness and public policy decisions?

According to Benjamin Radcliff, a professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, it shows that a strong social safety net is conducive to human happiness.

“The relationship could not be stronger or clearer,” wrote Radcliff in a recent opinion piece for CNN “However much it may pain conservatives to hear it, the ‘nanny state,’ as they disparagingly call it, works. Across the Western world, the quality of human life increases as the size of the state increases. It turns out that having a ‘nanny’ makes life better for people.

In his piece, Radcliff points to the five countries topping the report: Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, the Nertherlands and Sweden – countries with a strong social safety net and a high unionization rate.

That’s right: turns out living in a country with strong unions makes you happy.

“Not only are workers who belong to unions happier, but the overall rate of happiness for everyone — members and non-members — increases dramatically as the percentage of workers who belong to unions grows, reflecting the louder political voice that organization gives to ordinary citizens.

All this remains true when controlling for the many other things that might also affect quality of life, such as income, age, gender, marital status, or their country’s culture, history, or level of economic development. Critically, ‘big government’ and labor unions also promote happiness not merely for those toward the bottom or middle of the income distribution, but for everyone, rich and poor, men and women, conservatives and liberals.”

And it’s not like any of these countries topping the charts were spared in the recent global economic crisis.

Even Denmark, who holds the coveted first place, is still reeling from a severe economic crisis. The Agence France-Presse recently reported on how Danes remain happy despite these challenges:

“One of the most important things making the Danes happy is the security in Danish society,” said Meik Wiking, director of the Happiness Research Institute, a Danish think-tank aiming to improve the quality of life in Denmark and abroad.

“There is a high degree of financial security. If we lose our jobs we get support, when we fall ill we can go to the hospital, and so on,” he added.

And it also looks like higher taxes are having no effect on the Danes’ happiness: Denmark has the highest taxes as a percentage of GDP. Sweden comes in at a close second.

So remember all of this information when you get into a debate with that one conservative family member this holiday season! Turns out strong public services are pretty darn important to your happiness! (but we already knew that, right?).

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Stop the violence

Each year on December 6, Canadians pause to remember the 14 women who died on that day in 1989. It’s also a time to reflect on gender-based violence and the steps we can take to eradicate it.

In 2012, a survey conducted by the Canadian Women’s Foundation revealed that 67% of Canadians know at least one woman who has been a victim of a physical or sexual assault. Even today, hundreds of women are turned away each night because many shelters are at full capacity.

For Regional Vice-President Jennifer Chieh Ho, the issue of violence against women compelled her to take action in her local community. For the third year in a row, a candlelight vigil will be held in Surrey, British Columbia.

“We asked guests to bring warm clothing to donate to the local women’s shelter,” explained Chieh Ho. “We’re also hoping people will make monetary donations.”

Supporting women’s shelters is something the Union of National Employees has been passionate about for a very long time. In British Columbia, these shelters are all the more crucial for women who are economically-disadvantaged.

“The provincial income assistance rate is absurd,” declared Hilla Kerner, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter in a recent press release. “Women can’t leave abusive husbands because what they will get from welfare is not enough to provide shelter and food for their children. Women resort to prostitution because what they get from welfare is far from being enough for even their most minimal needs. This government is directly responsible for women’s poverty and therefore for women’s vulnerability to violent men.”

The British Columbia Federation of Labour will also be hosting a candlelight vigil in Vancouver; the PSAC Victoria Regional Women’s Committee is sponsoring one in Victoria.

Those who will attend the Surrey vigil will be treated to quite a lineup of politicians, labour leaders and other speakers – among them, PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President Bob Jackson and UNE National Vice-President for Human Rights Karoline Klüg.

While the events in Vancouver and Victoria are sure to dominate local media, Chieh Ho felt it was important to have an event in her city.

“I’ve been living in Surrey for 22 years,” said the UNE activist. “I wanted to have an event here.”

She’s also keeping her fingers crossed for a large turnout at this year’s candlelight vigil.

“In the past, we’ve only had 70 to 80 people show up – and they more mostly union activists,” said the Surrey resident. “This year, the message has gone out to a lot of other networks.”

“We have more experience now; hopefully we’ll have more people in attendance.”

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From trash to smash!

Imagine working from home. Sounds nice, right? But for those of us who work at an office, there are certain things we just take for granted: the employer pays for a desk for us to work on, for a chair for us to sit on, for the electricity to run our computers, and for basic office supplies.

But for some of our members who have no choice but to work from home, getting the basic necessities covered by the employer can be challenging.

“We get an allocation of $30 per month – and that’s only when we have sufficient hours to qualify,” said Géraldine Fortin, a member of the bargaining team for field employees at Statistical Survey Operations.

“Thirty dollars a month, that only covers your basic phone service,” said Fortin.

For field interviewers, a land line is a job requirement.

“The desk I work on, I bought it. The chair I use, I bought it,” said Fortin. “And whether or not it’s ergonomic, the employer doesn’t care.”

She also forked over some of her own dough to furnish her office with a bulletin board, shelves and a locking filing cabinet.

Fortin uses her daughter’s old room as an office. She said her closets don’t belong to her anymore – they’ve been transformed into storage for the employer’s paraphernalia.

“I’m always sending stuff back to the employer,” said Fortin. “But that closet is always full.”

Indeed, Fortin said she often gets huge packages from her employer – sometimes up to five boxes the size of laundry hampers!

It’s important to remember that field interviewers’ hours are precarious, which makes it even harder to budget for the things the employer should be paying for in the first place. According to Fortin, some interviewers simply can’t afford the basic office essentials… so they work from their bed or at the dining room table.

Needless to say, there are a lot of things that need fixing in this particular round of negotiations.

Turning frustration into art

For Suzanne Bélanger, chief steward of Local 10040, all that clutter invading her home turned into a chance to express herself.

“Statistics Canada sends us a lot of paperwork and a lot of envelopes,” said Bélanger. “Yes, we can put that in the recycling – but I thought, there ought to be something I can do with this.”

“All that paper: I find it insane.  So at one point I had the idea of making a basket.”

She got to work, crafting intricate baskets out of used envelopes. The final product is a brilliant work of conceptual art; but Bélanger says that she really only planned to use the basket to store supplies in her home office – creating order, using something that previously cluttered her home.

“I’m very crafty, you know,” said Bélanger, who added the baskets were just something she was doing to occupy her evenings.

And so far, the baskets have been a huge smash with her fellow union activists.

“If it can help inspire a different vision of things we can do to call attention to our working conditions… that would be a great thing!”

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Giving back

Every year, the Union of National Employees selects a charity to support around the holidays. This year, the National Executive chose to focus on the Atlantic region, because it hadn’t been chosen in some time. On Sunday, a $1,000 donation will be presented to Christmas Daddies.

It’s one of the longest-running telethons in North America – and it’s entirely a volunteer effort! Since its debut in 1964, it has helped to raise $27 million to help children from economically-disadvantaged families. The funds go towards the purchase of Christmas gifts, such as toys and clothing – but also towards providing basic necessities such as food, heating and other forms of financial assistance.

The telethons will be broadcast live from Sydney, Halifax, Moncton and Charlottetown this Sunday, December 1.

“It’s not just a Christmas telethon,” explained National Executive Vice-President Eddie Kennedy, who will attend the Sydney telethon. “The money raised will go towards helping anyone who finds themselves in financial need, no matter their religious beliefs.”

While Canada gained over 13,000 jobs last month, many provinces are still struggling with a high unemployment rate. Nova Scotia’s unemployment rate recently climbed to 9.1%. In the past year, only British Columbia and Nova Scotia have seen their unemployment rates rise.

“Cape Breton in particular has been struggling through hard economical times,” said Kennedy, who is also a denizen of the island. “The unemployment rate is above 15% and many families have at least one person who has to travel away just to send money home to support their family.”

The Union of National Employees has been making holiday donations for over a decade now, ever since the union chose to support worthy causes instead of sending holiday cards to members. Last year, the Union of National Employees made a donation to the Inuvik Food Bank.

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Who's saying nice things about unions?

Unions being spoken of in a positive light? It’s rare, trust us… we know!

But last week, we stumbled upon a few great pieces that praised unions. Since we’re rather used to being maligned, we thought we’d share these with you… (you know, for some good news for a change!).

First up, as part of its Wealth Paradox series examining the income divide in Canada, the Globe and Mail’s Greg Keenan pointed to unions as one of the forces against income inequality – and how, unfortunately, the decrease in union membership is a contributing factor to our present income gap. (so, there’s a bit of bad news in here after all – sorry!).

“The drop in unionized jobs ripples throughout the economy – in part because when enough workers are members of unions, their wage and benefit levels set standards that non-unionized companies usually have to meet.”

And though stagnant wages are an issue, upward social mobility is another. While post-secondary education is one way to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, the article does point to unionized jobs as “a ticket to the middle class” for workers without the degree.

South of the border, where the income gap is the widest of any industrialized society, unions were also portrayed in a positive light by someone who’s soon to have a lot of influence on the global economy.

Last week, during her senate confirmation hearing to become chairwoman of the Federal Reserve, Vice-chairwoman Janet Yellen pointed to the decline of unions as one of the contributing factors to income inequality, which she characterized as a “very serious problem” in the United States.

“The head of the Fed is one of the most powerful people on the planet,” said Cenk Uygur, host and co-founder of The Young Turks, a progressive web-based news show.

“You can’t argue that having the head of the Fed saying that we need to strengthen unions and crack down on Wall Street deregulation, that that doesn’t increase the chances that you at least stop the endless separation between the rich and poor,” said power panelist Ben Mankiewicz.

Last but not least, The Simpsons also showcased unions in a positive light last Sunday. In this particular episode, entitled Labor Pains, Lisa Simpson convinces a group of underpaid and exploited cheerleaders to unionize.

“Don’t worry, collective bargaining will enable us to secure concessions,” said Lisa… before opting for rallying chant better tailored to her audience.

“We’re gonna push ‘em back. Push ‘em back. Push ‘em way, way back. All the way to a new contract. Cause union power is a fact!”

Mike LeBlanc, a Simpsons fan and an assistant regional vice-president in the Atlantic region, said the latest episode was particularly topical.

“The Simpsons are just a mirror of what is going on in society,” said LeBlanc. “Maybe people are finally realizing that unions are a good thing.”

LeBlanc said he was happy to see Lisa, the most progressive character on the show, fight unfair labour practices.

“And there was one point in the show that really reminded me of my own experience on the bargaining team,” he added.

In that particular scene, the rich Texan boss says, “fine. I’m gonna give it some thought, then say no in the nicest way possible.”

Spoiler alert! (Seriously! Spoiler alert!)

Luckily for the cheerleaders, they end up winning the fight against their employer and get a wage increase (at the expense of the non-unionized peanut vendors, unfortunately!).

Have you seen some positive stories featuring unions? Why not share them in the comments! Better yet, share them on our Facebook page or Tweet them to us at @my_une.

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Great bargaining meetings and great pizza too!

Tons of Treasury Board and Parks Canada bargaining demands were received last Friday (which, incidentally, was the deadline for these things…)! Not only does this mean that our membership is clearly looking to play an active part in the collective bargaining process, but it also means that quite a few meetings were held to discuss bargaining demands.

For an inside look at what took place during those meetings, we reached out to a few local presidents to find out more.

In beautiful British Columbia, Local President Lise Tataryn said the discussions went very well.

“We talked about disability coverage, sick leave, extended health benefits,” said Tataryn. “It’s important to have those discussions.”

During the meeting, members of Local 20106 used the PSAC’s program of demands for Parks Canada to guide their discussions.

“We supported a few of the proposals in the program and put those forward,” added Tataryn.

Before letting us go, Tataryn mentioned that pizza and refreshments were used to lure members to the meeting. Yum! That said, she’s interested in getting other ideas on how to get members to union meetings.

Got an idea to share with Lise and the rest of us? Leave a comment below.

Over in Manitoba, Richard Landry of Local 50316 said his meeting required a bit more coordination because his members are spread out across 5 buildings – it’s also a composite Local that represents, among others, members at Statistics Canada, in passport offices and at Library and Archives Canada.

“We tried to make it as convenient as possible for everyone to attend the meeting,” said Landry.

On top of the classic pizza tactic used to draw members to the meeting, Landry said he also pinned posters to all the sites’ union boards and dropped off pamphlets on all the desks.

And what do discussions on collective bargaining look like in a composite local?

“Different sites have different priorities,” explained the local president. “For our site, one of the points that we were quite interested in was compensatory time.” Landry’s workplace often requires bursts of overtime – in fact, we caught up with him during a double-shift. Ouch!

Over and above the bargaining demands, this particular meeting led to some great discussions about engaging members.

“We had a great discussion about promoting the image of our Local in these sites,” explained Landry. “In the past, there had been a certain degree of negativity about the union.”

“We want to promote the union in a positive way. We want to build positive relationships with the members – instead of coming out of the blue with requests for their time whenever we have a meeting.”

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Trans Day of Remembrance – Nov. 20

What is Trans Day of Remembrance? This is the day that we, in the trans community, set aside to remember and honour our dead:  specifically, our dead brothers and sisters that have been killed because they are trans – killed because they dared to be themselves.

Killed because of intolerance and bigotry.

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

They were of different races, of different religions, of different ages and from different 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’s important to honour their bravery and conviction to live their lives honestly and to be the person they were meant to be.

And it’s important to remember them because, there but for happenstance, go we all.

In 2013 alone, there were a total of 238 cases where trans people were killed, according to Transgender Europe.

As trans people, we all know that this could happen to us – and we know that it’s up to us to continue to fight for the rights and protections that will make all of us safe. But it’s up to all of us to stand up and say, “No! This is not right!”

So please, on November 20, remember my fallen brothers and sisters. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers. Attend a Trans Day of Remembrance ceremony in your community, if you can. Above all, please 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 around the world.

Let all of us help stop the killing.

To see a list of those persons being memorialized this year, go to www.transgenderdor.org

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 to communications@une-sen.org.