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Meeting of the national executive

The National Executive will meet in Winnipeg from September 30 to October 2, 2013. The first session will start at 9:00 a.m. at the Radisson Hotel.

If your Local wishes to place an item on the agenda, please contact your Regional Vice-President and provide him or her with clear and concise information. He or she will gladly bring your item before the executive.

About the National Executive:
The National Executive is responsible for the policies, programs and direction of the Union of National Employees. Between conventions, it makes important decisions and creates policies that help look after our union. The executive also carries out resolutions adopted by the members during the last convention. Its members meets three times per year to review the union’s activities and ensure that they reflect the will of the membership.

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The Review needs YOU!

Do you work in communications or public relations? Are you bilingual? Do you live in near Winnipeg? We need your help during the Human Rights Conference, from October 3 to 6!

We’re looking for two on-site reporters to attend the conference and write short articles for us. During our last two conferences, we got help from some very talented members to produce The Review: the UNE’s official conference newsletter.

Related: Check out the past editions of The Review here and here.

We’re also looking for a talented photographer. We’ll supply the camera, you get us the smiles!

If you’d like to help (and you’re not a delegate… because, let’s face it, you have a conference to participate in!) send us an email at communications@une-sen.org. Write a short list of your strong points and make sure to indicate your strongest language and your linguistic profile.

Volunteers will be considered observers and will be funded by the UNE. We’ll cover your travel, accommodation, loss-of-pay, per-diem and, if needed, family care.

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Labour Day!

What’s more predictable than the sun rising in the east? The media, on Labour Day, asking whether unions are still relevant. Seriously! Every year!

And this year was no exception.

But among the slew of articles asking if unions are relevant – and an equal amount of articles by labour activists arguing that unions are indeed important – a few articles stood out as refreshingly different – as pointing to real problems and offering real solutions.

The Detroit News wrote a great editorial about the changing workplace and what it means for unions.

In the past, unions have focused on seniority, encouraging workers to stay in the same place for long stretches of time. Today’s workers are more mobile, and expect to move from job to job throughout their careers.

Unions that help them with those transitions will have something of value to offer, both to workers looking for new opportunities and to employers looking for a steady supply of talent.

The editors went on to suggest that unions should offer skills training to appeal to these modern workers.

“Change or die has become the mantra of the 21st century, and it certainly applies to labor unions,” warned The Detroit News.

Embedded within these questions of longevity is the fact that union membership is on the decline in the private sector.

“With the end of the Soviet Union, it lead ultimately to the decline of manufacturing in North America in particular, and in Europe. And with that a decline in decent, well-paid unionized jobs in that sector,” said University of Victoria Labour Specialist John Fryer in an interview with News1130.

Fryer also pointed to the fact that today’s young workers have grown up in atmosphere where governments and the media routinely demonize unions – this makes youth outreach all the more important.

Across the border (once again!), CBS St. Louis interviewed Philip Dine, author of State of the Unions: How Labor Can Strengthen the Middle Class, Improve Our Economy and Regain Political Influence. In the article, Dine pointed to another problem facing unions: companies are getting increasingly crafty at avoiding unionization

“Counseling firms, law firms get paid handsomely to tell employers how to keep a union out of their workplace,” he said.

Dine also suggested that unions need to focus more on communications that clearly demonstrate why labour unions are so essential to a strong middle class.

What do you think of these ideas? Do you have any of your own? Leave a comment below!

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Group Grievance for SSO Field Interviewers

It is the union’s position that Statistical Survey Operations (SSO) Field Operations, Statistics Canada has violated the collective agreement by cancelling work normally performed by Field Interviewers and Senior Field Interviewers regarding the International Travel Survey.

This violates article 23 as well as any other related or relevant articles regarding
pay and benefits that are negatively affected by the loss of hours of work. This is also a
violation of the past practice that has existed for at least the past 3 years that employees are performing this work.

We have put together a group grievance form for you to download. Local Executive officers should simply print, have it signed and submit it to UNE before August 30th, 2013.

For more information, please contact your Labour Relations Officer:

Linda Koo
linda.koo@une-sen.org
613-560-2600
1-800-663-6685 ext. 2600

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Job action by Foreign Service Officers continues

Members of the FS group who belong to the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO) are in their fourth month of strike action.  PSAC members have traditionally been sent on temporary assignments overseas to replace FS workers who are on leave, or to assist in work surcharges over the summer months.  This practice has continued since the strike action began, and many of our members have questions about how the PAFSO strike affects their assignments.

The UNE and PSAC stand in solidarity with our Brothers and Sisters at PAFSO and ask our members to ensure that they do not perform the duties of striking workers.

The following information should help to answer some of your questions.  If you are a UNE member working abroad on a temporary assignment and are still unsure as to whether you are being asked to perform struck work, please contact UNE for assistance.

What this means for you

Current job action by PAFSO has important implications for labour relations across the federal public service in the short and long term. We are keen to ensure that our own union and our members provide as much support to PAFSO’s efforts as the law allows.

1. All members: We ask all UNE members to continue to show support for PAFSO members who are on strike and to respect the lawful job action process by not attempting to perform any of the duties of striking FS employees. If directed by your supervisor to do so, you should refer them to your department’s own Guide for Strike Preparation, which states clearly that “Employees in other bargaining units should not be asked to perform duties of employees on strike.” If your supervisor persists, please contact your labour relations officer, Andrée Lemire, for guidance.

2. Members assigned to FS positions: Substantive members of PSAC bargaining units currently assigned to or acting in an FS position are deemed under the Public Service Labour Relations Act to be members of the FS bargaining unit for the duration of their assignment and are therefore eligible to participate in job action. (The Public Service Labour Relations Board confirmed in its 2004 Potter decision that “you are what you do” is the overriding principle in determining an employee’s bargaining unit.) We urge all such members to follow job action instructions from PAFSO. This is true even if your union dues are still being directed to PSAC and UNE: there is often a lag within a department’s compensation services in updating membership lists (“check-off”) for unions and redirecting union dues appropriately, especially in departments like DFATD and CIC.

3. Members on short-term deployments doing FS work: Substantive members of PSAC bargaining units on short-term deployment (“temporary duty”) at missions abroad to provide surge capacity during peak season are performing FS work and deemed to be members of the FS bargaining unit for the duration of the deployment – even though they are not assigned to a specific FS position. This applies especially to employees deployed to CIC visa processing centres. You are eligible to participate in job action and we urge you to follow PAFSO’s instructions. No matter what your manager may say, you cannot be disciplined for participating in lawful job action where you are working in a bargaining unit that is in a legal strike position. Management is prohibited from using replacement workers from other unions to compensate for the absence of striking Foreign Service officers, and PAFSO has signaled its intention to pursue an unfair labour practice complaint in cases where managers seek to circumvent job action by obstructing unionized employees on short-term deployments from striking.

4. Members who withdraw services on PAFSO’s behalf: PAFSO has confirmed that it will reimburse 100% of net pay recovered by the employer as a result of your participation in service withdrawals – even if your salary scale (which is protected during your assignment to a FS position) exceeds FS rates of pay. Remember that the employer may only recover salary plus Foreign Service Directives (FSDs) 56 and 58, prorated to the exact number of days for which you withdrew service. This is confirmed in Treasury Board’s “Policy on Strikes” (http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pol/doc-eng.aspx?id=12607). If you are on temporary duty and receiving FSD 8 (Short-Term Assignments outside Canada), the employer cannot withhold accommodation, flight, or per diem costs.

In closing, PAFSO wishes to thank all members for their continuing support and solidarity for our Foreign Service colleagues. Please contact your UNE labour relations officer should you have any questions concerning these or other implications of PAFSO job action for you and your work.

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Passport Canada Term Employees Group Grievance

Are you a term employee working for Passport Canada? Looking forward to achieving indeterminate status? Well, the employer has other plans in mind for you.

The employer has violated the collective agreement, as well as section 208 of the Public Service Labour Relations Act through its actions to unilaterally alter the terms and conditions of employment by discontinuing the manner in which the “Treasury Board Term Employment Policy” applies, by not allowing service time to continue to accumulate towards indeterminate employment.

So, if you’re a term employee, the employer is trying to stop your accumulation time in its tracks, making it more difficult for you to achieve indeterminate status.

We have put together a group grievance form for you to download. Local Executive officers should simply print, have it signed and submit it to UNE before August 30th, 2013.

Passport Canada Agency, Citizen & Immigration

Passport Canada Agency, Service Canada – Human Resources & Skills Development Canada

For more information, please contact:

Jim McDonald
jim.mcdonald@une-sen.org
613-560-4357
1-800-663-6685 ext. 4357

*I already filled out this grievance, did I not?

Upon further review, members were not aggrieved until August 2nd, 2013. After consulting legal counsel as well as the PSAC Representation Section, we have developed this more successful, easier to follow approach. We are hopeful this new system will also eliminate technical problems with submitting group grievances in the future.

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Parks Canada Clawing Back Terminable Allowance

The Union was recently notified that the Parks Canada Agency clawed-back portions of the CS terminable allowance, as part of the retroactive payments related to the recently ratified collective agreement.  The Union’s position is that this action violates the negotiated agreement with the Agency.  Therefore, the PSAC, through Union of National Employees, has commenced a group grievance action.  To sign on to this grievance, you’ll need to complete the attached grievance form and accompanying form 19 – following the instructions contained therein.

Click here to download the form – then print, sign and send.

Once you have done so, please forward the grievance and Form 19 to the attention of Denis McCarthy at the following coordinates:

Denis McCarthy
Union of National Employees
150 Isabella Street, Suite 900
Ottawa, Ontario
K1V 1S7
denis.mccarthy@une-sen.org

* If you know of any former CS members who were employed by Parks Canada (on or after August 5 2011) and who are no longer employed by the Agency, we would appreciate if you would forward this message to them.

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Stand up for Tribal Peoples

International Day of the World’s Indigenous People is August 9 – we’ll feature a different article on that day, but in the meantime, given the urgent nature of what we’ve learned, we’re kindly asking you to take action to protect the Matsés and uncontacted tribes of Peru by supporting the work of Survival International.

We’ve featured the great work of Survival International on this website before. In Canada, the organization has advocated on behalf of the Innu Nation, who are still reeling from the effects of colonialist attitudes.

But, Survival International is indeed a global organization – and one that advocates on behalf of tribal people everywhere.

“We really want people to understand and respect that tribal people should be free to make their own choices about their land and the way they live,” explained Survival International Spokesperson Kayla Wieche. “We help them protect their lives, land and human rights.”

Tribal societies around the world are facing many threats: theft of land, violence and racism, resource extraction and the inevitable contamination of land resulting from that activity.

Thus, Survival International’s position is that companies must refrain from working on tribal peoples’ lands unless they have their free, prior and informed consent.

“The tribal people have to agree with what they’re doing and they have to be fully informed,” said Wieche. “And if they don’t want companies to work on their lands or they don’t want loggers to take their forests, then they have the right to say no.”

It’s precisely this type of encroachment – from the logging industry and oil exploration – that is so damaging for tribal people – especially in the case of uncontacted tribes.

In 2008, Survival International was thrown into the spotlight when it released some amazing photos of isolated tribes – tribes that have no contact with industrialized societies.

“People were just so… taken by the idea that there were still isolated peoples throughout the world.”

But just because they live outside mainstream society doesn’t mean they don’t know about the industrialised societies, Wieche cautions.

“Most of the time, especially in the Amazon, these people have suffered real wrongs at the hands of industrialized society. They do not want to participate in it.”

“It’s a real conscious choice.”

According to Survival International, 90% of the Indian population in western Amazonia was wiped out during the 19th century rubber boom. Even today, contact with industrialized societies would be devastating for these tribal people.

“They don’t have immunities to the cold or the flu – and that can and does wipe out about half of uncontacted populations when they encounter people from industrialized societies.”

And a threat to those very communities has a home in Canada: a Canadian-Columbian company called the Pacific Rubiales Energy Corporation. It’s listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange as PRE.

“They’re exploring for oil on a block of land that is located on a proposed uncontacted tribe’s reserve,” said Wieche.

The nearby Matsés people believe that these uncontacted people are their relatives and that they’re living in the land that is being explored by Pacific Rubiales.

Survival International is calling on the energy company to stop oil exploration on that land. They also have oil exploration planned for the contacted Matsés’ land.

“Already, they’re doing seismic testing.They have helicopters flying over the area and it’s really disrupting the tribe’s way of life. It’s scaring away animals,” said Wieche. “It’s really jarring.”

The Matsés have appealed to Pacific Rubiales’ shareholders to divest from the company if they decide to continue to explore on the territory.

“We’re asking people to write to Pacific Rubiales,” said Wieche. She added that people should also call on the Peruvian government to cancel their contract with the energy giant.

You can learn more about this – and take action – on Survival International’s website.

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So what about sick leave, anyway?

There are a lot of rumours going around about what’s going to happen to our sick leave.  What is going to happen?  Let’s break it down and have an informed discussion about this topic.

First of all, sick leave is a benefit that is in our collective agreement.  Any changes to the current regime will need to be negotiated – let’s hope this happens at the bargaining table and not in the press!

To have an informed discussion, we need to understand how the current sick leave regime works.

Sick leave credits are accumulated each month where an employee has worked a minimum of ten days.  Each month an employee accumulates a day and a quarter, for a total of fifteen days per year.  Any unused credits at the end of the year are accumulated and banked. The accumulation of sick leave continues throughout an employee’s career, with no maximum.

It’s very much like an insurance policy. Your accumulated sick leave is your financial safety net should you succumb to illness or injury. It gives you peace of mind.

This accumulation of sick leave credits becomes incredibly important for any employee who suffers an accident or a catastrophic illness; it provides them with a buffer until such time as they qualify for long term disability. Long term disability benefits become payable after 13 weeks of disability or illness, or after the member’s accumulated paid sick leave is exhausted – whichever is later.

If an employee does not have 13 weeks of sick leave available to them, any shortfall can be covered through EI sick benefits.  During this period, an employee only receives 55% of their salary – and to top it all off, often that money takes a while to start trickling in!

When an employee does not have any sick leave credits accumulated, management has the discretionary ability to advance up to 25 days of sick leave.  These must be repaid with any sick leave credits earned at a later date.

Why does the government claim that the system isn’t working?

We hear many arguments that the current sick leave system is out of date.

“There are abuses,” the government says. “Government employees are using more than employees in the private sector,” it deplores. “There’s a $5.2 billion liability,” it cautions. “New employees are being discriminated against,” it laments.

And so on, and so forth.

Some of this may be true, or not.  There’s always going to be people who abuse the system, but these individuals are in the minority.

And that liability that keeps getting referred to isn’t really a liability.  It only becomes a liability in a la-la land where every public servant takes every sick day that they’ve accumulated. By and large, the liability disappears when an employee retires, because any accumulated sick leave is not paid out in any way and vanishes in a puff of smoke upon retirement. Poof!

As for new employees, they can be advanced up to 25 days of sick leave, depending on need.  Maybe new employees could receive the same provisions as those in the EX group, who are advanced all the sick leave they need and whose disability premiums are entirely covered by the employer.

Perhaps some of the government’s woes are a result of downloading corporate services to individual managers. Human resources in the public service used to be delivered quite differently than today.

When someone went on long-term sick leave, they were monitored by human resources who worked with the employee to ensure a smooth transition when they returned to the workplace.  Today, it is up to manager to monitor the employee, along with everything else a manager does.  Human resources departments provide information and guidance to managers; they no longer perform other tasks such as monitoring.

Often, a manager will change jobs and the new manager will not even be aware that they have an employee on long-term disability. In many cases, they won’t have acquired the skills and competencies to manage disability. And this is in addition to all other tasks that have been delegated to managers.

So what is being proposed to “modernize” sick leave?  For the time being, nothing has been proposed.  However, the 2013 budget indicates that “the government will be examining its human resources management practices and institutions in a number of areas, including disability and sick leave management, with a view to ensuring that public servants receive appropriate services that support a timely return to work.”

Further, the Seventh Report to the Prime Minister of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Committee on the Public Service states:  “Another area for change is the current regime for managing disability and absenteeism.  Here too, we find a complex and costly system that is out of step with other sectors of the economy and that does not offer a level playing field for all employees.  This too must change.”  This clearly indicates change is coming but what?

We can get an idea by looking at the sick leave program in place at Canada Post.  Sick leave has been drastically changed for those employees; in all likelihood, the model that’ll be proposed for us will resemble what’s been imposed there.  The annual sick leave allowance will be reduced.  Unused sick leave will not be accumulated or carried over. After a short time on sick leave, the employee will go on short-term disability at 70% of their pay. The employee will graduate to long-term disability after a certain period on short-term disability.

In effect, managers will not manage sick leave, a private insurance company will.  And, there will be a cost to that administration; private insurance doesn’t come free. Employees will lose seven to ten sick days per year, and there will be premiums to pay to be covered by a short term disability plan.  One question that comes to mind is: who will pay those premiums?

What will happen if the employee has used up their allotment of annual sick leave and then gets the flu?  Will employees come to work when they are ill in order to avoid any disruption in pay? And how will the government handle an outbreak of a highly contagious illness, like the H1N1 virus a few years ago?

Now is the time for us to talk about sick leave.  Does the current regime really need to be changed?  If there is change, what do we, the employees, want it to look like?

Your comments and ideas are welcomed!

Richard Ballance is the Regional Vice-President for the Union of National Employees’ NCR-TB region. Join the conversation by leaving a comment below. 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.

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Murder in Buckingham

For those who aren’t too familiar with the National Capital Region’s suburbs, you may not have heard of Buckingham. It’s a small community of roughly 10,000 people, though it’s now technically part of the post-mega-amalgamation of the city of Gatineau.

But in the early 1900s, Buckingham was very different.

“Let’s say it was like many similar areas in Quebec, Ontario and elsewhere: it was almost a one-industry town,” explained Pierre-Louis Lapointe, a historian and author of several books about Buckingham.

For the town’s denizens, the options were limited; there were only two large employers in the area: the Electric Reduction Company and the MacLaren Company.

The MacLarens were very much the textbook definition of robber barons; they amassed great wealth by exploiting natural resources, having the right connections in government and not paying their employees very well.

By 1906, having bought out their only major competitor in town, the MacLarens owned two sawmills and a pulp mill. At this point, they’ve bought up every piece of the river that they can get their hands on – all the better to keep other companies from encroaching on their turf.

But just to be on the safe side, the MacLarens also acquire exclusive rights to deliver electricity and build railroads within the town.

“This enabled them to stop the other construction of any railroads going through the municipality,” explained Lapointe.

Without a railroad to carry lumber elsewhere, farmers and land owners in the area had little choice but to sell their lumber to the MacLaren Company.

“It was one of tools they used to build their monopoly.”

For the men employed by the MacLaren Company, times were tough.

“Do you think it’s human to give $1.25 per day to men who work from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in water, in mud, on logs?” a worker is quoted as saying, in 1906. “The work is brutal and painful. And I have six kids; why don’t you try feeding that, educating that, clothing that and do the same thing, you, on a dollar and a quarter a day!”1

In 1906, the cost of living is quickly rising.

“By then, the employees can’t take it anymore,” said Lapointe.

The employees try to unionize and the MacLarens soon orders a lockout. The company hires armed guards; scabs are brought in to carry logs. The conflict culminates on October 8, 1906, when workers try to implore the scabs to leave work.

“Despite the mocking and the anti-French sarcasm hurled at them by the guards, [the workers] are determined to keep their calm. But, suddenly, a sinister commandment rings out, that will put a spark to the powder. Shoot them! This cry comes from the ranks of the guards.”2

“It was an ambush,” said Lapointe.

Two men were killed: Thomas Bélanger and François Thériault – both members of the executive. During the funeral, the men were hailed as martyrs of the labour movement.

The MacLarens were later acquitted of Murder. According to Lapointe’s book, the prosecutor was furious and declared that he would appeal the judge’s decision. It wasn’t long before he received a telegram from the attorney general in Quebec telling him not to appeal.

The MacLarens had friends in high places.

In the months and years following the troubles of October 1906, more than 60% of unionists would leave the village. The MacLarens had blacklisted the rabble-rousers – and this list was circulating amongst other employers in the village, who didn’t mind complying with the MacLaren family’s wishes.

“One of the people interviewed about this subject told me the case of a boy, who after having passed exams and interviews, was called to R.M. Kenny’s office who pulled a notebook from his desk drawer and interrogated him about his family ties to such and such worker tied to the troubles of 1906… And to conclude dryly: ‘Sorry, there’s no job for you here!’”3

“In a few years, the population of the town of Buckingham decreases by 25% – which is enormous,” adds Lapointe.

In 1934, the workers try again to unionize. The Pulp and Sulfite Workers’ Union got more than 60 workers to sign union cards. Unfortunately, the company got wind of the organizing attempt thanks to a spy among the workers.

The company reacted by firing those involved.

“It’s a second attempt to unionize that was killed in its infancy,” summed up Lapointe.

The only thing to ever strike a blow to the MacLaren Company were improvements to the road system, which allowed the town residents to sell lumber to other companies.

Around that same time, Lapointe explained, the provincial government of Quebec looked into the work conditions of lumberjacks. They institute a sort of minimum wage, which forced the MacLaren company to increase their workers’ salaries.

And finally…

“What helped employees the most, as funny as it sounds, was the Second World War,” said Lapointe.

At that time, practically everything was considered essential for the war effort. Unions weren’t allowed to strike and bosses weren’t allowed order lockout.

“The MacLarens were forced to accept the creation of a permanent bargaining committee between the employer and the employees,” said Lapointe.

“It marks an important change in the working conditions. And by 1944, a union is finally recognized by the MacLarens.”

This story isn’t well known outside Buckingham. In 1990, Lapointe wrote about the 1906 conflict in a book detailing the history of the town of Buckingham. The book was published in both English and French, but Lapointe says the English copies have all vanished.

“They can’t find it anywhere in libraries. I don’t want to imagine… but the MacLarens have a long arm,” he jokes. “It’s a story that doesn’t make certain elements of the capitalist society very happy.”

Lapointe said that this story illustrates how there are always links between politics and economics – and that rarely can they be proven as clearly as in the story of the conflict of 1906.

“Today, we blame unionism and unions for all that ail the economy and society,” wrote Lapointe in his 1983 book. “It’s important to remember the role that unionism played in improving our lives. We have to pick up our heads like Thomas Bélanger and François Thériault… for them, and for all those who sacrificed themselves for their brethren, we owe it to ourselves to react. We surely owe them that.”4

[Editor’s note: We are extremely thankful to Mr. Lapointe for allowing us to share excerpts from his work and for speaking with us about the conflict of 1906. All facts in this article were gathered from Mr. Lapointe’s book and from a phone interview on June 25, 2013.]

[1] Lapointe, Pierre-Louis. (1983). Buckingham : ville occupée. Diffusion Prologue inc. Ville Saint-Laurent, Québec.

[2] Idem

[3] Idem

[4] Idem