{"id":4341,"date":"2014-10-01T16:13:30","date_gmt":"2014-10-01T21:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.une-sen.org\/press\/?p=4341"},"modified":"2014-10-01T16:13:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-01T21:13:58","slug":"don-we-now-our-flu-apparel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/?p=4341","title":{"rendered":"Don we now our FLU apparel"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"donwenow\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A surprisingly chilly fall day wasn\u2019t enough to keep many members from attending an info session on sick leave on Tuesday. The noon-hour session in Gatineau was organized at the grassroots by four UNE Locals and other PSAC, CAPE and PIPSC Locals.<\/p>\n

Regional Vice-President Richard Ballance was there to hand out hundreds of surgical masks to those who came to find out more about Harper\u2019s proposed sick leave plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospital mask is basically Treasury Board\u2019s plan for sick leave,\u201d said Andrew Gibson, president of 70312. \u201cIf you want express your discontent towards that plan, wear that mask, talk to your colleagues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Treasury Board announced its desire to wage war on our sick leave just a few weeks ago when it tabled its bargaining proposals. The employer is hoping to claw-back our sick leave from 15 days per year down to five and scrap our ability to accumulate sick leave credits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we prepare for bargaining, we do that in the spirit of improving working conditions,\u201d explained CAPE National President Claude Poirier, who is also a member of the EC bargaining team.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, Treasury Board came to us with a mandate that is of a political nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poirier says his bargaining team is prepared to negotiate improvements to the sick leave system; but as it stands, the system works. Despite Tony Clement’s lies<\/a>, the fact is that public service employees\u2019 sick leave use is in line with their counterparts in the private sector.<\/p>\n

The new plan will undoubtedly force employees to come to work sick<\/a>, increasing the spread of viruses and posing serious health risks to those with weakened immune systems.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are sick for a week \u2013 that\u2019s it for the rest of the year. If you get sick again, you\u2019ll go seven days without pay before even getting one cent,\u201d added Poirier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re open to discussing sick leave provided that it\u2019s something that makes sense. Right now, what we have on the table is something that doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the message wasn\u2019t all doom and gloom. Local presidents urged their members to get involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to be demoralized about what the government is proposing to do to our sick leave \u2013 but we don\u2019t need to despair,\u201d said Ryan Kelly, president of CAPE Local 514.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s required is that rank-and-file employees \u2013 that\u2019s you and me \u2013 get involved in their locals. While fighting back is possible, it\u2019s going to require a degree of mobilization and membership participation that we haven\u2019t seen in the federal sector in years.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are photos of this event on our Flickr photostream<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A surprisingly chilly fall day wasn\u2019t enough to keep many members from attending an info session on sick leave on Tuesday. The noon-hour session in Gatineau was organized at the grassroots by four UNE Locals and other PSAC, CAPE and PIPSC Locals. Regional Vice-President Richard Ballance was there to hand out hundreds of surgical masks … <\/p>\n

>> “Don we now our FLU apparel”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[12,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4341"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4348,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4341\/revisions\/4348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unesen.ca\/press\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}