Latest bargaining news at the click of a mouse!

‘Rand’ campaign: We have our first monthly winner!

Local bargaining demands. What’s been happening?

Cashing out of sick leave not a wise bargaining issue

DND’s declining commitment to bilingualism

deals another blow to St-Jean Language School

Agriculture Union gains strong representation

on PSAC Negotiation Teams

Latest bargaining news at the click of a mouse!

(Posted February 27, 2007)

As of today, Agriculture Union members can access the latest news from our bargaining agent – the Public Service Alliance – on contract talks for our members employed by both CFIA and Treasury Board.

Just click on these words on our main page to stay up-to-date:

‘Rand’ campaign: We have our first monthly winner!

(Posted February 19, 2007)

Congratulations to Bryan Blom!  Bryan is the first monthly winner in our coast-to-coast campaign to sign up ‘Rands’, dues-paying co-workers who, for one reason or another, have yet to sign a union card.

Bryan, a newly-signed-up member of Local 67 (CFIA, Nepean), is the proud owner of a much-coveted and highly-prized (!) Agriculture Union mug.  As well, his name joins those of all Rands who sign membership cards by year’s-end in becoming eligible for our grand prize – two round-trip tickets to anywhere in Canada that Air Canada flies, or $1,000 in cash.

The name of lucky grand prize winner will be drawn at the end of 2007.  So, keep those membership cards coming in!

Local bargaining demands. What’s been happening?

(Posted February 16, 2007)

One of the great things about our union is that everyone has the opportunity to participate, if they so choose.

Preparation for the upcoming round of negotiations with Treasury Board is a good example.  All members have the chance to have their say on issues they feel should be addressed at the bargaining table.

Based on this member input, Agriculture Union Locals last autumn submitted bargaining demands to our National Office.  The procedure at this point follows a process set out in the regulations of both our own union and those of our bargaining agent – the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

Once Local demands were received, the Agriculture Union Standing Collective Bargaining Committee – made up of National Council members – reviewed and prioritized the demands before forwarding them to the PSAC.

This vetting is important, as PSAC Component unions may only forward a limited number of demands in each of the categories defined in the PSAC ‘Program of Demands’
(http://www.psac-afpc.org/bargaining/documents/TB_program_of_demands_eng.pdf). And only one position can be submitted on a given issue.

As a result, when dealing with similar Local demands, the Agriculture Union Standing Collective Bargaining Committee either selected one as the best representative or combined similar demands into a ‘composite demand’.

A number of demands could not be forwarded to the PSAC as they dealt with issues that are not negotiable under federal public service labour law. These issues include:

• issues covered by National Joint Council agreements

     (http://www.njc-cnm.gc.ca/doc.php?lang=e&SubjectID=7);

• pension demands related to the Public Service Superannuation Act;

• staffing demands covered by the Public Service Employment Act;

• Health Plan or Dental Plan improvements (which are dealt with through separate union

       employer committees); and

• demands which violate either the PSAC Constitution or a PSAC Convention decision.

There were also some demands which the Agriculture Union Standing Collective Bargaining Committee believed were detrimental to our members. One such example was the demand for the payout of unused sick leave, an issue addressed in an article posted on our Web site on February 13.  Forwarding such demands would have implied support by our union.

With the PSAC National Bargaining Conference behind us, the next step is for the Negotiating Teams to meet, starting later this month, to assemble the final demand packages.

All members can stay on top of bargaining developments by visiting the following PSAC negotiations Web page:

http://www.psac-afpc.com/bargaining/index-e.shtml

Cashing out of sick leave not a wise bargaining issue

(Posted February 13, 2007)

The wisdom of being able to cash out one’s accumulated sick leave has been a long-standing and controversial issue for federal public service workers.

Heading, as we are, into another tough round of negotiations with Treasury Board, our bargaining agent – the Public Service Alliance – has produced a thoughtful overview of the issue that points to the pitfalls of making this issue a priority ‘at the table’.

The Agricultural Union urges all our members to take the time to download and read the following PDF version of the one-page PSAC document:

DND’s declining commitment to bilingualism deals another blow to St-Jean Language School

(Posted February 11, 2007)

Guns apparently talk louder than words. At least that’s the conclusion to be drawn from the Department of National Defence’s latest cuts to official language training.

Our members, language teachers at the Canadian Forces Language School in St-Jean, Quebec, learned January 31 that a 33-week course for officers graduating from the military’s Leadership Centre could be cancelled effective 2007.

Normally, some 250 officers are in second-language training at St-Jean, the largest
Canadian Forces Language School in the country.  As matters now stand, a best-case scenario will see only 20 per cent of the next cohort of 120 officers taking language courses.

Beyond the job security issue for our language teacher members, this move brings into question the entire commitment of DND and the Harper government to official language policy.

There would seem to be a clear link between the language-training cutbacks and early February announcement that high-ranking Canadian Forces personnel no longer have to be bilingual and that half of the military units are designated English unilingual.

Meetings held the first week of February to discuss the St-Jean announcement did little to clarify matters.  National President Yves Ducharme accordingly issued the following news release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                                  8 February 2007

More $ for fighting, less for French.

Ottawa – National Defence has to make its intentions clear regarding its Official Languages Program Transformation Model, according to the Agriculture Union, which represents language teachers at the Canadian Forces Language School Saint-Jean. The union is part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

“The military has to stop its gradual extermination of the Saint-Jean School,” said Agriculture Union President Yves Ducharme. “The successive small announcements of reduction in personnel add up in the medium term to an obvious abandonment of linguistic duality.”

It is feared that this reduction will lead to the imminent closure of the school.

National Defence announced earlier this week that all high ranking Canadian Forces personnel no longer have to be bilingual and that half of the military units are designated English unilingual. This means that francophone military personnel will receive services in French only if they are lucky enough to be assigned to bilingual francophone units. In 50% of cases, they will not have the right to service in their language.

According to Ducharme, Canadian Forces are making a serious mistake in reducing the resources allocated to language services in Saint-Jean in order to increase budgets to fund the combat in Afghanistan.

“The military is once again showing how little importance it accords to French in its ranks,” said Ducharme. “By reducing the number of language teachers in Saint-Jean, military leaders are compromising an important service that is meant to reflect the linguistic duality of our nation.”

Agriculture Union gains strong representation on PSAC Negotiation Teams

(Posted February 9, 2007)

The Public Service Alliance’s National Bargaining Conference turned out to be highly successful for the Agriculture Union.  And in more ways than one!

The PSAC – our bargaining agent – held this critical meeting February 1 to 4 in Ottawa for all Component unions with members covered by contracts negotiated with Treasury Board.

The Conference was attended by those who had been delegates to PSAC regional bargaining conferences held in late 2006.  They reviewed bargaining priorities established by the 2006 PSAC Triennial Convention and bargaining demands submitted by all Locals.

Elections were also held for the relatively-few positions on the four PSAC bargaining teams that will negotiate new collective agreements over the coming year.

While we were able to ensure that our members' interests were kept front-and-centre during the PSAC Conference, we also succeeded in having an Agriculture Union delegate elected to each of the four PSAC negotiations teams.

Here are our Agriculture Union representatives, along with their Local and negotiations ‘Table’:

• Michele Coe, Local 48

          Program and Administrative Services (PA) Group (formerly known as ‘Table 1’)

• Steve Van Opstal, Local 40229

          Operational Services (SV) Group ( formerly known as ‘Table 2’)

• Darrell-Lee McKenzie, Local 43

          Technical Services (TC) Group (formerly known as ‘Table 3’)

• Julie Chevalier, Local 10377

          Education and Library Science Services (EB) Group (formerly known as ‘Table 5).

Best of luck to all these dedicated members in their important work during the upcoming round of negotiations!

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