News - January 2012                                    Previous Month         Following Month

Headlines of the current month's news items are listed immediately below. Click on the headline of your choice to see the entire text of the article.

CFIA Bargaining Team supports striking Salvation Army workers

Now’s the time for Local Officers to take advantage of

Workforce Adjustment information sessions!

Almost two hundred jobs cut as Canada School of Public Service

abandons language training

Kingston appeals to food industry execs as CFIA prepares to reverse safeguards

in place after 2008 listeriosis outbreak

2012 Regional Seminars debut this month

PSAC canvassing Local input on NJC Isolated Posts Directive

CFIA Bargaining Team supports striking Salvation Army workers

(Posted January 27, 2012)

Our Canadian Food Inspection Agency bargaining team has demonstrated solidarity both at and beyond the negotiations table.

As the photo below shows, team members showed support for striking workers of PSAC Local 73100 by bringing snacks and walking a shift on their picket line.

These workers, employed by the Salvation Army Booth Centre, a shelter in Ottawa, have been on strike for over three weeks for, among other issues, lack of wage parity. Many of these workers make less than $13.50 per hour.

At the request of the team, the Agriculture Union will make a donation of $1,000 to support these striking workers.For more information, click HERE.

Now’s the time for Local Officers to take advantage of Workforce Adjustment information sessions!

(Posted January 24, 2012)

They’re timely. They’re informative. And they’re available across the country.

Our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, is offering information sessions for Local Union Officers on the Workforce Adjustment provisions that are the core of the job security provisions available to Agriculture Union members employed by Treasury Board. They form part of the various collective agreements.

(Our Canadian Food Inspection Agency members are covered by a similar provision – the Employment Transition Policy – that is attached to the CFIA collective agreement as ‘Appendix B’.)

The Agriculture Union strongly urges our Treasury Board Local Officers to take advantage of these day-long information sessions. With the Conservatives expected to make sizable cuts to the federal public service in their upcoming budget, these PSAC courses are an excellent chance to learn or brush up on your knowledge of WFA.

Contact your nearest PSAC Regional Office to ask about the location, date and time of a WFA session in your area. Click HERE for a list of these Offices.

In addition, the PSAC has produced a number of useful WFA materials, including THIS comprehensive guide. Visit the PSAC’s Workforce Adjustment information page HERE to see the full range of available resources.

Almost two hundred jobs cut as Canada School of Public Service abandons language training

(Posted January 18, 2012)

Staff of the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS) learned on January 13 that their employer plans to abandon its in-house language training as of March 31, 2012.

The short-sighted move will see 179 staff let go, mostly second-language teachers working at the School itself and in departmental settings across the country. Indeterminate, term and casual workers are equally impacted.

CSPS management refused to place the blame on the Harper government’s current downsizing efforts. Rather they describe it as “the last step” in implementing a 2006 Treasury Board decision to privatize the School's role in language training.

Ironically, CSPS has spent much of the intervening time trying to raise inferior private sector teaching standards to the level long provided by federal public service language instructors.

All this is happening because CSPS anticipates a budgetary shortfall of two million dollars next year and three million dollars the following year. To put this in context, the ‘villain’ in this situation, Treasury Board, alone spends two million dollars annually on language training for its own internal staff of 2,000 employees.

To add insult to injury, previous Treasury Board reports revealed that costs for funding Official Languages more than doubled per employee when training was provided by private contractors rather than through the Canada School of Public Service.

This initiative to outsource language training will end up costing taxpayers more than the savings anticipated by the school. Further to this CSPS did not consult with their client departments about the decision, many of whom based their training plans on having CSPS delivering the training.

In times such as these when ideology trumps common sense, our Canada School of Public Service members are about to pay a high price indeed!

Kingston appeals to food industry execs as CFIA prepares to reverse safeguards in place after 2008 listeriosis outbreak

(Posted January 16, 2012)

The Agriculture Union has gone public with evidence that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is planning to cut the funding it put in place to improve food safety and inspection in the wake of the listeriosis outbreak that killed 23 Canadians in 2008.

National President Bob Kingston was joined at a January 16 news conference in Ottawa by Karen Clark, whose mother Francis died after eating tainted cold cuts (see photo below).

Kingston pointed to CFIA’s own 2011-12 Estimates Report on Plans and Priorities as proof of the about-face on enhanced safeguards. The Agency document states that “resources will sunset for Listeriosis and for increased frequency of food inspection in meat processing establishments” in 2013-14.

“This looks like an exercise to make regulation cheaper, not safer or smarter,” Kingston pointed out. “Cuts of this magnitude would leave the food safety program reeling and severely diminish an inspector’s ability to complete assignments, and that means risk of another major food borne illness outbreak will be elevated.”

In a new twist to our Union’s highly successful FoodSafetyFirst campaign, Kingston released an ‘open letter’ being sent to the top executives of Canada’s food processing industry. The letter urges the corporate leaders to make common cause with CFIA workers and consumers in ensuring the security and safety of Canada’s food chain.

“Ottawa cannot be allowed to turn its back on its duty to protect consumers from unsafe food,” Kingston writes. “Please join me and urge Prime Minister Harper to re-consider these cuts and to declare that food safety and inspection budgets will be enhanced, not cut.”

A copy of the news release can be downloaded HERE and the open letter to industry leaders HERE. To view a clip of the news conference coverage on CBC-TV's National News, click HERE.

2012 Regional Seminars debut this month

(Posted January 10, 2012)

The first of this year’s series of Agriculture Union Regional Seminars debuts the end of this month.

A blend of education, information-sharing and networking, the seminars are built around skills-building workshops. Topical information is provided by facilitators from the Agriculture Union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and supportive outside organizations. The process is two-way, with Local representatives contributing the critical workplace perspective in open discussion.

National Executive members – Regional Vice-Presidents and Directors – in each geographical area work with Locals to design seminar content that best meets their interests, issues and needs.

Each Local within a region selects its seminar participants, who are responsible for ensuring their members' concerns are aired. They are also expected to share national and regional information on their return.

Each Seminar also serves as an electoral body. The first round of Seminars after our National Convention – such as these – elects regional representatives to the Agriculture Union's Human Rights Committee.

The dates for each Regional Seminar, from west to east coasts, are as follows:

          • British Columbia – May 12-13;
          • Alberta - March 17-18;
          • Saskatchewan – March 31-April1;
          • Manitoba, Northwest Ontario and Nunavut – January 28-29;
          • Ontario - April 14-15;
          • Quebec – March 31-April 1; and
          • Atlantic - May 26-27.

PSAC canvassing Local input on NJC Isolated Posts Directive

(Posted January 5, 2012)

Our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, has issued a call for input into possible changes to the National Joint Council’s (NJC) Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive.

The NJC is a consultative body of representatives of management and public service unions. Its policies and practices are issued as 'Directives', a number of which are included in our collective agreements. A grievance procedure exists for settling disputes on the interpretation of NJC policies.

The NJC’s Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive is intended to facilitate the recruitment and retention of staff delivering government programs in isolated locations. It is designed to recognize the disadvantages and abnormally high costs of living and working in isolated posts, as well as to ensure that employees in government housing are treated in a manner equivalent to employees renting/owning similar accommodation from private or commercial sources.

The PSAC represents the interests of Agriculture Union members at the NJC. Its input call must be taken seriously, as Locals can and do lose their Isolated Post status, with significant impacts on the cost-of-living in those areas.

The current NJC Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive can be viewed HERE.

The PSAC has provided a downloadable input form HERE. Once filled out, it must be e-mailed to deana@psac-afpc.com no later than April 30, 2012. We are also asking that you copy the Agriculture Union via gauthic@psac-afpc.com.

Any and all submissions from the Agriculture Union and our Locals will be compiled and vetted by the PSAC prior to being consolidated with the proposals from other bargaining agents. The NJC is expected to begin its latest cyclical review of the Isolated Posts and Government Housing Directive in June of this year.