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News - June 2007 Previous Month Following Month
The headlines for current month's news items are listed immediately below. Click on the headline of your choice to see the entire text of the article. New issue of our Health and Safety Bulletin now available CFIA members to vote on new one-year contract PI Review classification decision announced by the Agriculture Union and the CFIA Treasury Board members wanting union representation must contact our National Office before filing PSST complaints PSC agenda items for most recent consultation meeting Election process launched for Alternate National Director Reminder - Union-Management Consultation minutes Only half the province can vote in this Alberta election! Emilie Rancourt: Our May ‘Rand campaign’ winner! AAFC GL Work Description Study: It’s on to Phase II
New issue of our Health and Safety Bulletin now available (Posted June 28, 2007) The latest issue of the Agriculture Union’s Health and Safety bulletin has now been sent to our Locals distribution to the membership. Copies can be downloaded HERE.
Official minutes of the October 2006 Canada School of Public Service labour-management consultation meeting are now available (Posted June 25, 2007) The official minutes of the October 2006 labour-management consultation meeting with the Canada School of Public Service have been posted to our Web site. You can download and read these minutes by clicking HERE.
CFIA members to vote on new one-year contract (Posted June 23, 2007) The bargaining team for our members employed by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has reached a tentative agreement with the employer for a new one-year contract. The tentative agreement, which begins last January 1, provides for a two-and-a-half percent wage increase, and a number of other improvements. The CFIA bargaining team issued the following statement Friday: Your PSAC negotiating team reached a tentative agreement on June 20th for our members working at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. This is a one-year agreement that includes a salary increase of 2.5% effective January 1, 2007. The agreement would expire at the end of 2007. The tentative agreement contains changes to reflect new provisions in the Public Service Modernization Act regarding union leave (the replacement of Conciliation Boards with Public Interest Commissions) and a Grievance Article to reflect our ability to file Group and Policy grievances. The Maternity and Parental Articles were also updated to reflect the improvements gained as a result of the introduction of the changes made in the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan. There will be a new transitional allowance for Financial management (FI) Group who have reached the highest level of their salary scale. The allowance will match an allowance provided in the federal public service. In a near future, the PSAC regional offices will be scheduling a ratification vote meeting. Information on where and when the ratification vote meeting is being held will be available through your Local, your PSAC regional office and your Component. If the tentative agreement is ratified, PSAC will begin planning soon for the next round of bargaining, including serving notice to bargain in early September.
PI Review classification decision announced by the Agriculture Union and the CFIA (Posted June 22, 2007) The Agriculture Union and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency today jointly announced a major classification decision flowing from the PI Review – the first such development since our members launched thousands of grievances in 2000. The text of an official memorandum to employees and a series of questions and answers are available for viewing and downloading by clicking on either document title: While we are pleased with this significant, positive development, we recognize the need to resolve a number of outstanding issues. We will keep our members updated
Treasury Board members wanting union representation must contact our National Office before filing PSST complaints (Posted June 18, 2007) (Please note that this does not apply to our CFIA members.) The establishment of the Public Service Staffing Tribunal at the end of 2005 changed the ‘rules of the game’ when dealing with complaints related to internal appointments and lay-offs for Treasury Board's employees. Created by the new Public Service Employment Act, the PSST is the only hearing-based recourse available to Agriculture Union members. One of the many changes under this new system is especially critical for our members: the National Office is not notified by the PSST when a complaint has been filed! Therefore, members wishing union representation when filing a PSST complaint should indicate this when completing the complaint form and must contact or have a representative contact the National Office, which is responsible for assigning a union representative. As well, a copy of all documentation forwarded to the PSST must be sent to the Agriculture Union National Office by the complainant. Note that the PSST adheres to very strict timelines. Explanations of these timelines, and much more useful information, can be found HERE on at PSST Web site.
PSC agenda items for most recent consultation meeting (Posted June 14, 2007) As noted in an article posted on our Web site earlier this week, the Agriculture Union intends to use our ‘Current Month’s News’ section of our Web site to announce when the agenda or minutes of Union-Management Consultation meetings are available for viewing. The most recent UMC was held with Public Service Commission on June 1. The agenda was as follows: 1. Opening remarks 2. Approval of previous meeting’s minutes 3. Ombudsman 4. Update on HR issues related to the transformation project 5. Official Languages profile and language training 6. HR planning with regards to employment equity 7. Staffing processes 8. Branch Updates 9. Round table
Election process launched for Alternate National Director for CSPS/PSC members (Posted June 13, 2007) Are you an Agriculture Union member who works for the Public Service Commission or the Canada School of Public Service? Then you could be the next Alternate National Director for all of your CSPS/PSC colleages! The National Office has begun the election process to will this vacant position on our National Council. The role as alternate to the CSPS/PSC representative is an important opportunity to assist in representing these Agriculture Union members at the highest levels of our union. Each Local who sent CSPS/PSC delegates to our last convention is entitled to nominate one candidate. The nominated member may be from another Local and does not have to be a delegate from the last convention, but must be a member in good standing employed by the CSPS or PSC. Locals have thirty days – from June 5 – to submit their nominations to the National Office, after which an election will be conducted. Each local that sent CSPS/PSC delegates to the last convention will be entitled to ballots equaling the number of their delegates. So, don’t be shy about putting names forward.
Reminder - Union-Management Consultation minutes available on our Web site (Posted June 12, 2007) The Agriculture Union regularly posts the minutes of Union-Management Consultation meetings with our employer groups on our Web site. As the departmental and agency timeline for producing ‘official’ UMC minutes is often quite lengthy, the Agriculture Union also posts ‘unofficial’ minutes based on our own records of these consultation meetings. All such minutes can be found under the ‘UMC Minutes’ item under the ‘Useful Info’ tab on our main menu (located at the top of each Web site page). However, our members are often eager to know which items were actually discussed at a UMC. Accordingly, when available, we will also begin to publish the agenda for the most recent UMC as a news item.
Only half the province can vote in this Alberta election! (Posted June 11, 2007) There’s an Alberta election happening soon. And without trying to heighten the Calgary-Edmonton rivalry, only those in southern Alberta can vote! The election is to fill the vacant position of Alternate Regional Vice-President for our members in the Southern Alberta Region. The vote must be conducted as laid out in Agriculture Union Regulation 2, paragraph 5: (b) Each Local within a region may nominate a candidate, such nominations to take place at a regular membership meeting or a special meeting of the membership called for that purpose. (c) The name of the nominee together with a resume of his/her activities in the Union shall be forwarded to the National President within thirty (30) days of receiving notice of the vacancy. (d) Nomination papers must indicate the willingness of the nominee to stand for office, together with the names of the mover and seconder, both of whom shall be members in good standing of the Union. (e) A Local may, if the membership so desires, nominate a member of another local. (f) Within seven (7) days of receipt of nominations, the National President shall forward to the Locals concerned, the names of the nominees and a resume of their activities as provided by the nominating Local for the purpose of conducting a mail vote. (g) A Local will be eligible to cast one (1) ballot for each delegate that Local would be entitled to send to a Convention of the Union if it were held on that date. Eligibility shall be determined in accordance with By Law 11 Section 11 of this Union. (h) Ballots must be postmarked not later than thirty (30) days from the date appearing on the notice of election. No vacancy will be filled by election if such vacancy occurs within six (6) months prior to the date of the National Convention. (i) In the event of a tie vote, a second ballot will be taken, if this result in a second tie vote, the National President will cast the deciding vote following consultation with the National Executive. Also, as per Sub-section (c), our Locals in the Southern Alberta Region have until July 5, 2007 to submit a nominee name together with a resume of his/her union activities to the National Office.
Emilie Rancourt: Our May ‘Rand campaign’ winner! (Posted June 6, 2007) Congratulations to Emilie Rancourt – the latest monthly winner in our year-long campaign to sign up ‘Rands’: dues-paying co-workers who, for one reason or another, have yet to sign a union card. Emilie, a newly-signed-up member of Local 75 (AAFC, Ottawa), is the proud owner of a much-coveted and highly-prized (!) Agriculture Union mug. As well, her 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!
AAFC GL Work Description Study: It’s on to Phase II (Posted June 5, 2007) Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada has begun Phase II of its study to determine that our GL members have complete and accurate work descriptions. Phase I of the study involved 64 interviews with employees, supervisors and managers in Lennoxville, Quebec and Lethbridge, Alberta. AAFC classification officers had three objectives: Defence could be used as a framework for other GL positions within AAFC. Initial results indicate that while some 2005 work descriptions are accurate as now written, others will need some revision. Phase II consists of on-site visits across the rest of the country. Interviews are currently taking place in both the Atlantic and Quebec Regions, with those in Western centres to be conducted through June, July and August. The timeframes for the National Capital Region and the Southwestern Ontario region have yet to be determined. It is expected that a wrap-up of all information gathered through these on-site visits will be completed in the autumn, with subsequent drafting of work descriptions to follow. While a timeframe for completion of the review cannot be predicted until this wrap-up is completed, we are hopeful GL work descriptions will be finalized by the end of the coming winter. Should upward reclassification result, managers will be asked to determine at what point the change in duties occurred in order to set an effective date of reclassification. In such cases, members should try to make available any and all documentation that would confirm the date upon which they commenced performing the additional duties. We will continue to provide updates as more information becomes available.
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