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National President reviews 2008 Triennial Convention Highlights

Meeting with Deputy Minister clarifies AAFC agenda

Changes at the National Office

Ensure new Local election information is sent to the National Office

National President reviews 2008 Triennial Convention Highlights

(Posted November 26, 2008)

National President Bob Kingston recently sent the following letter to Local Presidents, Local Secretaries and delegates to last August's Triennial National Convention:

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

As those in attendance will readily attest, the Agriculture Union’s 14th Triennial National Convention, held last August in Quebec City, was both highly productive and clearly focused on the challenges and opportunities facing our membership over the coming months and years.

While none of us can foretell the future, we can be certain that the employers and politicians will continue to challenge our Union and its membership. John Gordon, President of our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, made that abundantly clear in his keynote address to Convention delegates. His speech was a call to arms around an increasingly difficult negotiations climate for new contracts covering the great majority of our members.

Brother Gordon’s timely remarks highlighted the importance of the Agriculture Union and the PSAC working hand in glove to protect and advance our workplace rights. To that end, we continue to put forward suggested reforms of the negotiations process for consideration at the PSAC’s own Convention. In particular, our delegates adopted a resolution that would modify PSAC Regulation 15 to include electronic voting as an option during the collective bargaining process.

While the success of contract talks is critical, it has become ever more clear that union resources must be increasingly devoted to legislative lobbying and political action. In particular, the past year has seen our membership victimized by partisan political agendas having nothing to do with workplace performance or productivity. The rousing response by delegates to a Convention video highlighting our fight against the Conservatives' attack on the Canadian Grain Commission shows that we are very much ready to ‘walk the talk’ in defending the interests of Agriculture Union members, wherever they may work.

Adoption of a resolution urging the PSAC to work with us in launching a lobbying campaign to oppose the transfer of federal laboratories to universities or the private sector was yet another sign that the Agriculture Union is becoming much more outwardly-focused, and willing to flex our ‘political’ muscles. As federal labs are represented by a number of PSAC Component unions, we are looking to the Alliance to take the lead in this campaign.

All of us can be proud of the leadership role that the Agriculture Union has played in the field of human rights and personal dignity. Convention delegates broke new ground in approving a resolution that would see the Agriculture Union hold a one-time Human Rights Conference over the next three years.

Similarly, delegates approved the creation of our own Social Justice Fund to assist those less fortunate than ourselves. The Fund, which is about to be officially launched as I write this letter, will be administered by the Agriculture Union and based on guidelines established by the National Executive. Our union will provide an initial $50,000 in seed money to get the Fund up and running. To ensure its sustainability, an amount equal to $0.50 per member per month will be allocated to the Fund. After a three year period, an evaluation will be conducted by the National Executive.

The final day of our Convention was largely devoted to the election of a new National Executive and National Council to oversee the affairs of our Union over the next three years. It is a pleasure to have our new First National Executive Vice-President, Debbie Forsythe, working with me in the National Office. As well, Fourth National Executive Vice-President Fabian Murphy, who previously served as Regional Vice-President for our Atlantic East region, is a ‘new’ but familiar addition to our National Executive. For a complete list of Council members, please go to www.agrunion.com.

The Convention also saw the election of four new faces to our National Council: Jane McDonald - RVP, Eastern Atlantic; Jean Cloutier - RVP, Eastern Québec; Milton Dyck - RVP, Southern Saskatchewan; and, Teri Friday - National Director for our Canadian Grain Commission members. Their contributions are already very much welcomed.

Our Union’s leadership – at both the national and local levels – has always been focused on spending our members’ dues in the most efficient and effective manner possible. This careful financial stewardship paid literal as well as figurative dividends at last August’s Convention, when delegates were able to adopt a new three-year budget that will actually lower dues while allowing the Agriculture Union to continue to provide unparalleled services in a highly cost-effective manner.

Last, but certainly not least, our 14th Triennial National Convention saw Brother Yves Ducharme step down as National President after nine years at the helm of the Agriculture Union. We were very honoured to be able to present Yves with a Life Membership in the Agriculture Union at the banquet on Thursday night. I thank Yves on your behalf for his tremendous past service. At the same time, I also thank each of you in advance for your support and solidarity as we move forward to build on our Union’s strong foundation.

In solidarity,

Bob Kingston,
National President

Meeting with Deputy Minister clarifies AAFC agenda

(Posted November 20, 2008)

The Agriculture Union met November 10 with Yaprak Baltacioglu, Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

What follows is a resume of the key points of that meeting:

The DM, Yaprak Baltacioglu, opened the meeting and thanked everyone for coming. She advised everyone that she felt it would be necessary to meet more frequently during the coming months while Agriculture moves through Growing Forward. She then turned the meeting over to Andrew Marsland, ADM Strategic Policy Branch, who advised where they were in the process.

The Department is presently in the process of negotiating bi-lateral agreements with the provinces. Program delivery options are not yet finalized. The emphasis will be on innovation. The program will not be run the same as APF. It will be cost shared with the provinces. A gap analysis will be done once negotiations with the provinces are finished which they hope to have done by year end in order to be up and running by April 1, 2009. As much information as possible will be shared with employees.

Barbara Wackid (sitting in for Steve Tierney, ADM, Human Resources) then spoke about matching people to priorities. Both she and the DM emphasized that existing employees would be offered first chance at any opportunities that become available as a result of Growing Forward before going to outside staffing. They are moving towards a continuous learning environment. There will be opportunities for growth which will be achieved by training, placement opportunities and mentoring. Communication is key, both with employees and unions. Realignment boards will be used to try and link present employees with priorities.

Greg Meredith, ADM Farm Financial Programs Branch, spoke about the Saskatchewan Delivery of Agri-Stability Programs and the announcement on November 6 by the Saskatchewan government that they were bringing delivery of the program home to Saskatchewan. A great deal of planning still needs to be done before this can happen. A team will be set up to oversee the process. Maximizing employment opportunities will be a priority. There will probably be job implications, although it is still too early in the process to say where and how many. Any agreement would have to include an Employee Transfer Agreement. He feels that the 2010 deadline that the Saskatchewan government announced is probably a little optimistic as they have not as yet even seen a Business Plan.

David Swol, DG Integrated Services, spoke about the new Integrated Employee Service Center. It will be a virtual center which will be set up over the next twelve months for employees in the NCR which will walk them through everything they need on their first day working at AAFC, for example parking, pay, etc. The idea is to make AAFC more welcoming and give employees a good first impression of the department. They will also be looking at developing an exit program for when employees leave.

The DM closed the meeting and, once again, thanked everyone for coming and reiterated that we need to have more frequent meetings to keep everyone informed.

Changes at the National Office

(Posted November 18, 2008)

We would like to extend a warm welcome to Nancy Milosevic, who joined our National Office team as a Service Officer effective November 17.

Nancy previously worked for our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, as a Grievance and Adjudication Analyst in the Representation Section. Her experience and knowledge acquired over nearly two decades’ work at the PSAC will serve our members well.

Nancy's arrival coincides with a number of changes in responsibilities of the Service Officers. Effective November 17, the new areas of responsibilities are:

Sylvie Rochon: Quebec; Atlantic; PSC/CSPS – NCR; DND – NCR; Communications; AAFC GL Review

Elaine Massie: Alberta; British Columbia; CFIA, AAFC and CDC - NCR; Essential Service Agreements; Exclusions; Health and Safety; CPMA

Nancy Milosevic: Ontario; Manitoba; Saskatchewan; CGC; Employment Equity/Human Rights

In addition to the above, each Service Officer will take part in human resources update meetings and national union-management consultation committee meetings with CFIA and AAFC on a rotation basis, depending on availability.

As many of you are aware, Service Officer Sylvia Prowse has advised that she will be retiring sometime in the spring or summer of 2009. In the meantime, she will be working exclusively on the AAFC EG Review (English files) as well as mentoring Nancy in her new position.

So, let's all welcome Nancy...and please do take note of the above realignment of Service Officer responsibilities.

Ensure new Local election information is sent to the National Office

(Posted November 7, 2008)

This is the time of year when most Agriculture Union Locals hold their Annual General meetings. The election of Local executive members is a key component of these AGMs.

It is extremely important that the list of the results of these elections be sent to the National Office as soon as possible so that our records can be changed to ensure that essential union information is sent to the correct executive members.