The last week in April drew hundreds of delegates to the Triennial National Convention of our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
Those attending the important event, held in Quebec City, were determined to forge a strategy to oppose ongoing Conservative government cuts to public service jobs and services. Next October’s federal election provided added focus for action.
That action came in the shape of an emergency resolution adopted unanimously with great enthusiasm. Agriculture Union delegates were front-and-centre in voicing their strong support for the PSAC’s call to go on the offensive against escalating attacks on our membership by the Harper government.
The resolution directs PSAC to spend up to $5-million from its surplus to conduct a strategic campaign to:
- oppose government actions that will compromise any of our members’ rights;
- continue organizing and mobilizing our members through concerted and strategic actions with other unions to defend our bargaining rights;
- take the necessary legal action to defend our constitutional right to free collective bargaining; and
- work to elect a federal government that respects worker and union rights and federal public services, and that governs for the benefit of all Canadian workers.
The emergency resolution was one of a record number of resolutions dealt with by a hard-working Convention united in its determination to defend workers’ rights, public services and human rights. All this was managed in the context of a balanced budget that will see an increase in PSAC dues.
Robyn Benson, who was elected to her second three-year term as PSAC National President, urged members to take the energy generated at the Convention and channel it into political action in the critical weeks and months ahead.