2009 PSAC Fifteenth Triennial National Convention Summary Report
Location:
Registered Delegates: 469Registered Observers: 247
Registered Guest: 23
Total: 739
UEW Caucus Meeting
UEW had four delegates out of 12 going to convention participating as members of resolution committees in February, insuring that UEW ideas, concerns, and resolution from our 2008 convention make it onto the convention floor. Over the following three days we, the delegates and observers, reviewed and discussed the top 10 priority resolutions from the following committees;
Finance Committee writing summary submitted by Irene Berube
General Committee writing summary submitted by Terry Fanning
Constitution Committee oral summary submitted by Bill Pynn
Collective Bargaining Committee oral summary submitted by Nick
(See submitted summary reports)
Candidates running for national positions visited our caucus to present their platforms and answer questions.
Regional and All Equity Caucus Meetings
Discussed concerns of some of the resolutions with costing, affecting the
Convention
While a broken water pipe forced the cancellation of the first day of the convention, many delegates, equity groups and unions took this opportunity to gather within their respective caucus’s, to further discuss and strategize important resolutions that they felt must get on to the convention floor. A summary of the budget and some resolutions passed will be given below, for a more complete and detailed report please check on the PSAC website or check with our local
Convention Debates
Budget
Due to these hard economical times, the National Board of Directors (NBoD), agreed that it would be financial responsible to produce a non dues increase budget, that was unanimously recommended by the convention Finance Committee for concurrence and presented to the delegates. The Delegates adopted the three-year balanced budget for the period 2010-2012. Please note that during the convention, delegates will be voting on a range of resolutions, some of which have cost implications over and above the budget. Please note all resolution that has costing will now cause a dues increase. This is broken down as follows:
2010: 265,320
2011: (-42,664)
2012: (-221,991)
General resolution
GEN092A- Referred back to the committee concerning costing. This resolution calls for a lobbying campaign to oppose the privatization of federal laboratories and raise awareness of the need and importance of public science and research. The convention floor believes this resolution does not require an additional costing of 0.07 C/M/M and should come out of the existing budget line OT Special Projects.
-Adopted. PSAC will lunch a lobbying campaign to oppose the privatization of federal laboratories and raise awareness of the need and importance of public science and research. This resolution will increase PSAC dues by 0.07 C/M/M or 0.0016%.
GEN078A- Adopted. The PSAC will lobby and allocate the necessary resources to the UEW Our Fish Campaign to raise awareness that the Department of fisheries and Oceans is inadequately funded to fulfill its mandate in the areas such as habitat protection, conservation and protection and scientific research for the good of Canada and Canadians. This resolution will increase PSAC dues by 0.05 C/M/M or 0.0013%.
Collective Bargaining resolutions
NEG003- Adopted. PSAC will pursue negotiations with the employer to ensure that the members continue to receive their pay when on union leave without pay, with employer invoicing PSAC directly for such leave.
NEG058- Adopted. PSAC will pursue an agreement with the National Joint Council to reactivate the Conferences of the North, including funding for direct membership representation. This resolution will increase PSAC dues by 0.01 C/M/M or 0.0002%.
NEG045A- Referred back to committee concerning costing. This resolution calls for PSAC to campaign to stop the misuse and negotiate with Treasury board on the hiring of coop and other students, casuals and contractors that perform our bargaining unit work and instead hire them as unionized employees.
NEG076- Adopted. PSAC will commence research into the issue of workplace privacy to produce a model bargaining language to protect members’ privacy including a prohibition on the use of monitoring technologies for disciplinary purposes.
NEG079- Adopted. PSAC will work to provide employer awareness and education on the legal obligations of Duty to Accommodate to all management and employees; and ensure adequate processes are in place to deal with workplace accommodation issues.
This resolution will increase PSAC dues by 0.04 C/M/M or 0.0009%.
NEG042A- Adopted. PSAC will negotiate with treasury board to rewrite a term employment policy that is fair and just for pregnant women.
Constitution Resolutions
CS-86: Adopted. Section 5(b) of the Constitution-Membership rights- is changed to include family status, social and economic class and gender identity in the definition of discrimination.
CS-97: Adopted. Directly Chartered Locals will now have some flexibility in providing financial reports to the National President while maintaining accountability.
CS-98: Adopted. Regional Councils will now be required to provide annual financial statements to the National President.
CS-26A – Defeated. The funding for regional convention did not receive the necessary majority. The PSAC constitution amendments require a vote of two-thirds.
CS-71- Referred back to the committee concerning costing. This resolution calls for strike pay to be increased from $50 per day to $75 per day. The convention floor believes this resolution does not required an additional costing of 1.88 C/M/M
-Adopted. Strike pay will be increased from $50 to $75 per day. The committee agrees with the floor that this resolution does not require a dues increase. As adopted at the 2006 convention, a special dues increase will be applied whenever the Strike Fund balance falls below $10 million and continue until it exceeds $25 million.
CS-91- Adopted. PSAC Convention delegate entitlement is now based on any of the 12 months prior to the date of the convention call, enabling components and DCLs to maximize representation at the convention. This resolution will increase PSAC dues by 0.01 C/M/M or 0.0002%.
CS-21- Defeated. The committee’s recommendation for the funding and inclusion of regional health and safely committees in the PSAC Constitution did not receive the necessary majority. The PSAC constitution amendments take a vote of two-third.
CS-73- Adopted. Members in the North region who are on strike will receive $100 per day strike pay. PSAC recognition of the region’s high cost of living and limited alternative employment opportunities.
CS-04- Adopted. Dues paying members who are recognized by the terms of their collective agreement will be considered members for the purpose of determining delegates to the PSAC convention from DCLs. This resolution will increase PSAC dues by 0.01 C/M/M or 0.0002%.
CS-92- Adopted. The eight equity group delegates to the PSAC convention will now be elected at their respective PSAC national triennial conferences.
CS-81A and CS-03- Adopted. Members who are on leave without pay for reasons including disability, maternity/parental, family related leave, or injury at work/lay off who are not paying dues and do not have alternate employment, will now be considered members for a thirty-month period.
CS-82- Adopted. A new regulation is created to define the rights and responsibilities of non dues paying members under the PSAC constitution due to the adoption of CS-81A and CS-03.
CS-74- Tabled. The resolution deals with northern strike pay, an issue already dealt with under resolution CS-73.
CS-95- Adopted. Appeals Tribunals may now be composed of less than three persons, provided that the chair of the tribunal is an independent person either agreed upon by the parties or appointed by the appropriate labour organization where there is no mutual agreement.
CS-87- Adopted. The postion of the Regional Vice-President of Countries outside
Elections
John Gordon: Re-elected PSAC National President.
Patty Ducharme: Re-elected PSAC National Executive Vice-President.
Jerome Turcq: Alternate National Executive Vice-President.
Notes
The PSAC filed an application in the Ontario Superior court challenging the Expenditure Restraint Act, which rolls back the wages in some of the bargained contracts, and caps any kind of pay improvements that might be gained by bargain or achieved at arbitration from now until 2011.
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