Congratulations Andrew! Election results for the Ontario Region

Union of National Employees Convention – 2014

Below is the election results for the Ontario Region for the 2014-2017 cycle.

Included in the list is the delegates to the PSAC Convention in 2015

We will split up the locals and Employer groups so you have a go to when you have an issue or need to bounce an idea around.

The division of the locals may not be until October when we meet for an orientation so until then it will be business as usual

Ontario
Regional Vice-President	Mary Anne Walker
Assistant Regional Vice-President	Diane Levola
Assistant Regional Vice-President	Andrew Shaver
Assistant Regional Vice-President	Craig Reynolds
Regional Representative for Human Rights	Sandy Bello
1st Alt. Regional Representative for Human Rights	Carrie Vasey
2nd Alt. Regional Representative for Human Rights	Andria Meskauskas
PSAC Delegate	Diane Levola
PSAC Delegate	Andrew Shaver
PSAC Delegate	Sandy Bello
1st Alt. PSAC Delegate	Michael Freeman
2nd Alt. PSAC Delegate	Tom Buckley
3rd Alt. PSAC Delegate	Craig Reynolds

Election Day at Convention

Hello again from convention!

Today was election day, when the delegates elected our national executive officers, and the regional delegations (we're Ontario Region, of course!) also elected their regional leadership teams.

A bit of a warning: this is a longer-than-usual posting, because there is just that much information to share.  I will, however, be covering all of this at a special Local meeting (soon to be scheduled, likely late September), when I'll provide a full report on convention.

The short version: We had great elections, we have an amazing new National team, and I was elected to our regional leadership team (as well as being elected as a delegate to the PSAC Triennial convention, our union-wide gathering taking place in April 2015).

Now for the long version... 

The first order of business was to elect our component's National President.  The incumbent, Doug Marshall, presented again (asking for a second, and final term - our elected officers are limited to two mandates).  He was not opposed and was therefore acclaimed for another term.

Following this, we had two candidates stand for election as the National Executive Vice-President (the next in line should the President not complete the term), and they were Kevin King and Stéphane Allard.  In the end Kevin King carried the vote, with 74.9% of support.

Here's the full list of our newly elected National positions:

National President - Doug Marshall (acclaimed)
National Executive Vice-President - Kevin King
National Vice-President, Human Rights - Jeff Ryan (acclaimed)
Assistant National Vice-President for Human Rights - Daniel Toutant
National Parks Representative** - Eddie Kennedy (acclaimed)

You may note the ** beside that last position - this was in fact a new position created at convention, that will be salary-funded by Parks Canada but has not yet been formally negotiated.  I'll explain how this works when we convene our Local convention debrief meeting in the fall.

Of course we also held our Ontario Region elections, and the big news is: I'm now part of the Ontario Region executive team as a brand new Assistant Vice-President!

I was elected to the position of 2nd Assistant Vice-President (ARVP), Ontario, a volunteer leadership position within our region that will support our component across the province, and directly help our Regional Vice-President (RVP) fulfill their mandate.

Our  outgoing RVP Gary Larouche is retiring, and so in his place our Ontario delegates have elected Mary Anne Walker as our new RVP (she was previously one of our ARVPs). 

And many of us know Sandy Bello from our Annual General Meetings, who had served as an ARVP alongside Gary up until this convention.  Given the two term limit, she was unable to stand again for the ARVP role, but was elected into the position of the Human Rights Representative, so will still be a part of the Ontario regional team.

Below are the results of our Ontario regional elections:

Regional Vice-President - Mary Anne Walker
1st Assistant Regional Vice-President - Diane Levola
2nd ARVP - Andrew Shaver
3rd ARVP - Craig Reynolds
Human Rights Representative - Sandra Bello
1st Alternate HR Rep - Carrie Vasey
2nd Alternate HR Rep - Andria Meskauskas

And the last business we took care of today in Ontario caucus was to elect delegates to the National PSAC Triennial, taking place next Spring in Quebec.  Our component has a formula that allows each region to elect a certain number of specifically regional delegates to the PSAC Triennial Convention, which in our region's case allows us to send 3 people in addition to our RVP.  More good news for our Local - I was elected as one of the 3!

Below is our list of 3 delegates and 3 alternates (should any of the delegates be unable to attend):

1st delegate - Diane Levola
2nd delegate - Andrew Shaver
3rd delegate - Sandra Bello

1st alternate - Mike Freeman
2nd alternate - Tom Buckley
3rd alternate - Craig Reynolds

And that wraps up one another full day at our UNE Triennial. 

Tomorrow is the final day, when we swear in the newly-elected officers, and complete our final business before closing out until the next Triennial, 3 years from now.

I will not be providing any further updates tomorrow, but will save the rest for my return when I present, in person, my full report.

Thank you to everyone who's followed along this week, and thank you to our entire membership for allowing me to participate in this incredible convention, to represent our Local on your behalf. 

As always, if you have any questions or just want to drop me a line, I'm always reachable at president.local00303@gmail.com

URGENT - Peoples Social Forum - Aug 21-24, 2014

Greetings Sisters and Brothers,

The Peoples’ Social Forum is a mass gathering of progressive organizations and activists that will feature special exhibitions, film screenings, rallies, a pow-wow, street performances, concerts, games, and over 500 workshops.
The Forum will take place in Ottawa on August 21-24, 2014 (http://www.peoplessocialforum.org/).

PSAC will be offering 1 day of Leave Without Pay and the $25 registration fee for the Forum for a total of 25 members throughout the Ontario Region.

This partial funding is to help offset the financial burden for members who will take part in the Forum and will be based on the responses from interested members to the following 2 questions:

1. Why are you interested in attending the Peoples’ Social Forum?
2. How are you involved in your community promoting issues of social justice?

Each answer to the above questions should be no longer than 200 words each and the deadline for submissions has been extended to August 20, 2014.

Note that accommodations and expenses are not being provided, however, the Peoples’ Social Forum does have special accommodation rates listed here: www.peoplessocialforum.org/ottawa

PSAC has also booked accessible buses for members from London, Toronto and Kingston. For full details and to register for a spot on the buses please do so online here: http://ontario.psac.com/gta/toronto-course-registration-form-2014-0

In Solidarity,

Sharon DeSousa,
PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President Ontario

Convention update - budget passes, on to other resolutions and then elections

Hello again from convention!

Yesterday was a busy one, with our delegates passing the provisional operating budget after much debate on the convention floor - here are the main points:

- our total operating budget each year for 2015-2017 is set at $6,822,393

- our component dues rate is now 0.5991%

- this represents an increase of 0.0435%

- in other words, we now add $2.53/month to our dues

Our local will convene a special meeting in the fall where I'll deliver a full report on convention, with a particular focus on explaining this budget process and giving everybody a chance to share their thoughts and feedback which I will pass up the line to our component leadership.  

With the budget passed, our convention now turns to reviewing resolutions as well as the election of our component executive officers on Thursday.  I'll keep you posted on any major items that directly impact our workplace, and as always feel free to email me if you have question or any feedback you'd like to share.

Andrew

president.local00303@gmail.com

Convention Day 1!

Hello from UNE triennial convention!

Today the formal convention agenda began, with an address from our component president Doug Marshall and then right down to business as we began work on adopting a three year operating budget for 2015 - 2017.

The budget conversation on convention floor has been robust, as all delegates work hard ensuring our component has the funds needed to do our business effectively with a desire to limit dues increases to the very minimum required.

Our component unfortunately lost around 4000 members during the WFA period, meaning we now need to make up for that lost dues revenue somehow.  The proposed budget included a modest increase of $1.98/member/month, though amendments proposed by delegates may change that amount before a final budget is adopted.

Stay tuned for more updates on this tomorrow, as well as info on some of the other general resolutions that will impact you as UNE members.

Feel free to email me questions or thoughts at any point this week at president.local00303@gmail.com.

Off to convention next week!

As you may remember from our springtime AGM, this year our component (Union of National Employees) is holding its National Triennial Convention.

I'll be off on August 10 for five busy days in Victoria, BC, representing our Local on the convention floor.  I'm planning on sending updates via posts to our Local blog which I encourage you to check out to keep up with the latest news coming from your union.

Some key items that will be up for discussion include:
- a financial report for the last 3 years, and presentation of our component's proposed operating budget for the next 3
- the bargaining process as we work towards our new collective agreement
- discussion of on-going issues in our workplaces
- review and presentation of member-crafted resolutions to make our union work for us
- and much much more!

Please visit our blog often to keep up with the latest, and even when not at convention we're adding new posts all the time.

We're also planning a festive fall fundraiser potluck in early October, more details to follow!

Have a great month of August, and I'll be in touch from convention soon!

_______________________
Andrew Shaver
President, Local 00303