Defend Our Pensions and Demand Retirement Security for Everyone!

Join a rally to protect workplace pensions and expand the CPP

Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

Corner of Bloor Street and Avenue Road, Toronto

Wednesday October 8th

6:30pm

Canada faces a retirement crisis – most workers have no workplace pension, and governments are attacking existing pension plans.

Across Canada, governments want to be able to reduce pension cheques in retirement.

But workers and retirees are fighting back!

Retirees are mobilizing across the country, with public meetings, letters, petitions, and rallies.

On the evening of Wednesday, October 8th, government officials and pension industry leaders will be meeting at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto to discuss pension reform.

Let’s show them our determination to protect our existing pensions against government attacks, and demand retirement security for everyone by expanding the Canada Pension Plan!

Everyone is welcome.

For more information on the federal government’s attack on pensioners, visit unionsyndicate.ca/pensions

PA team defends sick leave and other workplace rights

The PA bargaining team met with our Treasury Board counterparts for three days during the week of September 8, 2014.

The government presented the same proposal to gut sick leave to all of the Treasury Board bargaining tables. Among other things, the government’s proposal calls for a short-term disability plan, the elimination of sick leave banks and a maximum of 37.5 hours of sick leave a year. All of the PSAC bargaining teams rejected this proposal.

We delivered the following message at the table:

We come to the bargaining table every three years or so to improve wages and working conditions for our members. We are interested in negotiating any provisions that will result in a healthier workplace and will improve the public service. We think your sick leave demands will create hardships for our members, so we are not interested.

 

After the TB team presented their sick leave proposal, our team stood up to prominently display t-shirts provided by PSAC Atlantic, stating “Give up Our Sick Leave? Hell NO!”
There is a special technical committee comprised of members of the five TB bargaining teams that is working on sick leave – a very important issue. Please feel free to contact your union representative with any feedback.

Fixing compensation
Also at the bargaining table, Treasury Board provided a presentation on the Occupational Group Structure-Classification Reform process that was first negotiated into the 2007 collective agreement. This is an important issue for so many PSAC members who are not being properly compensated because of our outdated classification standards. Our team expressed our outrage about Treasury Board’s lack of progress on classification reform. TB negotiators said the task was bigger and more complex than they originally anticipated.
Our team signed off on a change of mileage rates to kilometric rates, which is consistent with the National Joint Council directive. Additional topics discussed included:

• The union’s proposals to add gender identity and expression to the “no discrimination” clause
  
• Adding Treasury Board policies on pre-retirement, self-funded leave and leave with income averaging to the collective agreement
  
• Improving the compassionate care language and moving it to a stand-alone article
  
• Expanding the definition of family in the collective agreement

Our bargaining team will keep you informed throughout this process. Help support our efforts by speaking to your co-workers and participating in upcoming workplace information sessions.
Visit psacunion.ca/pa for updates.

Employers:

• Treasury Board
• PA group

Union Development Program (UDP)

Greetings Sisters and Brothers,

The Union Development Program (UDP) provides advanced union leadership training to prepare members to take on leadership roles within PSAC and the broader labour and social justice movements.

The UDP poster is attached, which outlines the course description and the various steps of our new program and the criteria for participation.

To register online please visit:

http://ontario.psac.com/education-program/toronto-ro-advanced-course-registration-form
The application deadline is October 3, 2014.

Members who previously applied for UDP in 2014 will not need to reapply and can contact their nearest PSAC Regional office to state that they are still interested in participating.

Building on our rich history, the new UDP will provide an advanced learning opportunity for emerging leaders to develop the necessary analysis and skills to identify and support union priorities, and to expand our pool of skilled activists who can inspire others.

In Solidarity,

Sharon DeSousa,
PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President - Ontario