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News - January 2007
The headlines for news items published during this month are listed below.
Click on the headline of your choice to see the entire text of the article.
• NHWU delegates to PSAC National Bargaining Conference
armed with our members’ views on major issues
• NHWU sends strong delegation to
PSAC National Health and Safety Conference
• NHWU to be well represented
at PSAC National Bargaining Conference
• Strike writes new Seniors' Minister
to raise NHWU's concerns with ISP delivery
NHWU delegates to PSAC National Bargaining Conference armed with our members’ views on major issues
Posted January 30, 2007
The Public Service Alliance – our union’s bargaining agent – is entering a critical year of negotiations for a new set of contracts covering almost all NHWU members.
Last summer, the NHWU National Office encouraged our Locals to make full use of PSAC ‘Feedback on the Program of Demands’ forms. As a result, our union’s delegates to the February 1-4 PSAC National Bargaining Conference in Ottawa will have the benefit of knowing the priority placed by our membership on potential bargaining demands.
The following shows an alphabetical list of bargaining issues identified and grouped by the PSAC into a number of categories. Through consultation with their members, Locals were asked to rank individual issues on the following scale: 0 (not a priority); 1 (low priority); 2 (medium priority); and 3 (high priority).
WAGE PROPOSALS
• General Economic Increase – 3
• Joint development of Classification Standards – 3
• National Rates of Pay – 2
• Protection Against Future Inflation – 3
• Specific Wage Proposals (Specify) – 2
‘BREAKTHROUGH’ PROPOSALS
• Compassionate care Leave and Top-up – 2
• Defending Quality Public Services – 2
• Protective Reassignment for Pregnant and Nursing Workers – 2
• Public Transit Passes – 0
• Student Employment – 1
• Social Justice Fund – 1
• Union Leave – 2
• Whistleblowing – 3
• Workforce Adjustment Appendix – 2
• Workplace Child Care – 3
‘KEEPING PACE’ PROPOSALS
• Compensatory Leave – 2
• Early Retirement for the Enforcement Community – 1
• Joint Learning Programs – 1
• Maternity and Parental Leave: Mobility Rights – 2
• Pre-Retirement Transition Leave – 2
• Term Employees’ Increments – 2
• Term Employees’ Sick Leave Credits – 2
• Term Employees’ Vacation Leave Credits – 2
We will be sure to post the final PSAC ‘Program of Demands’ when it becomes available.
NHWU sends strong delegation to PSAC National Health and Safety Conference
Posted January 19, 2007
Health and safety has always been a central issue for our union.
As the photo below shows, the NHWU is well represented at this week’s 2007 PSAC National Health and Safety Conference. The Conference, under the theme Regulation Works!, is being held in Ottawa from January 19 to 21.
The goals of the Conference include strategies to address the government's move towards occupational health and safety deregulation and its impact on enforcement of current health and safety law.
The delegates are also examining the impact of wellness programs, implemented by employers, on workplace health and safety protections and determining ways of improving law enforcement and worker safety.
NHWU to be well represented at PSAC National Bargaining Conference
Posted January 16, 2007
Our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance will hold its all-important National Bargaining Conference for Treasury Board units in Ottawa this February 1-4. And the NHWU will be well represented.
PSAC Bargaining Teams will sit down with Treasury Board negotiators later this year to hammer out new collective agreements for the bulk of the unionized federal public service.
The following NHWU members – showing their Local, region and negotiations group – were chosen at the Eastern and Western Regional Bargaining Conferences held by the PSAC in late November and early December of last year:
• Sharon Desousa, Local 00009, Ontario Region
Program and Administrative Services (PA) Group – formerly known as ‘Table 1’;
• Niru Channan, Local 30015, Prairies Region
Program and Administrative Services (PA) Group – formerly known as ‘Table 1’;
• Del Duffield, Local 50012, Prairies Region
Operational Services (SV) Group – formerly known as ‘Table 2’; and
• Claude Ouellette, Local 50012, Prairies Region
Technical Services (TC) Group – formerly known as ‘Table 3’.
All of us wish these members the best of luck in their important roles at the upcoming Conference!
Strike writes new Seniors' Minister to raise NHWU's concerns with ISP delivery
Posted January 11, 2007
National President Ray Strike has sent a speedy letter of congratulations to Senator Marjory LeBreton, newly-appointed federal minister for seniors' matters and a key 'player' in the Harper administration.
Strike took the opportunity to raise the NHWU's concerns with the level of Income Security Program services now being offered seniors within Service Canada. He also renewed our union's call for the creation of a stand-alone Seniors Ministry.
The full text of Strike's January 10 letter is as follows:
January 10, 2007
Honourable Marjory LeBreton
Leader of the Government in the Senate
and Secretary of State (Seniors)
The Senate of Canada
Ottawa, ON
K1A 0A4
Dear Ms. LeBreton:
Allow me, first of all, to offer my congratulations on your new appointment as Secretary of State with responsibility for seniors. While a tribute to your public standing, it is also an important and most welcome recognition by Canada’s new government of the needs of this country’s growing seniors' community.
It is in this vein – services to a rapidly aging population – that I am taking the initiative to make early contact with you and your staff. The National Health and Welfare Union represents some 3,500 dedicated women and men who provide Income Security Program services to the most vulnerable of our fellow citizens. The great majority of our client group is comprised of seniors.
It is the belief of the National Health and Welfare Union that the time is ripe for the creation of a unique Department of Seniors’ Affairs. We see your appointment as an important step in this direction.
As you are aware, the previous government opted to submerge Income Security Program services inside the massive Service Canada initiative. As ‘front-line’ service providers, our members are increasingly dismayed with the qualitative and quantitative decline in services to seniors under the Service Canada super-bureaucracy.
Our concerns are both too numerous and too detailed to be satisfactorily dealt with through written communications. Therefore, I am requesting a face-to-face meeting with yourself and your senior policy staff to discuss this issue at the earliest possible opportunity. I want to stress that you will hear factual reality from ISP members who are all too well acquainted with the growing problems faced by seniors in accessing services to which they are clearly entitled.
My office will be in telephone contact with your scheduler in the days ahead to offer our assistance in arranging such a meeting.
In conclusion, please accept my sincere best wishes for a successful tenure as Secretary of State (Seniors). I would hope that a productive and mutually-beneficial relationship might develop between both us, and our respective staff, going forward.
Sincerely,
Ray Strike
National President
National Health and Welfare Union
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