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News - July 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.

• SDA battle continues for Walk-in and Phone units

• NHWU launches far-reaching review of our structure

with Health Canada-PHAC Local executives

• Huge win nets enormous employer payout in SDA-II grievance victory!

SDA battle continues for Walk-in and Phone units

Posted July 26, 2007

The NHWU, on behalf of its members, welcomed Service Canada’s sizable partial payment to the SDA community of Income Security Programs.  However, the time has now come to honour the stipulations of the 2005, 3rd Level Grievance Decision and also pay SDA’s that occupied the very same positions in the Walk-in and Phone units of the former HRDC.

We have just completed a review of the complicated scenario as to the work descriptions and find they are woefully inaccurate as they relate to the in-person and phone operations.

The grievance decision of 2005 was clear and concise, signed by the ADM and legally binding; all 3 modes of service were given the same work description, mutually agreed upon by management and the union.  It is shameful that the department has now gone back on its original decision and has tried to create a fairy tale job title and work description that in fact has never existed.  This new work description was developed in the creative minds of individuals who obviously never had firsthand experience in either the front end or phone units.  Nor, in fact, have most of them likely ever left the comfortable confines of the National Capital Region.

The 12-year struggle may well have ended for Service Canada’s processing centre workers.  However, for the remaining 700 employees unceremoniously cast out of their former Income Security Program positions, the battle will continue!

Our union will continue to seek fairness and justice for those members who, over that 10-year period, provided the same level of quality service to our senior and disabled clients as our brothers and sisters in the processing units,

We will also continue to keep you updated as to the actions we will be undertaking to achieve this end. The divide-and-conquer tactic – now the management standard when dealing with its employees – should not and must not be successful.

The employer’s decision to divide the 2005 grievance decision is patently unjust.  And, if there is injustice for one, then all of members must take up the challenge and fight on.

The NHWU would accordingly ask that all affected ISP members within the Service Canada in-person and phone units provide their names and addresses to their Local representatives to be added to a group grievance – one of the avenues we will use in accomplishing our goal.

NHWU launches far-reaching review of our structure with Health Canada-PHAC Local executives

Posted July 13, 2007

Our members at Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada can be assured that their interests have not been overlooked in the recent flurry of activity around the transfer of our ISP members to another PSAC component.

There is no question that the NHWU can continue as a viable and effective union. In fact, the NHWU has begun a far-reaching review of our resultant structure and activities with an eye to ensuring an even-higher level of service to our membership.

Between now and next year’s NHWU National Triennial Convention, we will be consulting with our Local executives about their vision of our union going forward. This will present a rare and exciting opportunity to reshape the NHWU from the ground up.

Indeed, the National Office has already begun a series of regional trips to involve NHWU activists across the country in this review. The mood to date has been highly positive.

We will be looking to build on this enthusiasm over the next year as we look to the unveiling of a ‘new look’ union at our 2008 convention.

Huge win nets enormous employer payout in SDA-II grievance victory!

Posted July 5, 2007

Finally! After a seemingly endless wait, the employer announced July 4 that it would make a huge $48-million payout to settle the grievances of 1,100 SDA-IIs who work in Service Canada’s mail operations.

This massive victory sees these NHWU members receive one of the largest – if not the largest – payouts to a single classification level in the history of the federal public service. It is a tribute to the tenacity and solidarity of our SDA-II members.

“This breakthrough wouldn’t have been possible without the pressure our members put on the department and Treasury Board,” noted Tony Tilley, NHWU National President. “They deserve a big vote of thanks – both from myself and from all NHWU members for the example they set.”

The 1,100 members are being promoted to the PM-02 in a long-awaited recognition of their actual job responsibilities. They will also receive more than a decade’s retroactivity for the period March 1995 to September 2006. Details and a date for the retroactivity payment will be worked out over the next several months.

The battle for these members comes as they are in the process of being transferred to the Canada Employment and Immigration Union component of the Public Service Alliance of Canada.

The settlement fails to cover the approximately 700 front-end SDA-IIs who were an integral part of the NHWU’s 11-year grievance campaign. The employer unilaterally decided to split off these positions from the rest of the 1,800-member group.