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News - November 2006
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.
• Victoria Local turns AGM into Party!
• Seniors’ horror-stories sadly familiar to our Service Canada ISP members
• Technical Services Group – former ‘Table 3’ – to vote
on dispute settlement route
Victoria Local turns AGM into Party!
Posted November 29, 2006
Most of us have never been busier or more stretched as we struggle to balance work, home and personal time. Not surprisingly, it’s a major challenge getting members to turn up for Local meetings, even for the all-important annual general meeting.
For a number of years, the executive of Local 20017 in Victoria, B.C. have decided to mix pleasure with business, turning their AGM into a grand social event. This year’s party marked the 40th anniversary of the founding of the NHWU.
This inspired planning continued to pay off, as 55 Local members turned out to deal with important union business in a convivial and highly-sociable atmosphere. As the attached photos attest, no-one regretted attending.
Mandi Schubert, Local 20017 president, points out that the AGMs are more than a fun time – they are “a practical and productive way to build member solidarity and strengthen our Local and the NHWU.”
The meeting’s ongoing successes suggest the idea is well worth duplicating throughout our union.
One final note. It goes without saying that all our Locals are welcome to send in photos for publication on the NHWU Web site.
Seniors’ horror-stories sadly familiar to our Service Canada ISP members
Posted November 13, 2006
The following article by columnist Greg Weston of the Sun newspaper chain appeared in a variety of publications the end of the first week of November.
Its revalations will come as no surprise to our Income Security Program members at Service Canada.
The article is reproduced in its entirety immediately below:
Cruel red tape hurts old folks: Terrified seniors sob to officials
Greg Weston
Edmonton Sun/Sun News Service
November 7, 2006
At age 84, Doris is forced to live on $250.38 a week (think about it) of old age assistance, over half of which is the federal low-income supplement paid to Canada's 1.5 million poorest seniors.
In July, Stephen Harper's government suddenly cut off the supplement to Doris and over 90,000 other impoverished seniors.
That left them with only $113 a week of basic old age security.(Doris is convinced the feds would cut off that, too, if we used her real name.)
PUNISHING SENIORS
The reason for so savagely punishing Canada's most needy and helpless citizens was they were late filing their income tax returns.
It's not that these frail Canadians owed the government a pile of cash – if anything, the feds owed them money.
The problem is the bureaucrats rely on Doris's previous year's tax return to determine if she is entitled to the income supplement.
It doesn't seem to matter that Doris hasn't had any other income since she turned 65, almost 20 years ago. No tax return, no food money for her.
It gets worse. The first Doris heard that the government was cutting off more than half of her already minimal income was by letter in the final few days of June, warning that until she filed a tax return or completed and returned the special form attached, she would not be receiving her July cheque, nor any thereafter.
Problem was the letter arrived three weeks before her July pension was due to arrive, but she was told it would take the government four to six weeks to process the information requested in the letter.
In other words, by the time she opened the letter, it was already too late to save her July cheque.
An official answering the toll-free number printed on the letter told the Sun about 75% of all the calls in June were from terrified seniors like Doris, many of them sobbing on the phone and not knowing where to turn.
Doris was lucky – she turned to her kids for help until the bureaucrats could shuffle their papers, scratch their heads and finally issue her a cheque weeks late.
NO ONE TO TURN TO
But how many of the other 90,000 seniors who got cut off had no one to turn to?
When the Sun's Kathleen Harris first broke this story back in July, a senior official said the human resources department “goes the extra mile” to reach out and keep supplement recipients informed, but the responsibility ultimately rests with the applicant.
Ross MacLeod, then director general of benefits processing, said: “People do have a responsibility – if they see that kind of thing happening when we've sent the form to them, they should get it back to us as soon as they can.”
When we checked back with MacLeod for an update this week, we were sure the whole problem would have been corrected, at least for next year.
Sadly no. Instead, MacLeod argued the matter was flagged to all seniors in a newsletter mailed out to pensioners with their T4 slips in February.
Sure enough, there it is, buried on the second of three pages of poop the average tax accountant probably wouldn't read, instructing elderly recipients that they can reapply for their supplement by filing an income tax return, or “if you receive a renewal form in the mail, you must complete and return the form to make sure there is no interruption in your benefit payments.”
What is it these 84-year-olds don't understand? Nothing has changed since the Sun first exposed this nonsense four months ago.
Well, actually, that's not entirely true. Since we first reported the story, the bureaucrat in charge has been promoted.
Technical Services Group – former ‘Table 3’ – to vote on dispute settlement route
Posted November 10, 2006
Conciliation, with the right to strike? Or, binding arbitration?
That’s the decision NHWU members of the Technical Services Group (TC) will help decide in a mail-in ballot launched by our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance. The outcome will impact the upcoming 2007 bargaining round with Treasury Board.
The following classification groups comprise the Technical Service Group:
• Drafting and Illustration (DD);
• Engineering and Scientific Support (EG);
• General Technical (GT);
• Photography (PY);
• Primary Products Inspection (PI); and
• Technical Inspection (TI).
NHWU members who belong to the Technical Services Group will receive the voting kit at their home residence by mid-November and will have until December 11, 2006 to return their ballot to the PSAC.
However, your mailing information must be up to date in order to receive the balloting kit. Changes can be made electronically under the ‘Services’ menu tab on this Web site by clicking on ‘Change of Address Form’. Fill out the form, and then click the ‘Submit’ button, and you’re done!
The kit contains the following items:
• a cover letter and background information;
• a letter from the PSAC National President;
• a comparison of the conciliation and arbitration dispute mechanisms;
• voting instructions;
• a ballot, ballot envelope and return envelope; and
• a membership application should the recipient be a ‘Rand’ (a dues-payer not yet a member).
The question itself is clear: As a method of dispute settlement for the upcoming round of negotiations, I choose: conciliation with the right to strike or arbitration.
If you have not received a kit by mid-November, please contact the nearest PSAC Regional Office for information on how to obtain one.
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