USJE Local 10030 Secretary Éric Villeneuve and PSAC Quebec Alternate Executive Regional Vice-President Annick Lamoureux met with MP Louise Chabot (Thérèse-De Blainville) on April 15 to talk about the poor state of the PA Group and Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) negotiations with their employers.
They spoke to Bloc Québécois MP Chabot about collective bargaining of the PA Group and Annick’s component, UTE, for better pay and working conditions, which is not progressing, in part because the pay rates the Treasury Board and the Canada Revenue Agency are offering are completely unacceptable.
In addition to fair wages, Éric, Annick and MP Chabot discussed the long list of members’ concerns: the right to disconnect from work, telework, work adjustments, the Phoenix pay system debacle, the bilingual bonus and francization in the federal public service.
They told MP Chabot about the Treasury Board’s requests for concession and that, while before the pandemic hit, members would have gone strike, they had been working during Covid.
In addition, MP Chabot voiced her concern that Service Canada and other federal departments didn’t have enough staff.
The meeting was very positive, with MP Chabot saying she would look into their concerns, and asking Éric and Annick to keep her informed of the negotiations. She said several other Bloc Québécois MPs are also interested in federal workers’ concerns and have had meetings with PSAC members.
In addition to being secretary for Local 10030 Regional Office for Quebec Pen, USJE member Éric Villeneuve, who works for Correctional Service Canada in Laval, is a founding member and secretary of the PSAC 3L (Laval-Lanaudière-Laurentides, Abitibi) Area Council Equity Committee and an active member of USJE’s National Equity Committee. He is also a local representative for the Quebec Federation of Labour (QFL) Solidarity Fund.
Quebec REVP Alternate Annick Lamoureux is a member of UTE Local 10008 Montreal and works at the Canada Revenue Agency. She is a past president of UTE Local 10028 Laval.
At the National Local Presidents Meeting, June 7-8, 2022, Local presidents will get more information about meeting with their MPs and how this can be tracked to help USJE achieve better working conditions for you and all USJE members.
The PA Group includes 93,484 employees who are responsible for program administration, information services, communications, secretarial services, office equipment, administrative services, welfare programs, clerical functions and data processing. To keep up to date on bargaining for your group, go to the PSAC website.