On October 31st, 2024 – National President David Neufeld and RVP Heather McKinnon were at the Winnipeg PSAC Regional Office to participate in the Annual General meeting for USJE Local 50131. This local represents USJE members who work in the departments of Justice and Public Prosecution Service of Canada (PPSC) in Winnipeg. The meeting, conducted in a hybrid format, was supported by PSAC Regional Representative, Tracy Thor and was chaired by Local President, Kendra Cherrett.
This was an opportunity for the Local Executive to report to the members on its financial situation. Local President, Kendra Cherrett, referenced the breakdown provided on the USJE website that explains clearly how members’ union dues are distributed between PSAC and USJE. The document also showed the different contributions split between the PSAC Strike Fund and the USJE Strike Fund.
Local President Cherrett mentioned that she will be attending the USJE’s Prairie Regional Bargaining Conference held in Edmonton in a few weeks and encouraged members to submit bargaining demands prior to the November 15th deadline. RVP McKinnon stated that she remains available to assist members when writing local bargaining demands and provided a few useful examples to work from.
RVP McKinnon took the opportunity to speak about USJE’s ongoing research on the Legal Assistants at Justice and PPSC. This research is being conducted by Dr. Rose Ricciardelli and her team from Memorial University and focuses on the challenges that Legal Assistants face in the workplace. USJE intends to use the results of this research to inform the departments on the nature of the many stressors at play in the workplace that negatively affect our members in order to advocate for improved mental health support, reduced workloads and better compensation. Several Legal Assistants were present at the meeting, and it is hoped that they will commit to participating in this crucial research.
President Neufeld provided an update on USJE’s Presumptive Injury Campaign, the “Scrap the Mandate” Campaign on hybrid work and spoke to the government’s current budgetary cuts across federal departments. Members expressed concerns that there are several vacant positions in their workplace and asked whether the current cuts may add further pressures to their already heavy workloads. President Neufeld identified that the cuts will invariably influence workloads and that it is important that members work within the rights of their Collective Agreement. He directed the members to a recent USJE website post which explains what steps members can take when faced with increasing workloads.
RVP McKinnon and President Neufeld would like to thank Local President Cherrett, Vice-President Cara Verhaeghe, Treasurer Erika Paschak and Shop Steward, Jillian Neirinck, for their ongoing commitment to their local and our union. The visit was considered a very successful one and would not have been possible without the great support of this wonderful executive.
