On June 11, USJE welcomed Local Presidents from across Canada to Ottawa for the 2024 National Local Presidents Meeting.
The potential strike by Canada Borders Services Agency staff posed a significant risk to some members’ travel arrangements, but in the end over 120 Local Presidents were able to participate, with 15 Presidents not able attend.
National President David Neufeld launched day 1, followed by an opening prayer from Cree Elder Thomas Louttit.
For his address, President Neufeld invited 10 Regional Vice Presidents to expand on USJE’s strategic priorities:
- Presumptive Injury (Kirsty Havard and Jeff Sandelli)
- Bill C-357
- New PTSI at work campaign pin
- RCMP Campaign (Valda Behrens, Heather McKinnon, Sonia O’Brien-Colterman)
- Recap of campaign site visits in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the NCR
- Equity (Shauna Ward)
- New Equity Committee and priorities
- Equity Conference
- Collective Bargaining Strategy Committee (Patrick Menard)
- Bargaining survey
- Bargaining timeline
- Member Engagement (Lynette Robinson)
- Mobilization (Laurie Ann Wesselby)
- FOS Campaign Update
- Grievance Back Log (Bella Skalin)
Michael Fisher, union lawyer from Raven Law in Ottawa, presented the state of the jurisprudence emanating from GECA and reviewed the changes to coverage contained by C-357. Fisher denounced the inequities inherent to GECA, an act which he described as “too broad, inflexible and not adapted to the modern world”. He claims that the definition of work stressors is inadequate and that the thresholds currently used to identify trauma are either too high or too poorly defined. He further added that restrictions to entitlements emanating from decisions by provincial Workers’ Compensation Boards to a Federal Act might be unconstitutional.
During the lunch hour, delegates headed to Treasury Board to protest the recent Directive released by Minister Anand on May 1 (Direction on prescribed presence in the workplace) that looks to restrict the amount of telework that can be approved for federal public employees across all Treasury Board departments. The Treasury Board did not consult the unions on this new directive and simply imposed it. USJE was joined by newly elected PSAC National President Sharon DeSousa and National Executive Vice-President Alex Silas for the rally and accompanied by several other PSAC Components and federal unions as well. The delegates marched all the way to 90 Elgin Street with the assistance of members of the Ottawa Police Service.
In the afternoon, USJE Labour Relations reviewed their many achievements. The Director of USJE Labour Relations, Mélanie Crescenzi, gave an update on the latest changes to the team and the work they have done in recent months. She also offered tools for Local Presidents to use in the workplace: in particular, a template and guide regarding work description grievances, information on file requests and file transmissions and facilitated a conversation on how to distinguish between grievable and arbitrable matters.
This was followed by a panel about USJE’s parliamentary relations with Nancy Peckford, Jean François Tessier and Kristina Martin, the team tasked with all liaisons with elected officials.
The recipients of the Exemplary Service Awards were announced by USJE National President David Neufeld at the end of the day. The three recipients were Thomas Lingard, Patricia Pichette and Jena Russel. USJE congratulates all three award recipients!
Day two of the meetings started with an equity training moderated by Martin Rioux and Malaika Joseph from PSAC’s Program Section. The training provided a short introduction to PSAC’s full 2.5-day course entitled “Advocacy and Representation on Workplace Racism”. All Local Presidents were encouraged to attend the full course in their respective regions as they become available.
During the afternoon, the Director of Communications, Sébastien Bezeau, officially announced the launch of MemberLink, a portal that provides Local Presidents access to their member lists. This is a long-awaited development that will greatly enhance the outreach capacities of local presidents. All inquiries about this new tool should be directed towards the Information Management team.
Another new tool that was presented to the delegates is a streamlined locals directory that is planned to be fully operational by the end of September 2024.
It was further announced that USJE won a CALM AWARD for “Best National Campaign” last week for the presumptive injury campaign that has been one of the union’s single most sustained efforts.
The Director of Finance and Administration, Christina Hatchard, provided a presentation on the union’s finances and answered a number of questions from the delegates.
A “Couch Talk” was conducted with three local presidents by Nancy Peckford. The conversation focused on member engagement and shared “best practices” from across the country.
The brand-new web site for USJE’s ambitious pan-Canadian RCMP campaign aiming to promote the many roles that USJE members perform in the RCMP was shown for the very time to the delegates. Kim VanderHelm, graphic designer on USJE’s communication team, was connected virtually from Alberta during the introduction of the project. Members present from RCMP locals expressed their sense of appreciation for the project.
Sharon DeSousa, the newly elected PSAC National President wrapped up the National Local Presidents Meeting with a moving address to the delegates.
USJE is truly blessed to have so many dedicated front line union representatives across Canada who help to serve our membership of almost 19,000 members every day. This week’s National Local Presidents Meeting was a true opportunity to connect union leaders from across the country and to help build a stronger union moving forward.