On December 5, 2024, CSC held its third annual Multi-Union Meeting. In the past, the invitation to this meeting was extended to a limited number of representatives from each of the three unions (USJE, PIPSC and UCCO). Last year, USJE voiced concerns about the fact that, while it had respected the limits imposed by the department, other unions had not, resulting in an inequitable representation at the meeting.
The purpose of the Multi-Union meeting is to bring together executives from each of the Unions and CSC once a year to discuss issues of mutual interest. In January 2024, USJE formally requested that USJE Regional Vice-Presidents be invited to attend the 2024 Multi-Union meeting and that CSC fund their participation. While CSC did extend its invitation to all Union executive members this year, USJE, unlike other unions, was expected to bear the full costs of their participation. It remains unfortunate that CSC has vastly different standards and agreements for elected union representatives and, consequently, does not offer all unions the same consideration around leave and attendance of meetings with the employer.
As a result of CSC’s unwillingness to facilitate in-person participation for USJE representatives and as concerns around the treatment by CSC of USJE and its members have grown over the last several months, USJE decided it would not participate in this year’s Multi-Union Meeting.
The irony in CSC’s unwavering refusal to ensure more equitable treatment of USJE and its senior elected officials is that the focus of this year’s Multi-Union Meeting was “workplace culture”.
USJE has a lot to say about the ongoing challenges with CSC’s workplace culture, much of which can be summarized by the fact that our members appear to work for a department that fosters a culture whereby USJE’s members are treated like second-class citizens.
For years, USJE has been very vocal about the growing workload demands and the cascading impacts it has on our members. When USJE members pushed back against having to take on the responsibility of supervising student interns, CSC chose to ignore the reason why our members were upset. Instead of responding to these concerns, CSC issued threats of discipline if they didn’t comply with this time-consuming task.
When USJE pushed for a more equitable and nuanced approach to remote work, CSC responded by suddenly announcing that all employees in the WP category were considered front-line workers and no longer entitled to a hybrid work model.
USJE is also hearing from coast-to-coast-to-coast that members are seeing term positions and unfunded positions being cut, yet CSC is not reducing the demands on our members. USJE members are consistently expected to do more with less.
All of this, and more, lends itself to a toxic culture within the department which is a direct result of actions taken by the employer who continues to turn a blind eye to the reasonable demands and expectations of USJE’s members. It is for that reason and that reason alone that, until we are given an equal voice, USJE respectfully declines its seat at the Multi-Union Meeting table.