Halifax, Vancouver Win Shipbuilding Contracts Despite BC Gov't Policies

This afternoon the Federal Government awarded new shipbuilding contracts to just two areas, Halifax and Vancouver. Irving Shipbuilding’s Halifax Yard wins the right to build $25-billion of combat vessels, including frigates, destroyers and patrol ships, while Seaspan Marine’s Vancouver Yard has secured dibs on $8-billion of non-combat vessels, including the polar-class Diefenbaker icebreaker. The shipbuilding will create an estimated 15,000 jobs.

Awarding three decades of government shipbuilding work to just two yards – one in Halifax and one in Vancouver – is seen as an effort to end the industry’s boom-and-bust cycle and create centres of expertise that offer uninterrupted employment

BCGEU Opens New Regional Office in Nanaimo

Darrell Walker, President of the BC Goverment Employees Union welcomes members and guests to their new Regional Office in Nanaimo.

Noting that the GEU now owns 7 out of 13 office buildings used by the union, Walker pointed out that the buildings are available not only for BCGEU members, but also other community organizations. 


















The new office has a number of meetings rooms, including this one, space for staff offices, a boardroom, a lunch room and space for video-conferencing.

CUPE Air Line Attendants Reach Last Minute Deal

Just hours before the Conservatives could legislate an end to a threatened strike at Air Canada, Canada’s largest airline , Air Canada and CUPE's Air Canada component representing flight attendants reached a deal just hours before workers were set to walk off the job.

Jeff Taylor, president of CUPE’s Air Canada component, said the union would recommend workers accept the new deal. The news came on the eve of a strike deadline that would have seen 6,800 airline employees walk off the job at midnight Wednesday. Before the sides reached an agreement, the Lisa Raitt, the Conservative Minister of Labour,  threatened back-to-work legislation if flight attendants walked off of the job. NDP labour critic Yvon Godin said he doesn’t believe the threat of legislation helped the two sides reach an agreement.

Rallies in support of the flight attendants, who were seeking improvements in wages, pension and working conditions, were scheduled in several cities Tuesday, including Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary.

The attendants have been without a contract since March 31.

Overwhelming Support for New Agreement at Fairmont Hotel Vancouver

CAW Local 4275 members who work at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver have overwhelmingly ratified a new three-year contract with wage, benefit and pension improvements.
The workers, who resisted company demands for concessions, voted 94 per cent in favour of the new agreement at ratification meetings September 13.
The agreement includes 2.5 per cent in wage increases in the first year, 2.5 per cent in the second and 2.5 per cent in the third. There are dental, short-term disability, and paramedical coverage improvements as well as gains in shift premiums and improved housekeeping workload language. In addition, family responsibility leave is now guaranteed in the contract.
In a major step forward in bargaining with the Fairmont hotel chain, company contributions toward retirement savings will increase to 3.7 per cent by the third year of the agreement.
CAW National Representative Gavin McGarrigle said the strong 94 per cent strike mandate from the membership sent a message to the company who continued to demand concessions and who had flatly rejected the proposal for increased pension contributions.
"There is no doubt that the willingness of the members to stand behind their union and take action if necessary was the key factor in reaching this new three year agreement," said McGarrigle.
 CAW Local 4275 President Terry Tanasiuk said "the membership's awesome display of solidarity sent a powerful message to the company that concessions were not acceptable and that improvements to benefits and wages, as well as the breakthrough in increased retirement contributions were needed in order to avoid a work stoppage.  The committee and membership have demonstrated how critically important it is that hotel workers are organized with a strong union like the CAW. "
CAW Local 4275 represents 450 workers at Fairmont's flagship Hotel Vancouver.
Thanks to CAW for this story.


Workers Block Planned Auction 
U.S. Owners Owe $2 Million To Workers

U.S.-based Catalina Precision Products, Ltd in Windsor ON is planning to auction off equipment at Aradco and Aramco plants, while it still has not paid vacation, severance and termination pay amounting to some $2.4 million.

For more on this story go here

Health Minister Falcon Bypasses Negotiations, Orders Paramedics To Accept Offer Before Vote Concluded

On November 3, the British Columbia government introduced legislation to impose a contract on the province’s striking paramedics. B.C. Minister of Health Services Kevin Falcon claimed that, “with the H1N1 pandemic impacting the acutecare system and winter and the holiday season fast approaching, the public needs certainty that they’ll have the care they need in an emergency”,

The paramedics have been on strike since April 1 for better staffing levels, wages and an independent industrial inquiry commission to address the critical condition of ambulance services in British Columbia. During the strike, paramedics have been forced to perform virtually all their normal services under a so-called “essential-services” order from the provincial government.

The Ambulance Service Collective Agreement Act reflects an offer made to the CUPE 873 paramedics in September. The one-year deal is retroactive to April 1, 2009, and includes a wage increase of just three per cent. At that time, John Strohmaier, the president of CUPE 873 told his members the latest contract offer at that time was “repugnant” and “a piece of crap.” He said the offer was, “woefully short of reasonable expectations.”

In a statement, the union said it is unfair to dedicate ambulances and paramedics to the Olympics Whistler Sliding Centre for three weeks of practice while as many as 20 B.C. communities are left with no ambulances on any given day.

NDP Finds "Smoking Gun"

Links Legislation to Olympics

And why did the paramedics have a collective agreement forced upon them while they were still voting on the last offer? The NDP says it’s the Olympic Games.

On November 4, MLA John Horgan quoted what may illustrate the real reason for the imposition. He read a memo, from VANOC's director of medical services, Dr. Mike Wilkinson, warning of the consequences if paramedics’ services couldn’t be guaranteed. The memo had been sent to The former Deputy Minister of Labour, Lee Doney. It reads 

"VANOC Medical Services requires definite confirmation by October 1, 2009, that all required ambulance services will be provided as planned. These services include the ability to engage the VPCs" — which are the Vancouver paramedic crews — "and BCAS" — which is the B.C. Ambulance Service — "members in full venue planning as soon as possible. This confirmation must also include a guarantee that no services during the games will be disrupted or reduced from what has been planned."

Horgan went on to say, "I don't know about you, hon. Speaker, and smoking guns, but it strikes me that that memorandum from VANOC to the guy at the negotiating table on behalf of the B.C. Liberal government, saying that we really need to get this pesky issue resolved before we can start planning for health services at venues across the Lower Mainland…. We really need to get this resolved. Then not weeks after that memo crossed the desk of Mr. Doney, we have in this place back-to-work legislation."

Unite Here! Local 40 Rallies in Nanaimo

Rob Campbell, CUPE 1858                                MP Jean Crowder, MLA Len Krog


CEP members, President Oxman (NDDLC)         Steel 1-1937's John Little and IAMAW
                                                                    Rep Alastair Haythornthwaite


Maggie Phinney & Vice President Sue Creba Show Support from the NDDLC


Coast Hotel cleaner Tracey McAlpine describes the difficult task of cleaning 18 rooms a day in the Coast Bastion. She noted that she frequently had to take time to retrieve cleaning supplies from different floors, and that the only way to keep up is to "cut corners" and skip lunches and breaks.

She also said recent renovations at the Coast have made them harder to clean, especially with light coloured fabrics.















The rally concluded with a warning to Coast Hotels.

Unite Here! Local 40 will not accept substandard agreements. They will not accept overwork, they demand respect from their employers, and they WILL conduct more demonstrations unless they are heard.

CLC Economist Warns Crisis Not Over Yet

Speaking at the All Island Labour Council meeting in Victoria Saturday, CLC senior economist Andrew Jackson (shown at left) remarked that while it appears the global financial crisis may have “bottomed out”, what's really happening  isn't yet a recovery, it's just that jobs losses are occurring more slowly.

He added that while Canada has an official job loss of just under 10 %, when you add in those who went from full time jobs to part-time jobs, and those who went to self employment, the real figure is more like 15%, he said.

The real danger is that talk about going back to a balanced budget by both Liberals and Tories, both of whom have ruled out tax increases, leave no other way to address the deficit other than deep spending cuts. 

When union officials of all G20 countries met with government heads of state in Pittsburgh recently, they told Harper it was not the time to begin considering an exit strategy but that governments had to stay the course on stimulus. In the short to medium term, Jackson saw no reason to move to balanced budgets.

Instead, with interest rates at rock bottom, we should look at what kinds of public projects make sense, including energy conservation projects and energy refits. The private sector, he warned, is not going to create the jobs we need.

More and more manufacturers were shifting production out of the country, said Jackson, giving as an example, John Deere, who shut a new manufacturing plant in Welland ON and fired 800 CAW members.

What has been driving the economy forward before this crisis is working families going deeper in debt. The top .1% of income earners got 5% of all income, and their income increased by a billion dollars. Real wages, on the other hand, stagnated with no growth.

And while wages are low in foreign countries, so is consumption. In the US and Canada about 75–80 % of spending is household consumption, while in China it is only 30%, so it will take a long time to ramp up the Chinese economy.  He also pointed out that in the US, wage rates are falling rapidly, and without a real welfare system, workers are undercutting each other on wages.

Delegates To All Island Labour Council Discuss E.I. Reform

At the latest all island Labour Council meeting in Victoria October 2, delegates discussed needed c hanges to unemployment insurance rules. Ottawa collects EI premiums and has built up a gigantic surplus of $54 billion in the fund, the result of deep cuts in benefits paid to unemployed workers.

In 1996, the maximum weekly benefit was $604. Today’s maximum is only $435, and the average benefit is just $335 per week. In 2006-07, only four in ten unemployed workers, and even fewer women, qualified for EI. Those who do qualify are eligible, on average, for just 32 weeks of benefits. Some who do qualify are only eligible for a maximum of 14 weeks of benefits.One delegate from Port Alberni, laid off in the forest industry, said all he got was 19 ½ weeks of benefits. 

When the CLC did in depth studies of eight Canadian communities, including Campbell River, they found many people had already run out of benefits, many more were about to run out of benefits, and most of the forest workers laid off last year had run out of benefits entirely.

The Conservative plan to increase benefits from 15 to 20 weeks, said Andrew Jackson, will leave out anyone who collected more than 35 weeks of benefits in the past 5 ½ years. Conservatives are making capricious decisions about who is deserving or undeserving of receiving benefits.

Delegates pointed out it is already very difficult for anyone who has lost a job to find a new one. Canada lags behind other industrialized countries in worker training. We must increase access to labour adjustment programs and training, as well to extend E.I. Benefits and training benefits to get people back in the workforce.

CLC sees Opportunity For Pension Reform

Speaking at the Victoria All-Island Labour Council Meeting, CLC Senior Economist Andrew Jackson pointed out the current panic in financial markets has caused those markets to slump in value by $4 Trillion. As a result, employer funded pensions have also taken a big hit, especially with interest rates as low as they are now. The average private pension plan is underfunded by 20-30%. 

There is some return in the equity market, so there is some improvement in the viability of private pension plans but many of them cannot deliver what they are expected to deliver. Air Canada finances are so shaky that they cannot fund the pension plan without going under. In other words workers are being asked to trade off pensions for jobs. He added that while we know how much private pensions have lost, we have absolutely no idea how much RRSPs have lost in value, but many have lost more than 30% in value.

The CLC Plan to provide dignity in retirement has three separate legs to stand on, he said.  The first leg is to improve the Guaranteed Income Supplement by 15%. While Canada has lower poverty for seniors than many other countries, the Old Age Pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement provide only a bare minimum income. Raising it would move all seniors above the poverty line, and end the situation where 1 senior woman in 6 lives in poverty.

To provide better pension benefits, tax subsidies to RRSPs could be reduced to finance an increase in Old Age Security benefits paid to all workers. The GIS is means tested, so only those in need would receive it.

The second leg is to double the Canada Pension Plan payout. CPP was only designed to provide about 25% of annual income and private pensions were expected to cover other needs. With a small increase of 5.5% in total, split between employees and employers over a period of seven to ten years, we could raise the payout of CPP from 25% of average salary to 50% of average salary. Since the CPP is fully portable and fully indexed it will provide far better security for all retirees. And raising the CPP will reduce the amount paid out for GIS.

CLC proposes this be paid for with either a small premium by employers or a financial transaction (including stock market transactions) tax at a very low rate – something like a tenth of one percent per transaction.

Employees are far more at risk with private pension plans. Nortel employees found this out the hard way when they failed to receive severance and discovered their pension plan was underfunded by 33%. Members of a CAW local in New Brunswick discovered that for years their employer had been diverting pension money to operations, so that their pension plan was underfunded by 50%. An employee of 20 years ended up with a total pension of $400 per month.

One third of Canadians have no retirement savings of any sort. Only 38 % of Canadians have a private pension plan of some sort. Many are seriously underfunded, most are not portable and they are far more subject to pension fund collapse if employers go bankrupt. 

On the other hand, in Canada, the vast majority of private pension plans are for 1-4 people – mainly the executives of corporations. While execs at Nortel took $45 Million in bonuses, and $1 million a year pensions, their employee pension plans were underfunded by 33%.

RRSPs have also failed to deliver. RRSPs have an extremely high cost, with admin and charges often eating up 2-3%of your fund,  making it very difficult to accumulate capital with current low interest rates.  Those with RRSPs have average amounts saved of only $60,000, which will only currently provide some $250 per month as an annuity.  Those with RRSP savings also saw them depleted drastically in the recent crash.

Jackson predicted banks and other financial institutions will lobby very hard against improvements to the CPP, because they want to preserve their very lucrative RRSPs. Large corporations, on the other hand, would benefit from an increase in CPP because their private plans are usually integrated with the CPP, and their costs would be lowered somewhat.

He suggested that we must introduce federal pension plan insurance to deal with failing employer plans. Ontario now has pension plan insurance up to $1000/month for each worker, and it has been recommended they raise that to $2500/month. This fund should be brought in at the national level, with each province able to opt into it.

He concluded by saying, "This is a fairness issue. We simply must bring the same sort of values to pensions that we see in medicare. Everyone must be covered and no one should be locked out in the cold."

Weyerhauser Forced to Compensate Workers

CUPE 873 Paramedics Offered "Crap"

Membership Will Vote On Sub-standard Offer

John Strohmaier, president of CUPE Local 873, called the most recent contract offer “repugnant” and “a piece of crap,” in an internal message to members on Monday night.

The president of the union representing B.C.’s striking paramedics told his members negotiations with the B.C. Ambulance Service have reached an impasse, and called the offer “woefully short of reasonable expectations.”

“We could never recommend this settlement proposal to our membership,” Strohmaier wrote.

Nevertheless, the union executive said yesterday it will take the offer to the membership for a ratification vote.

Victoria Yellow Cab Office Workers Strike

 

Dave Angus, business agent for Teamsters Local 213, said Yellow Cab is using replacement workers — or people the company hired after the three-year collective agreement expired in January — to handle calls. He said the Teamsters will file a complaint with the province’s Labour Relations Board. Yellow Cab office workers are making between $13 and $16 an hour.

BCNU Delegates Suspended From Labour Council Activities

As can be seen by the letter below to Labour councils from the Canadian Labour Congress, the delegates from the BC Nurses Union have been suspended from participating in labour councils and education programs.  All BCNU delegates to the NDDLC have been advised of the suspension.

Ongoing meetings between the CLC, BC Federation of Labour Executive with representatives of the BCNU have failed to resolve this sad situation. In a conference call to labour councils, delegates were requested to treat members of the BCNU with respect as the labour movement attempts to avoid irrepairable damage and end this dispute.

CLC Letter to Labour Councils

Is Canwest still Canadian?

“We have serious concerns that Canwest Global and Canwest itself may now be under the direction and control of U.S. investors, contrary to federal law," says Peter Murdoch, CEP’s Vice-President, Media, which   represents more than 20,000 media workers, including employees at Canwest's print and broadcast outlets.  

In an August 4th news release, CEP said Prime Minister Stephen Harper needs to assure Canadians that the country's largest media company has not fallen under foreign control.

“We have serious concerns that Canwest Global and Canwest itself may now be under the direction and control of U.S. investors, contrary to federal law," says Peter Murdoch, CEP’s Vice-President, Media, which   represents more than 20,000 media workers, including employees at Canwest's print and broadcast outlets. More on this story

Canwest Restructuring

Shortly after a letter dated June 11, 2009, was couriered to ALL Unions at Canwest newspapers, Canwest announced a further extension on a financial restructuring plan, to June 30, 2009.  This
letter was written by Canwest President and CEO of Publishing, Dennis Skulsky, who claimed that
“the Company had made several attempts at candid and open discussion but hadn’t been able to engage the union leadership in dialogue that is constructive for both Canwest and its employees.”
 
What  Mr. Skulsky failed to mention that during several meetings over the past few months between representatives for CWA Canada and Canwest representatives, the Union had advised that it required complete financial information disclosure by Canwest before it could engage in any meaningful discussions. To date this has not been provided by Canwest.

While the letter was lengthy, it lacked substance with respect to the Company’s actual restructuring plans and the future viability of Canwest; and it also raised more questions than answers.

For example:

• Does the newspaper division continue to make an operating profit as it did last quarter?
• Who is actually in charge of Canwest – the bond holders; the Aspers?
• Why was a deal struck for extra financing for the T.V. side of Canwest but not the publishing division?
• Does this mean that the publishing division will go into creditor protection and then be sold off?
• Is the Company currently discussing the sale of parts of its newspaper division & if so which newspapers?
• What is the overall Canwest plan? 

According to the union, they are prepared  to meet with the local senior labour representatives , but they believe believe only the officials who have been involved in the restructuring debt negotiations can provide full disclosure of the financial information and provide answers.

PSAC Members  at YVR Vote In Favour of Strike Action

VANCOUVER, Aug. 20 /CNW/ – A possible labour disruption could cause delays for travelers arriving or departing from Vancouver International Airport in the near future. Employees working for the Vancouver International Airport Authority (YVR), members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), have voted in favour of taking strike action, should it be necessary, in an effort to bring the Airport Authority back to the bargaining table with a meaningful mandate.

“We have one more meeting with a federal Conciliation Officer in an effort to avert a disruption in service, whether that be a strike or lockout.” says Kay Sinclair PSAC Regional Vice-President for BC. “Our first two days of meeting with the Conciliation Officer proved to be an exercise in futility and our members have no choice but to take this next step.”

More on this story