Municipal Pension Plan

Don Munroe, the arbitrator, will be returning from vacation soon.  The aribration will be formally presented after the arbitrator’s return.  In the meantime, please pay attention to the deadlines.

All members who participate in the Municipal Pension Plan (MPP):

• the deadline to apply to purchase service that occurred before April 1, 2002 is
2002 is the earlier of March 31, 2007, or termination of current employment
with a Municipal Pension Plan employer.(whichever is first).  If you do not apply by the deadline, you will lose the opportunity to purchase those periods of past service.
You may be entitled to purchase past service such as:
• time you worked with a Municipal Pension Plan employer but did
not contribute to the pension plan, or
• time when you were on an approved leave of absence from a
Municipal Pension Plan employer.

To find out more about purchasing past service or reinstating a refund,
including costs, visit the Purchase of Service section of the plan website at
mpp.pensionsbc.ca, or call the Municipal Pension Plan at 1 800 668-6335.

To find further information about Pension Arrears see: http://www.pensionsbc.ca/portal/page?_pageid=121,581077&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL

TILMA
Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement between British Columbia and Alberta

March 5, 7:00 - 9:00pm
Vancouver Public Library
Alma Van Dusen and Peter Kay rooms

The Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) between
Alberta and BC is an unprecedented agreement, imposing extreme
constraints on what governments can do.

Ottawa-based lawyer and trade expert Steven Shrybman will discuss his
recently published legal analysis of TILMA.

“The likely impacts of TILMA represent a profound assault on the
capacity of present and future governments in BC and Alberta to serve
the public interest.” - Steven Shrybman

Admission is free and open to the public. For more information, please
contact the Council of Canadians, 604.688.8846.

Sponsored by: B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, Check Your
Head, the BC Teachers Federation, the Canadian Union of Public Employees
BC and the Council of Canadians

Steven Shrybman is a lawyer with Sack Goldblatt, Mitchell LLP

For more information on TILMA, see:
http://www.canadians.org/DI/issues/TILMA/index.html
http://groups.google.com/group/stoptilma

Want to learn more about TILMA and how we can join together and stop
this new trade agreement? Visit:
http://www.canadians.org/DI/issues/TILMA/index.html. Join the list serve
- send an email to

All for now

Alex

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Criminal Record Checks

I sent an e-mail on January 28, 2007 regarding the Criminal Record Checks. The date to have these done is now the end of November instead of the end of April. The Union has not been able to convince Management allot work time for these checks rather than the member’s time. As we disagree with an enterprise which invades members’ privacy and basic human rights, the union finds it odd to then ask for paid time to complete this task. We persevere in spite of these idiosyncrasies.

For those who live outside Metro Vancouver, there is an RCMP Criminal Records check form. One of the members asked which number to check off. There are four options on this particular form. Our national representative says it is #4. This entitles Management to have a copy of one’s criminal record plus any charges that the member was not convicted of. When I asked if charges without convictions would have any bearing on a person’s ability to apply for promotion, ask for transfers or employment; the answer was yes. Yes, even if you have not been convicted, the charge would still taint your employment record with VPL.

The Union is pursuing legal opinions for the appropriateness of the employment checks and will keep members informed. Please contact the Union office if you need any assistance with these checks. We can help and it is strictly confidential.
Part-Time/Auxiliary Pension Plan

The award for the Pension Plan arbitration should be posted in about another week. Watch for it in this space. We have won the arbitration in principle but cannot comment until the award is in print. The City of Vancouver has agreed to drop its appeal of who should be the arbitrator. They would have preferred the authority to arbitrate to pass to the pension plan commission rather than a labour arbitrator.

Code of Conduct

The Union feels that Management occasionally apes the behaviour of City Hall. This is another of those occasions. I will not stretch the metaphor as that would be neither politic or have any satisfactory Darwinian implications.

CUPE 15’s president, Paul Faoro, asked for inclusion of a whistle blower clause. This was watered down through amendments by an unfriendly councillor but still has some relevancy for CUPE 391 members. On July 20th the minutes claim to have invited our participation.  “THAT Council request the City Manager implement at the City of Vancouver a whistleblower policy similar to the one adopted by the City of Surrey, by December 31, 2006. The City Manager should also ensure that the policy is implemented at the Vancouver Park Board, Britannia and Ray-Cam Community Centres and other Civic Boards. The policy and its implementation should be done with full consultation with all civic unions and employee associations;” page 5 and 6 of July 20th minutes http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20060720/documents/pemin.pdf

This clause lost its teeth because of an amendment by Councilor Ball which essentially sent the whistle-blower clause into the bailiwick of Human Resources. However, I am anxiously awaiting my invitation to participate in the consultation process. December 31st, 2006 has come and gone; still no invitation to participate.

The Union thinks that the City of Montreal has much more refined and community development-based document for a code of conduct. Montreal has developed a Charter of Rights and Responsibilities. This document was designed to promote the security of its citizens and celebrates positive and fundamental values such as:

• Empathy


• Integrity


• Respect


• Impartiality


• Justice


• Trust


• Fairness

Such values speak to building healthy communities.

LTD

Steven Turner and I have had several discussions with W.E. Insurance are the agent of record who are administering the LTD plan. Sun Life is the insurer. Steven and I were trying to find the reason why the LTD payments were about to rise 21% over what we were previously paying. This means we are presently paying 1.77% of our gross. WE Insurance and CUPE 391 were unable to find a less expensive insurer for the simple reason that we now have 5 members on the plan instead on one.

other companies were offering to increase by 79% and one hundred percent. What we have found is that our LTD premiums go down as people come off LTD. The insurer calculates what they need from us on the theory that the claimants might be on LTD until they are 65. As we have 5 people on LTD at the moment, our premiums are higher.

The good news is that this is a much better plan than most LTD plans. The premiums will go down next year if we have fewer people on LTD.

We need an LTD plan as EI benefits only cover 15 weeks. We only have 300 or so members on this plan so that tends to make it more expensive.

Union and Management will be looking at long term illness together with EAP, Disibility Management, Wellness and the LTD groups to see how we can help workers manage “return to work” programs.
Bargaining

The Bargaining committee meets with the GVRD February 26th.We have only met to exchange proposals so it is impossible to predict how it will go at this point.

The Bargaining committee has participated in workshops, Lower Mainland CUPE locals meetings and done extensive research and surveys to gather information for the proposals for this round of bargaining. We have heard from the membership and that is directly reflected in the prosposals. Please contact us at if you have any questions.

The committee is working at making the collective agreement a more relevent and cohesive document. We are a good mix with 3 senior members and 3 newcomers. New people on this committee give fresh perspective and more experienced members share their knowledge. Jim Gorman, our national representative, is able to give us insight into how other locals bargain. We have fostered very collaborative working relationships with each other (as they say in HR) and our CUPE colleagues. Our bargaining committee members have appeared at 3 other locals tables during bagaining and we had a Richmond member at our table when we exchanged proposals with Management. This has been disconcerting for Richard Scott, the GVRD agent for bargaining.

We don’t usually talk about money, this early in the process of bargaining. The usual school of thought is that this might upset the process. Either you show your hand too early or members are angry because final number may not match the original. In this case, we are going to give some numbers. As you are aware, we asked for a substantial increase across the board. What we asked for when we exchanged proposals was: a two year contract with $1.15 an hour raise in the first year and $1.25 per hour increase in the second. Will we get it? We don’t know, but Bargaining is officially on. With your support, the odds increase that we will get that great contract.

Classifications

What about that Classification Committee! Aren’t they doing a great job? This committee had to restart itself as it had all new members. The learning curve was very steep and the tasks, on some days, daunting. The members of this committee burrowed into the files and came ups with a great many questions. The budget for Classifications has definitely been overspent but the results of that spending are very evident. We spent money on education and research and it has paid excellent dividends.

The LAVI’s at Central are now LAVII’s. The LAII’s at Carnegie (after several tries) are now LAIII’s. There are more positions currently being reviewed. If you think your position is undervalued, please contact the members of the committee at http://cupe391.ca/committees/classification_committee

Pink Triangle Conference

Our Member-at-large, Peter Degroot, is doing his usual fabulous job of bring pride to the local and the community. Peter is the conference organizer of the Pink Triangle Conference. Our local is basking in national attention for the work that activists like Peter do in support of CUPE members. A big thank you to the awardwinning webmaster, Chris Jang, for all his work in the communications to back these activists.

It was our website and Peter’s activism that brought a sister from New Brunswick to my attention. She wanted help with starting a CUPE LBGTI committee in a small community in New Brunswick. Peter and I have given Sister Chase some support. She is thrilled to have someone as knowledgeable and supportive as Peter to share her concerns. From West to East with pride.
Constitution Surveys

Please get those constitution surveys into the Union mail. At first I had a basket full each day. Now it has slowed to a trickle. I know there are many more out there. Would the Union Contacts please check with members to see if they have sent their constitution survey in?

The results of this survey wil have direct bearing on how manage elections and choose committees. Members had much to say about this last year, but we need concrete answers and suggestions from you before we can make changes. Please fill in the form, send it in and be a part of the process.

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The e-mail address all-vpl-staff is no longer limited to staff.  The HR Director, Brenda Prosken, has had her name attached to this list.  Brenda feels that there a number of issues that attached an all staff account that does not include the LMT, e.g.:

• Staff members are put in a compromising position when they share emails from this address with the LMT.


• There might be litigious material: e.g. harassing remarks


• insubordinate commentary

This address was established over ten years ago because of a request to Management from the Union to have access for to members without involving Management.  Some of the outcomes of this arrangement:

• an ability for the Union to communicate directly with staff


• the promotion of goodwill between the Union and Management.

One of the objectives of the Union’s Think Tank was to improve communication with the membership.  We have formed a Communication Committee and will be working with this committee to determine the deliverables for this project.  At a minimum we will be increasing our audience, and improving how we serve our communities.  We will be connecting to a server that more clearly reflects our local’s needs.  Every member will have a CUPE 391 account.  Watch our site over the next few months.  Streaming videos of extreme, yet very loyal members…

The CUPE 391 report to the Board;

Caring, Repairing, Conserving: BuildingThe Legacy of the Bindery@Vpl

is found at http://www.cupe391.ca/surveys/surveys_reports.shtml under Reports.  We will be calling again for your support through these next months.

December 13 was a day we will always remember.  Over a hundred CUPE members crowded the Alma Van Dusen and Peter Kaye rooms (standing room only) to show that the Bindery is an integral part of collection development and maintenance for VPL and lends authenticity to VPL’s claim to be provincial resource.  When I was delivering my part of the report, I could see the sea of buttons and t-shirts with Aliza Nevarie’s logo, Bound to Serve.  Everyone was either impressed or uplifted.  The hecklers were both informed and refined in their approach.  It was sublime evening. 

The Library Board chose to form a committee to examine the deliverables that were in the original request for proposals but were not “delivered” by the consultant.  There will be 2 members from the Board (Larry Kuehn and Erfan Kazemi), an LMT member and designate from the Union.  The committee will gather information and present it to the Board at the March Board meeting.  The Board will make recommendations based on the information provided by the committee.

I loved the Winter Ball.  The four months of planning by the Very Pretty Ladies gave us the best party VPL has ever had (in the 12 years that I have been there).  Congratulations, kudos, and every credit we can throw at you.  There were many very pretty ladies in evidence in gorgeous raiment.  The DJ played music from the disco, punk and rock eras to cover the spectrum of musical experiences.  Great prizes, good food and attentative bar people; what more could you want.  Netty Boulanger! WOW!  I will never forget the Netty experience.  Alex Campbell, you have been immortalized in song.

Thank you, everyone, for you wishes for a happy holiday season.  The Executive sends its heartfelt thoughts to all of you for a happy and healthy festive season.  Thank you very much for your wonderful support.  We will be working hard for you on past and upcoming issues in the New Year.  Your support, CUPE 391 members, makes the going that much sweeter.

Cheers Alex

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