A city workers perspective on the inside/outside worker. I do not speak for, in any legal or official capacity, for the City and I urge you to read. "What you should get from this blog... what you should not."
It has been a busy day. Sometimes I think this is what a Full time officers day can be like. It is 8:45pm and I am considering going out to either a 100 year celebration event for CUPE Local 1004 or go to a welcome reception about 20 minutes from here.
I have tried to go to everything I can. The membership sent me, and I don't want to disapoint. Here was my day.
After arriving from Calgary, the sky train took me about 5 blocks from my hotel. I went to my first sectoral meeting. The message was fighting P3's on the Water front. Seems that the public services are being eyed by money making corporations. I guess when you make water for about a penny a litre and people buy it in a bottle at the store for $2 a litre, companies want to get their hands on as much water as possible. The meeting was not well attended but the message was put across. I am so new at this even still with all of my provincial experience. The convention is going much the way I expected. Lots of people listening and a few people talking. Of those that are talking it is pretty easy to hear the message. The campaigning has also ramped up. Which is good because the position of recording secretary should have many people running for the position. Anyways there is a push from the private companies to privatize water. I can't believe that people are for such an action, but given the wrong leadership anything is possible. I haven't heard of one P3 that has worked in the public favor when it comes to being cheaper. In the end the user always ends up paying more. We heard from a passionate Spanish woman who I wish I remembered her name. She spoke about how in her country, the water system is under constant attack and her activism in her union is filled with the threat of potential rape and murder. I can't imagine being this woman.
I ate my lunch in the second sectoral meeting. I listened to Municipal leaders from all over the province talk about their areas. The meeting was better attended and a quick reference to P3's and the attempt to privatize water was mentioned. I am starting to see a trend. What was really great was the information about what other locals are doing to protect their workers. Some of the provinces are seeing what we saw years past, while others are seeing new attacks on the public works. I was highly interested in the thought process of having dedicated members at council meetings. The idea that we act instead of react was proactive and I think showed initiative towards building trust with the councilors as well as understanding where they stand on issues. Calgary has the council meetings recorded and publicized online and I think as a local we should have someone paying attention to what is being said by our councilors. We also learned about CETA. Again the CUPE National board is pushing to continue to fight against CETA. At the National level it seems like a lot of this stuff is way over my head. In a way it is. My grounded life as a city outside worker is far from some of these issues.
I went to the pensions forum. I was very impressed with the information provided. Pensions is a very complex social/economical/political/financial/fundamental/etc argument and we can attack it from all sides. The panel was honest and showed an amazing ability to talk about the issues Pensions face. Almost all of my questions were answered before I even was able to ask them. I really want to see the video recording of this pannel discussion. It was informative on so many levels.
Supper was again quick, I ran into some Alberta young members which is awesome considering what it takes to make it here in the first place. We chatted while I scarfed my dinner down. Next up was the Young Workers Caucus. Again I got to see a whole bunch of new faces and committee members that I have enjoyed being with for the last two years. It is the underlying message I find running through CUPE. The connections we make throughout the process are just as important as the convention itself.
I am super tired and probably going to fall asleep to the financial report. I wish I had the time to look over it with finer detail. So much money goes to the National. It would be nice to understand where it all goes.
I have been fortunate enough to be able to go to my first CUPE National Convention. My hope is that I can blog about as much of the goings on as possible.
During the last general membership meeting we passed a motion that sent about five of the membership to a dinner. It was after the dinner that we enjoyed a speech from Mark Asbell who is the chair of the Alberta Labour Relations Board. He spoke about where Labour Relations is going.
What I enjoyed were the examples Mark gave on understanding the climate of both the employee and the employer. He talked about the managment styles, technological changes in the labour environment, and what happens when legislation comes in between certifications. Mark really hit home whether he realized it or not on the current situation with AUPE and CUPE over health workers. From Marks perspective I learned a valuable lesson on perception and reality.
If you would like to listen to the evening, the let me record the event. It isn't the highest quality, but we if your wondering who is the bald guy in the picture, his name is Neil and he is lauded by Mark many times in his message. Please sit back and enjoy.
Here is the question answer after the speech. I will upload the full video when I get a chance.
The evening was for me very informative. Seeing labour issues from another perspective is refreshing. Mark used 3 examples of how tactics used in labour law both positively and negatively affected the environment.
I have to say I was not surprised by the vote last night. I was on the opposing side. Two bylaw changes that I thought had a chance to be passed were not. What I think happened last night is the membership doesn't fully trust the Executive and giving them more power was not in the cards. I thought I should let everyone know how it all panned out.
You can still argue your case to the Executive where they will still recommend to go forward or not with your grievance to arbitration. Then you will still be able to argue your case to the membership and they will still be the deciding factor whether a grievance goes forward or not. Basically status quot. The changes proved too dramatic for the membership and I must say after being on the floor and on the Executive I struggled with this decision. I was definitely not the majority on the floor that night.
The other bylaw change that did not pass was the surprise to me. We wanted to show that the past decade we had been operating in such a way that we were not accessing a bylaw to its full capacity. The committee wanted to close the hole in the bylaw that would allow a member to put forward a notice of motion if the expense was not approved by the Executive. This one also failed to change.
All in all the meeting was pretty long. We ended with a new Executive-at-large being voted in. Congrats to Dan Van Tassel who will fulfill the remainder of the term.
Remember that if you have children and you would like a toy from Santa please sign up your kids soon.
Next meeting will be November 18th, 2011. I look forward to seeing all of you come before it gets really cold.
Yesterday Joey Phillips stepped down in her role as an Executive-At-Large. Her quick departure will be filled quite soon as our next meeting is after the thanksgiving long weekend. If you are eligible please come to the meeting in October and put your name forth.
This months meeting is pretty important when it comes to meeting attendance. We will be discussing two bylaw changes that I believe if your for or against you should be in attendance to cast a ballot. In the 5 years I have been going to meetings, the bylaws have never dealt with the membership so directly. In this case we are proposing some bylaw changes that in essence puts your trust in the elected members of the Executive.
The first proposed bylaw is one that we have actually been following for many years instead of the current bylaw. It deals with expenditures of funds. Currently we practice that if the expenditure is from the floor in the form of a motion it first has to go to the Executive for approval. Then if it passes the funds come back to the floor for a vote. The bylaw coming forward describes this process. The current bylaw speaks another way right now in that a notice of motion can be made if the executive do not agree with the expenditure.
The last proposed bylaw change is one I have personally struggled with but have endorsed this change. When a grievance goes to arbitration, the union must decide if it is worth to go forward and fight the issue. If the issue is not going to win, it is the responsibility of the members to be cautious in making bad case laws that can be used against us and other unions in the future. Currently the Executive decide whether or not they want to proceed by listening to the member, listening to the recommendations from the lawyer, and have their questions answered in a closed meeting. They then recommend to the members a direction. The members then vote on the issue. The bylaw change in question will remove the members from the decision. The Executive become the final decider. It will be up to you in October whether you agree with this shift in process. To be clear our local currently lets the members decide. Other locals set up grievance committees and they decide the merits. Either way works, just how it works is different.
I personally support both bylaws as they stand and I look forward to the discussion to see if I am in the majority or not. Please attend if you can, the more the better.
