December Update

Elections are coming up. You will be receiving your mail in ballots soon. I would appreciate a vote since I am running again for my current position. No move this year to be a full time officer. Family commitments and have made this years run not possible. Plus there are many others running and I am not a fan of vast split votes.

Thanks to everyone that registered our children for a present, and thanks to everyone that showed up for the open house.

A lot of depressing news as of late. Layoffs in Waste and Recycling, The Zoo is still contracting out and the recent Penguin deaths. Water Services is changing their org structure, Parks is still using contracted companies to tend to city parks, Roads has continued layoffs, and contract negotiations are coming up fast.

I would like to try doing a podcast for our local. Mostly just weekly updates and bulletins for those of you who are interested in the system and the bargaining process. Much of what we talk about isn't public but we are closing on on negotiations and it would be good to share what I can.

Job Steward

I went to a Job Steward meeting tonight. Frankly with the changes made to the format it felt like I never left. Good take away, people are asking good questions about their areas.

If you are interested in being a Job Steward, we would be happy to have you.

Call the hall for the paperwork.

September 2016 General Meeting

The meeting last night was as brief as I have ever seen a September meeting. We don't have meetings in July and August normally. The meeting started at 7pm and went to just about 9pm.

We voted to not proceed to arbitration for a member who lost their job, and all of the many motions present were passed on the floor (Nearly $50K worth or expenditures). It took near 2 hours but we lost quorum and were unable to discuss nothing but the Treasurer report. It sounds like a large amount of money but $35,000 was on next year's worth of 100 anniversary swag (which is normally spent each year).

I would like to take a moment to say that I am starting to see a trend with the City of Calgary. They are terminating employees in what seems to be a more regular fashion. Please keep yourself safe, and cover yourself against improper discipline. I know that sounds obvious but when people get fired at the City is usually is because of many little things that have been building up. It can be years or weeks, but if you are a part of the discipline process you need to be aware you are on track for termination.

We saw a couple months ago our members getting extraordinarily strong two week suspensions. One was even fired, but we managed to get their job back. The issue was not renewing licences. As serious as you take that, workers with great work ethic, were sent home and were never the same again. Word is the two week suspension will return in October...

We all have risks in our jobs at the City. I make mistakes just like everyone, but my experience on the Executive has shown me that the employee in cases of termination must be able to defend their actions and remember that everything said in investigations will be used if it hurts them in an Arbitration. Saying one thing, and then saying another does nothing for your character.

Side note, I am looking into doing a podcast with updates on the Local. Some issues I need to work through, but if I am able, my hope is to do more frequent updates.

Disgruntled Employee

"In managements pocket." - Fellow fired employee, told a fellow Union Officer. 

That one hurt a little. Especially since I never really worked with him. 

I'll get over it. I just wish they would tell me to my face. I have no time in my life to worry about these things.

Renew Your Drivers License

We have had a rash of employees who have been caught with an expired license. Fleet Services pulls your abstracts on your birthday when it is supposed to expire. If you did not renew and you drove a city vehicle, we have seen employees be terminated over the issue. This is the first month the mail did not go out and we have had many employees caught without their license renewed.

Discipline is not interdepartmental, however it is your responsibility to renew your license when it expires.

Now that mail out reminders are not being done by the registries, you can get email reminders.

The cupe37.ca website put a link on their website which I shall put below.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: Renewing Your Provincial Driver’s Licence As of April 1, 2016 the Province of Alberta will no longer be mailing out reminders to your home to renew your  provincial driver’s licence. Employees operating City fleet vehicles or equipment are required to have a valid provincial driver's licence, as well  as a City Operator's permit.  It is the responsibility of the City of Calgary employees to ensure that you renew your provincial driver’s licence  prior to your birthday expiration date. Please click the link below to sign up for your free renewal notification via email or text message.  Visit www.e-registry.ca to request a renewal reminder email or text message. Thank you CUPE Local 37

Dash Cam Dilemma

 Fellow outdoor workers. Refrain from using your dash cam in your vehicle.

I have one myself and I badly want to use it in my work truck to document all the craziness we deal with on the road. At this point you CAN NOT do it.

Now you may say "I'm protecting myself" or "Don't tell me what to do" or "Why the heck not". Let me tell you what is going on here. By the end of it, whether you agree just hear me out.

The city of Calgary has a some written documentation on this that you need to be aware of. Two separate documents, 'Distracted Driving” GN-007, and the Fleet Operator’s Handbook 6.607 policy on "Accessories". The first policy of the City talks to having things in the vehicle that can distract the driver. It was written some time ago before the laws in place today on distracted driving. I believe it needs to be amended since vehicles today come with some of these banned devices built in to the dash. Suction cup accessories like GPS are becoming standard, and our smart phones have tools to good to ignore now built into the software.

The Fleet Operator's Handbook, speaks to your designation of being a professional driver and your responsibilities. Accessories are not allowed to be installed without approval from Fleet who also first requires the Business Unit in question to okay the device for installation. What qualifies as an accessory has not been fully tested since USB chargers could be seen as an accessory. Obviously anything that interacts with the vehicle may qualify. For many of us GPS units are okay, but maybe not if you consider it can be considered a distraction to the driver.

The next hurdle is the legal aspect of the devices. Dash cams are becoming cheap enough for personal users to buy them. In vehicles it can be a wonderful tool to verify information in times of stress. The data is yours. If you decide to share it or use it, you alone deal with the legal issues associated with the data. In corporate vehicles it has been suggested by our legal team that there is a risk associated with the use of personal dash cams. There is a risk with dash cams getting information that skid marks, and witness statements might miss. Details that might put the Corporation in an unfavorable position if legal challenges are made.

You might think all of these reasons are stupid. While I agree these reasons are based on rules established years ago. In some ways the idea that we admit there is a real risk with some of our workforce, it is frightfully truthful. It isn't a stretch to consider that out of the 3000 workers a few of them might have some bad driving habits, and in an accident the deeper pockets are likely the employers.

It will take some time to amend the policies to account for the technological shift occurring in vehicles. It will take discussion to see that the risk of a few errors in corporate drivers are stunted by the shear lunacy of those drivers our workers must manage the road with. For the time being you don't have the authority to go beyond these rules.

We are considering raising these issues and start a dialogue in making these changes. The Corporation has worked on this issue and implemented use of dash cameras in our transit system. The initial stages were small, but the advantages to the video data is proving more valuable than the risk of having it. Like transit, individual departments must make choices on the importance of video data. The use of tracking vehicles isn't new. CFOS is tracking almost every vehicle the city has on the road and the data collected can be valuable in cases where information is scarce.

For now if you have a dash cam in the vehicle, and it isn't approved by Fleet with your Business Unit, take it down. Protect yourself. While I agree this video data will add to the total information collected, you want to also measure your exposure to personal discipline for not following procedure. It is more likely you will be disciplined for not following policy than being cleared from causing an accident.

CUPE Alberta Education

My hopes were not high for our education component. Usually our courses are compacted to make time for people to travel home by the afternoon. I have seen multiple courses that take hours be compacted into a couple of hours. I would like to make clear this was not the case.

I am very happy with the degree of information that was shared with us over the courses I was able to take. I was a little surprised that some of our Executive chose not to stay for the education, and I would like to know how many of them chose to stay the night and not drive home the next day. I was also surprised to see a few members that only stayed for half the education component and chose to leave at lunch time. I would have to say that I was able to get a lot of information from both of the courses that I took and will be applying it to my interactions with members and management in the field.

I took "Member on Member Conflict" and "Representing Members in front of Management".

Both 3 hour courses were well done, and the crowd participation was excellent. I am always happy to hear about actual resolutions and issues and how they were handled. In our cases we had diverse situations that helped out how we handled the content of the course. I was very happy to be involved.

When I drove home, the roads were great and I felt great about the convention. I am always a fan of education when it is done properly. I think this was a win for CUPE AB Ed.

CUPE Alberta Convention - Friday March 18, 2016

Credentials committee, for which I was chair, gave the final report to convention. Not considering that we have guests and staff, 171 voting members made the floor. Just over 200 in attendance. This convention day was more about finalizing the resolutions, listening to speakers, and of course the elections.

While we were missing some Edmonton Locals due to disaffiliation, the business of the convention was completed and we were able to enter into elections with all items covered on the agenda. By the end of the day we had filled all of the positions. Like years before the ballots handed out were not large enough to handle all of the elections, and there was a reissuing of ballots.

During the lulls in the election procedure the membership made a point to thank Brother Peter Marsden for his voice at convention. This will be his last convention, where he will be standing down and enjoying retirement. I once said that Peter was the perfect union President. He was able to insert his will into conversations, subvert opposition with conversation, be stern in the face of controversy and with the strength of his union and finances herd organizations to fulfill his direction. In many ways I see Peter as a Shepherd of people.

It was nice to see Local 4731 run off the floor Elizabeth Bonk-Richards for the position of Diversity Vice President. With two people running off the floor it was nice to see this position be filled. It was a few years ago that I met Elizabeth. She was helping her president run for the very same position. Back then the Diversity VP was held by a member that had locked in Caucus choice from many of the larger Locals. Even with this knowledge, Local 4731 tried their best to get Gary elected. While unsuccessful it was nice to see after a few years, the position filled by one of the same people who helped her President run.

I would like to thank the membership for sending me to the Convention. It was nice to sit in the background, and see the convention with our Locals interests in mind. Very rarely will people in elected positions be able to just sit for their Local, and as such I was able to try to vote with our Locals interests in mind. I have been fortunate enough to see a glimpse behind the curtain and for the most part I am satisfied. I am not yet ready to come to terms with why we as a movement must spread ourselves out in so many directions financially. It would seem to be more beneficial and cost effective if we could just narrow our financing on a few organizations. CUPE Alberta gets less money from us then the AFL in total yet both rely on the finances of those Locals who are affiliated. It makes more sense to have CUPE fully affiliate to its Provincial body, and then participate with the AFL through it than to have both groups vying for the same dollars.

I have a few suggestions for the CUPE AB constitution that I would like to present at the next convention but I fear that the proposal might be seen as too much of a change for those in the room. I have ideas on representation, boundaries, and decision making structures that even when in office did not seem to be of any relevance or importance as I tried to highlight the oddities.

It would be nice if the general membership could see the flaws, and the strengths in the CUPE AB body without my fear that they would make rash decisions but I would settle for just the Executive at this point.

CUPE Alberta Convention - Thursday March 17, 2016

St. Patrick's Day was in the background, and we started the day early at 7am. Our National Secretary Treasurer was able to expense us all breakfast where he would eventually speak about the importance of trustees reports and getting them to the National every year as written in the constitution. It is surprising that the national average of returned trustees reports at 37%. Our Local utilizes cost shares through the National funds and a trustees report is required to qualify. Even before this was a condition we regularly submitted reports.

Charles I think rightfully so put forward the message the first warning signs to the National is the absence of the trustee report. It is odd however that the system is not ringing loud that at 37% these reports is a sign that potentially many locals are possibly not doing what they are mandated to. Perhaps it is a touchy subject and the best way of dealing with it is through friendly conversation. I would think that the system in general is largely unchecked if constitutionally a simple letter stating the funds are in order is not making its way to the National body. There was a push to have the employer remit dues directly to the National. Where they would then send the local their respective proportion. Interesting that we are moving in this direction considering the autonomy.

After the breakfast I headed to the credentials committee where we tried to make sure the count was correct, we reported it to the convention floor and continued through the business of the convention.

It wasn't long until we managed to deal with a few contentious resolutions. With some referred back to the committee.The discussion was very well done and respectful. We managed to barely pass the reduction and compaction of 10 committees to 6. We also initially passed a funding formula that would see the role of president to be paid as the rate of the current National Representatives. It is a 20 grand bump in pay and many could not get past this figure. The final count was 106 for and 57 against. Which if your calculators are missing is 65.03%. The vote was corrected and was immediately failed on the floor.

The moment was honest and while no one person was at fault there was clearly a close divide. Literally 3 peoples votes would have changed this outcome. I would like to suggest our own local could have changed the tide as we allowed a free vote on the issue, and like many votes in previous years had voted indecisive on this issue. It is hard to say if this decision was the right one, but the vote was so close the membership was basically 1.6% below constitutional 2/3's majority. While this decision will be hard to bring up at the next convention, I hope it is. I think it would be difficult to run for President and also run for a 205 increase in pay in the same breath.

The end of the convention day was a lesson in doing things meticulously and with direction. We had a short break for the room to be reorganized and then enjoyed the company of each other for the plated banquet. Our Local Treasurer MC'd the event and did a great job. We shared a meal together listened to an acapella band and shared in prizes. We had a great time and I went to bed at 10pm. Finally an early night but I would not have it any other way. I am grateful to be able to be part of this organization and if it wasn't for our membership I would not be here today.

CUPE Alberta Convention - Wednesday March 16, 2016

And we're off. Registration was my primary focus this morning. We had almost everyone who could vote come to the desk. Made our lives easier, and the count consistent as the days progress. Around 200 people are packed onto the convention floor. For some reason the tables are set up in a round format and it made for a slightly difficult seating arrangement. The convention however was able to make it work and we opened the convention.

Due to a scheduling issue, the National President and Treasurer had to do their reports and I must say it was wonderful to be able to get most of the reports out of the way. President, and Treasurer Division reports went without a hitch and by lunch we had covered much of what we needed to. The feel of the conference is different now that I am on the floor. Committee reports have been short and I feel with the new proposed format for committees this may be some of the reasons behind the reports and how they are delivered.

The election forum was like most before it made up of a very small percentage of the membership and with very few questions from those in attendance. So far it looks like most positions will be acclaimed. The one year Recording Secretary position I vacated will be elected. Two of the candidates, both who are probably both good for different reasons have pretty different methods. Dianne was able to lock down votes pre-convention with our Local and others is probably going to win with a landslide. John, who is from Edmonton, had some good answers. I don't think he has the votes but either should be good for the first year, as they take over and try to quickly learn all they can for the next years renewal.

What was surprising was that our candidate for AAVP, George, did not have to run for the position of Alternate Area Vice President for Calgary. Bob from Local 40 has one more year to the term and was still active in the role. Our local helped fund a hospitality suite to support George, and Rory with the help of Local 38. I am not sure how the membership will perceive this. The suite was hosted by Local 38, with financial support from Local 709, and 37. Overall the suite was done quite well. Very well attended the space was overcapacity. We used much of the room for loud conversation, and it seemed to be a great way to talk with each other as well as catch up. I was able to be at the event from 8pm to 12am and there were many people who came through to say hi. I would suggest that

I am happy to say that the first day was well done, and by the end of the first day I think I put in 12 hours of convention on the floor, Most of the first day is usually formality and by the evening I spent helping out in the hospitality suite till 12am. Overall a very good day of convention.

CUPE Alberta Convention - Tuesday March 15, 2016

As I arrived and settled into my room I was not sure whether coming to convention would be a good or a bad thing. This will be the convention that covers my stepping down months into my re-election. I wasn't sure if I would be met with open arms or instead be shunned.

When I arrived about 40 minutes before our credentials committee met, those who met me were with arms wide open. Stepping down was probably the easiest decision I have ever had to make. I am glad to be helping in some form or other.

Credentials started off well and by the end of the day we had much of those registered done by 9pm.

CUPE Alberta Bargaining Conference 2016 in Edmonton

I am happy to say I learned a bit about the bargaining process this last conference. I took a course on Taking Notes, Analyzing our contract, comparing it to other Locals through National.

I went to the conference on Saturday, and we finished up on Sunday by noon. If I could make any suggestions, these bargaining conferences like any conferences are more about quickly immersing yourself in a scenario and trying to glean something of worth from the courses. Usually you can pick up a few key items, but the real knowledge comes through the discussion and collaboration with other locals. Most of these courses are week long structures that are condensed into a 2.5 hour span. You really do speed through the course and I wish we had these courses online.

Overall I was happy with the conference. I think we collectively learned quite a bit. I know that my note taking skills were weak and over the next few meetings I will strive to use what I learn to document better and more efficiently.