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REPORT OF THE REGIONAL EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT
PRAIRIES
TO THE PRAIRIE REGION COUNCIL
OCTOBER 25 - 26, 2002
This report will briefly detail events in the Prairie Region
since the last Prairie Region Council meeting.
Usually the summer months are quiet but this was not the case this year.
At our second meeting which took place in Calgary from June 22 – 25, 2002 we
were able to attend many activities of the G6B Counter Conference. I
was very pleased that Sister Nycole Turmel, Sister Patty Ducharme and Brother
Steve Jelly were able to attend part of our meeting. It is not often
that Sister Turmel is able to provide a brief address to a Council meeting. I
must say that it was a coo to have the newly elected Vice-President of the
Canadian Labour Congress; Sr. Barb Byers attend our meeting as well. I
was very proud when Sister Byers expressed her appreciation for the support
that PSAC provided her in her election campaign.
As you know originally we through the Calgary Area Council (CAC) had been actively
planning to attend the Solidarity Village which was to be located just outside
Calgary. As the plans fell through for each and every G8 protest event
we recognized the need to make new plans and agreed to arrange the meeting
so as to attend the G6B Counter-Conference. The purpose of the G6B Counter-Conference
was to focus attention and efforts towards the 6 billion people of the planet
who were not permitted to attend the G8.
The Calgary Area Council received permission to setup the PSAC booth at the
G6B Counter-Conference held at the University of Calgary. CAC President
Brother Rob Moss and CAC Vice-President Brother Timothy Hunt dedicated the
week to assisting with all of the activities during the G6B/G8 including ensuring
that there was always someone at the booth during the Conference, taking pictures
at all of the events, transporting people & supplies and moving the booth
from the University to set it up across the city at the Canadian Labour Congress
G6B/G8 site.
Due to the many roadblocks put in place by the outrageous costing security
team deemed necessary to protect the G8 leaders and by the paranoia of the
politicians most notably the Mayor, it was incredibly difficult to know ahead
of time if activities would be allowed and if so were there going to be unnecessary
difficulties. Despite these extreme security measures protest activities
did indeed occur along with the G6B Counter Conference.
I was glad that we were able to participate in the Solidarity (Peace) March
on Sunday, June 23. The event received a tremendous amount of media coverage
largely resulting from the security team's public announcement expecting wide-spread
and uncontrollable violence. It is necessary to say there was no violence
and I would be remiss if I did not say that at times the police / security
appeared to out number the protestors. I have to point out that in my
view the security hype actually aided the protesters in getting the message
out to a world-wide audience. The march was well attended by labour and
anti-G8 activists and despite the initial expressions of fear by the residents
of Calgary it was clear that this first event assured the public that the protest
was not about violence but was about world-wide equity, environmental protection
and ironically about freedom of speech and the right to protest here in Canada. Monday,
June 24 was spent at the G6B Labour Day forum which was chaired by Brother
Hassan Yussuff. We were privileged to take in several presentations largely
given by the people most impacted by the horrors of the G8.
Sister Patty Ducharme, Sister Debbie Metz, Sister Marianne Hladun, Sister Janet
Letwinka, Brother Steve Pellerin-Fowlie, Sister Leila White, Sister Shelley
Jamieson and I remained to participate in the G8 protest. Workshops,
speakers, and gatherings were city-wide and throughout the day and into the
night. Most notably we attended the workshop on the right to protest;
what is civil disobedience. The workshop stimulated debate and educated
participants to allow them to make an informed decision on their personal comfort
level in participating in civil protest.
A significant protest event was the snake march through downtown rush hour
traffic. It is called a snake march because the protestors rather than
the police control the route and timing of the march. No permit was requested
and in fact every effort was made to keep information about the march from
the security team. It was quite a sight to witness the literally hundreds
of police dressed in combat gear, ride their bicycles from out of nowhere to
join the group. The zones are coded green, yellow and red
to indicate the likely-hood for clashes with security. There were no
clashes and the protest received positive media and our message was very clear “that
Canadians have the right to protest and freedom of speech.”
It was at this march that I was able to meet a young PSAC member who was there
with her friends. She was very surprised and pleased to see that her
Union was there as well. It shows to me that our members are connected
in the broader sense and are glad when they realize that their Union is involved
as well.
The Alberta Federation of Labour was very involved in the planning and
carrying out the G6B & G8 activities. The AFL is now putting major
efforts into the Labour Law Campaign and the Alberta PRC Reps have been asked
to provide input to this project.
The Manitoba Federation of Labour and the Winnipeg Labour Council were
supporting candidates in the city of Winnipeg municipal elections. The
candidates are endorsed by the NDP. The PRC and the Winnipeg Area Council
were advised that the elections were scheduled and started work on many of
the campaigns. Not all of our candidates won but we had a presence in
trying to make Winnipeg a better city to live in. We have some vacancies
on the standing committees of the MFL however an input call has gone out. I
am confident that we will soon have PSAC representatives on all of the MFL
committees. I attended the MFL meetings on September 19-20, 2002. I
am not often able to attend because of my schedule but it was good to sit with
all of the Unions in our province and discuss the issues of the day. There
is a “think tank” scheduled for November 4-5. I'm looking forward to
attending as I believe we will be setting the direction of Labour at this meeting.
We have sent a letter of support to the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour Medicare
Campaign and I believe that the SK PRC Reps will again be involved in the Ready
for Work Campaign now that school has started. I attended the Prairies
School for Women organizing committee meeting on September 16. It should
be noted that this is a very worthwhile school and that there will be several
PSAC members involved. As well I will be attending the Saskatchewan Federation
of Labour Convention at the end of October 2002.
The Area Councils took the summer off for a well deserved rest. All of
our Area Councils have been active but do have their ups and downs. They
have met this fall to not only to elect their delegate but to prepare resolutions
to convention.
Of particular note was the initiative that the Saskatoon Area Council under
took on June 5th. They sponsored a Local Presidents meeting. At
this meeting they not only heard from myself and Brother Molsberry they had
the opportunity to hear from the following organizations: United Way,
Saskatoon & District Labour Council, Saskatchewan Federation of Labour,
and the Council of Canadians.
I thought that this was something that all of our Area Councils could look
at doing later this fall or in the early spring. It was certainly an
event that generated interest and hopefully will rejuvenate the work of the
councils.
Deer Lodge Centre has seen the way the employer has treated
their brothers and sisters of CUPE and as a result were quick to
mobilize. Their actions have included an informational picket
on July 8 which was well attended by the members. The Manitoba
PRC Reps as well as some family members attended in support. It
comes as no surprise that on July 10, the members of the UVAE Local
at Deer Lodge Centre in Winnipeg overwhelmingly agreed to strike
action. Negotiations did not go well and the members took to
the street in the shortest strike in the history of the PSAC. Within
an hour and a half the team had a deal which was acceptable to our
members. I want to congratulate the negotiating team and all
of the members of Deer Lodge for a “job” well done.
On August 14 during the National Component Convention in Winnipeg Sister Nycole
Turmel, Brother John Gordon, Brother Ed Cashman, Sister Patty Ducharme, myself
and members of the PRC joined over 200 members in a march from the Convention
to the offices of Statistics Canada to protest prolonged negotiations with Statistical
Survey Operations (SSO). The (SSO) Field Interviewers are
negotiating their first Collective Agreement, while the SSO regional offices
members are negotiating their second agreement. Since then the strike
vote has been completed and we are awaiting the announcement.
I was very pleased to be able to run the elections for the Agriculture Component
and for Union of Veterans Affairs Employees. I want to congratulate all
of the elected national officers from these components.
I was very proud to co chair the National Women's Conference and I can say
that the debate of resolutions was outstanding. We had a Prairie Region
caucus that was well attended. As with any large conference we had our
hiccups but the Sisters enjoyed the opportunity to network and more specifically
the workshop “Building the Wall”.
Winnipeg hosted the Unity Conference and once again I have to say that the
delegates from the Prairie Region were outstanding. We have two Brothers
from our Region elected to be Equal Opportunities (EO) Representatives on the
PSAC National EO committee. Brother Andre Paul is the Aboriginal Rep
and Brother Richard Sharpe is the Racially Visible Rep. I want to extend
congratulations to the Brothers on behalf of the PRC.
In Solidarity,
Robyn Benson