It is with deep sadness and regret that UCTE announces the passing on August 16, 2010 of our Brother, Steve Bergh, President of B.C. Lightkeepers Local 20232.
Brother Bergh was an outspoken proponent in the fight to maintain staffed lighthouses on both coasts. Last May, he appeared before the Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans, along with UCTE National President, to defend this cause. He argued “There are many instances where lightkeepers have played an integral role in the successful outcome of rescue operations.” Brother Bergh reminded the Senators that “Lightkeepers played an instrumental role in the Nestucca spill of 1998. Lightkeepers were first to spot and report the spill and West coast stations provided platforms for the response.”
UCTE National Executive, staff and members send our sincere condolences to Alice and the family during this difficult time.
He will be greatly missed.

Published by Patrick August 12th, 2010

After more than three weeks of being locked out members of UCTE/PSAC Local 20221, Fueller Supervisors and Admin Group, ratified their first Collective Agreement on August 11th. They returned to work today.

The 21 members, who provide fuelling and administrative support, perform safety monitoring, and calculate fuel loads at YVR, were locked out by Servisair, a large Paris-based corporation, on July 19th. Theyshowed great solidarity and determination picketing and leafleting at the airport.

In an effort to avoid negotiations the company employed numerous delaying tactics – after over a week of Servisair’s refusal to negotiate PSAC filed a bad faith bargaining complaint on August 9th.

Representatives from the company finally returned to the bargaining table late in the afternoon of August 10th and presented members with an offer.

Members fought hard under challenging circumstances against a very difficult employer, and appreciate the support at the picket line and via email that fellow PSAC members at the airport and across the Province have provided over the last three weeks.

Continue reading ‘Fueller Supervisors and Admin Group ratify tentative agreement at YVR’

After spending the weekend picketing, PSAC members began leafleting workers
and the public at the airport, warning them of possible flight delays and
encouraging them to call ahead prior to traveling.

After spending the weekend at home, Servisair representatives returned to
Vancouver on Tuesday August 3rd and informed the bargaining team they had
left some of their documents at home. They finally presented the team with a
second “best and final” – which actually contained less than the previous
offer – and have since not been heard from.

Servisair are no longer returning phone calls from the Union or from the
mediator.

In the meantime PSAC has taken out advertisements in local papers, warning
the public of possible delays and members continue to picket and leaflet at
the airport. A blanket leaflet action is planned for tomorrow, with help
from some of the other unions at the airport.

PSAC is examining legal means of forcing Servisair back to the table to
bargain in good faith, and we are also investigating reports of serious
health and safety violations at the airport and discussing these with
Transport Canada.

To: All PSAC members at Servisair Inc.

On day 4 of the lockout of the Supervisors and Administration bargaining unit, Servisair Inc. filed an application to the Canada Industrial Relations Board (CIRB) alleging that the Union and members of the Fuelers’ bargaining unit engaged in an unlawful strike. In its application, the Employer stated: “In particular, the Fuelers have engaged in concerted efforts to refuse overtime, to call in sick, to not respond to radio calls and to participate in a slowdown in response to the lockout of PSAC members…”.

A hearing was held on July 23, 2010, and the CIRB released an Interim Order last night. Attached you will find a copy of the Order.

In the order, the CIRB writes “…that a strike includes a cessation of work or a refusal to work or to continue to work by employees, in combination, in concert or in accordance with a common understanding, and a slowdown of work or other concerted activity on the part of the employees in relation to their work that is designed to restrict or limit output.” The CIRB ordered that the members of the Fuelers’ bargaining unit must not strike.

The Union wishes to reiterate that members of the Fuelers’ bargaining unit have to continue to work under the terms of their collective agreement and the Canada Labour Code. This means they have to report to work and perform their usual duties.

During the hearing, the Union’s counsel successfully pointed out that the Employer was using replacement workers to perform work of the Fuelers’ bargaining unit, in violation of the Code. Therefore, the CIRB also ordered that “Servisair Inc. refrain from employing or using persons who are not members represented by the respondent trade union as fuelers except in strict compliance with its collective agreement.” Please let the Union know if the replacement workers continue to do Fuelers’ work and report any other violations of the order or collective agreement to the Union.

Please contact a union representative if you require additional information or would like to discuss the interim order.

In Solidarity,

Luc Guevremont
PSAC Regional Negotiator
A/Regional Coordinator-BC

As you know, UCTE/PSAC members who work for GlobeGround Fuel Services/
Servisair Inc. at the Vancouver Airport were locked out early in the
morning of July 19, 2010.  In support of these workers, members and PSAC
staff are asked not to use the Vancouver Airport until further notice.

Updates will be provided as available.

John Gordon

Tonight, at approximately at 22:25 hours our Union received notice that the Employer intends to lockout members at GlobeGround/Servisair effective 00:01 Monday July 19, 2010.

In spite of this set back, our Union remains committed to reaching a negotiated first agreement and we have asked the Federal Mediator to convene another bargaining session at 17:00 hours on Friday July 16.

A bargaining update meeting will be held at #113-5200 Miller Road this Saturday July 17, at 12:00 noon. This is a very important meeting and all members are strongly encouraged to attend.

The Union met with the Company in mediation on Monday July 12. The
employer provided only a few responses to some of the Union’s proposals,
but was unable to agree or respond to most of our package. The employer
chose to spend all of Tuesday July 13, working on further responses to
the Union.

As the deadline for a possible Strike/Lockout approaches, we recognize
that members are concerned about what this will mean. Please be assured
that the Union’s bargaining committee remain committed to reaching an
agreement before the time expires 12:01 July 17, 2010.

In the event of a Strike/Lockout either party is legally required to
give the 72 hours notice of their intentions to do so. At that time, the
Union will notify you of our Strike/Lockout headquarters office where
you can report for a membership meeting and schedule for picket duty.

If there is a strike/lockout, for those members who work in the fuellers
bargaining unit no strike action will be authorized. You will have to
continue to work under the terms of your collective agreement and the
Canada Labour Code. This means you will have to report to work and
perform your usual duties. However, section 94 of the Canada Labour Code
and the collective agreement both provide that you have the right to
refuse to perform struck work. If a member is concerned for their
safety in crossing a picket line, the employer has to provide an escort
to ensure your safety.

At this time solidarity is very important for all PSAC members who work
for Globeground Fuel Services/Servisair. We need to work collectively to
send a clear message to the employer that we are a strong group of union
members.

For more information contact Janelle Ho-Shing at 604.430.5631.

Regular updates will be posted at www.psacbc.com or www.local20221.com

A hundred years ago, Canadian workers earned wages and that was about it. In general, they didn’t get paid time off for holidays and vacations, they paid all of their own medical expenses, and they had to provide for themselves if they were laid off, disabled or wanted to retire.

Over the course of the last century, because of the demands of workers and unions, there has been a steady growth in non-wage benefits – paid time off, pensions, insurance coverage and other things like child care and employee assistance programs. Some are provided through the government (Old Age Security, the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan, Employment Insurance, Workers’ Compensation, Medicare and Welfare Programs), and some are provided by employers.

These benefits are not a frill. They are essential the survival and dignity of working families.

In recent years, the workplace focus has been on group life and disability coverage, dental and extended health (including drug) plans, which fill in some of the gaps of our public medicare system. According to the most recent Statistics Canada survey, as of 2000, half of the Canadian workforce has medical, dental and life/disability coverage, 12% have one or two of these coverages, and 38% have none.

Actual coverage is probably somewhat higher than this, since, in families with more than one earner, some uncovered workers will be covered as dependents. Full-time permanent workers are more likely to have benefit coverage than part-time or casual employees.

As with wages, unionized workers have a big benefit advantage. 79% of unionized workers are members of pension plans, compared to 30% of non-unionized workers. 70% of unionized workers have medical, dental and group life/disability coverage, compared to only 40% of non-unionized workers.

Benefits are a big piece of the cost of labour. In the last 50 years, the cost of benefits (including payroll taxes for C/QPP, EI and Workers’ Compensation) has risen from around 15% to over 35% of total labour costs in Canada. In the last few years, costs have been rising rapidly, particularly for drug and supplementary medical plans. Drug companies in particular have very successful in building their profits through aggressive promotion to increase the use of expensive drugs, and by pushing governments to extend patent protection that limits low-cost generic alternatives.

Our public medicare system still gives us a big cost advantage over the U.S., where barely adequate medical insurance coverage adds thousands of dollars per worker to an employer’s labour cost. The cost of health insurance coverage is the root cause of many strikes in the U.S.

With costs increasing in Canada, employers are pressing to reduce benefit coverage and shift costs to workers through deductibles and caps.

Unions have led the way in expanding benefits for workers, in workplace negotiations and by working politically to create our public programs. Now the struggle is mainly about holding onto our past gains, both in the public sphere and at the bargaining table.

Why would Transport Canada introduce a process without ICAO’s regulatory oversight requirement and allow industry to manage safety, and risk the lives of passengers flying on Canadian aircraft without a second layer of oversight. To date Transport Canada has had second thoughts about introducing SMS into the business aviation sector in Canada, citing many excuses for their decision.

One of the answers has been to document these incidents and report it to Transport Canada. They have an online reporting system named CAIRS, http://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/secretariat-cairs-menu.htm where you can anonymously report an incident you feel may jeopardize the safety of the aircraft or a procedure not properly followed in line with the maintenance repair manual procedures. This is strictly confidential, and Transport Canada assures me that every report filed is investigated with a final report filed to the higher levels of management within Transport Canada for action.

Howard Levitt, Financial Post · Wednesday, Jun. 23, 2010

A shocking $500,000 award, by a labour relations arbitrator against the Greater Toronto Airport Authority, for a $50,000-a-year employee, has stunned employers.

The arbitrator, Owen Shime, justified this massive award by citing the breach of an invented “mental security” provision supposedly implied in every collective agreement. “In my view, one of the main purposes of a collective agreement is to provide employees with “psychological benefit” and “mental security” in being gainfully employed,” he said, adding that “the object of the collective agreement to both secure a psychological benefit and also mental security was within the reasonable contemplation of the parties and mental distress damages arising from the breach are recoverable.”

In the many collective agreements I have conducted in 30 years of practice, I have yet to meet an employer who contemplated the “object of the collective agreement” to be either “psychological benefit” or “mental security” for its employees. No surprise then that unionized employees greeted this award with delight and employers with incredulity. The GTAA is seeking judicial review.

Like many employers, it faced a costly absenteeism problem, which it was trying to limit through an attendance-monitoring program. The grievor, a fleet co-ordinator, had taken a four-week leave after surgery. Because of her relationship with another employee under scrutiny for false sick leave, she was placed under observation. Her partner was fired for sick leave fraud.

After obtaining videotape evidence of the grievor, while on leave, establishing mobility inconsistent with her claim of being unable to work, she was asked if could return to work in an accommodated role. She returned one week early, but instead of discussing accommodation, the GTAA asked her to report with her union representative to a meeting two days later, purportedly to discuss what work she could perform.

During that meeting, the GTAA asked questions regarding her physical limitations and addressed inconsistencies based on its videotaped evidence. She was suspended and subsequently terminated for being absent from work dishonestly.

The arbitrator found that the GTAA ignored supporting evidence and failed to consult medical experts to support its view of the grievor’s dishonesty relating to her condition. He took into account the GTAA’s knowledge she had suffered post-traumatic stress caused by physical and sexual abuse from her then husband that could be retriggered by being terminated and labelled as dishonest. The grievor was subsequently re-employed, at $20,000 a year.

The arbitrator awarded her $400,000 for loss of past and future income, a sum equivalent to eight years of her salary and benefits, from the date of termination to the date of what would have been early retirement. In addition, there were punitive damages and damages for mental distress of $50,000 each, highly unusual in a union arbitration case.

Obliging employers to safeguard an employee’s “mental security” supposedly existent, although not in words, in every collective agreement, exposes employers to potentially crippling liability. If this decision stands, employers will be liable for the consequences of a breach of “mental security,” the basis and limits of which are as yet unascertained. From now on, difficult management decisions will habitually be met by the boilerplate allegation and accompanying grievance that affected employees’ “mental security” has been breached. A whirlwhind of new grievances has just been opened. And if the union doesn’t take the case, new complaints will be made to the labour board against the union.

The arbitrator’s decision is a caution to employers not to too hastily investigate suspected fraudulent sick leave claims, especially of long-service employees.

It veers into uncharted territory. It is not merely the award for mental security but the provision of damages to retirement. It equates a collective agreement to a security blanket, providing coverage from the cradle of hiring to retirement, and imposes on employers a positive obligation of trust and confidence relative to their employees. This effectively binds the employer to act in the best interests of its employees in an undetermined myriad of respects.

Such a finding means mental distress damages are foreseeable and recoverable whenever a breach of the collective agreement relating to “security of employment” can be shown. It is an open invitation to a deluge of new mental distress claims.

Unless this decision is overturned, employers are cautioned to do the following:

• Act with great circumspection before terminating unionized employees for cause;

• Follow the terms of the collective agreement scrupulously;

• Conduct investigations thoroughly;

• Seek expert advice whenever necessary to support your conclusions;

• Consider references, relocation counselling, continued EAP assistance, psychologocal counselling, job search assistance and other services to ensure employees’ mental equanimity is minimally impaired.

Read more: www.financialpost.com/news/Employer+breach/3188609/story.html#ixzz0s9PFMThM