Dear members,
It appears, from comments and questions raised by some members, that there is misunderstanding on how PIPSC operates. So I’d like to hereby clarify the roles and responsibilities of the Stewards, the Sub-Group and the Executive.
Stewards are official representatives of the Institute and as such they provide a crucial link between the union and its members. Stewards are also official representatives of our union at formal and informal consultations with the employer (such as Labour-Management consultations). Each group has its own consultation team, which includes all Stewards involved in consultation with the employer, as approved by Lina Johannson, President of the CFIA National Consultation Team.
The CFIA Science and Analysis Stewards in Quebec are Sylvie d’ Alcantara, Julie Bourque, Claude Desaulniers, Hugo Fréchette, Stéphanie Fréchette, Judith Gagnon, Binana Madikama, Rachel Massé, Maryse Valiquette and Isabelle Woolgar. All Quebec regional offices are therefore represented.
All Stewards may be called upon to represent Institute members at consultation meetings, regardless of classification or region. They don’t need to be members of a Sub-Group Executive or Group Executive. The only requirement is to be a Steward. For example, there are no CFIA-VM Sub-Groups in Quebec, but CFIA-VM Stewards still participate in consultations with the employer.
Our Sub-Group is made up of all the S&A members who work in Quebec. The current Sub-Group Executive consists of nine (9) people, elected by the S&A members at the Annual General Meetings. Group or Sub-Group Executives are not required to be stewards. There are currently five (5) SR-02s (one of whom is an Acting SR-03) and four (4) SR-03s on the Sub-Group Executive. We are all in the Operations Branch and we represent all S&A members working in Quebec. The current composition of the Quebec Region S&A Sub-Group Executive simply reflects the choice made by voting members based on the candidates who ran in the elections.
Please note that messages by the Executive to the Quebec Sub-Group members will now be sent out by the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada (mail_courriel@pipsc.ca) and will be posted at http://pipsc.ca/groups/cfia-sa/subgroups/cfia-sa-quebec) in both official languages. If you prefer to receive emails at an address other than work, please provide your personal e-mail address by calling Membership Services at 613-228-6310 or 1-800-267-0446, or by completing the following online form: http://www.pipsc.ca/member-tools/change-of-address.
We look forward to working with you all!
Isabelle Woolgar
PIPSC Steward
For the CFIA S&A Quebec Region Sub-Group Executive