CS Newsletter
Winter 2019
CS Group President’s Address
First I would like to say that I am very pleased to see the return of the CS Group newsletter. The Group has relied upon individual postings, notices, surveys and bargaining updates in CS Bytes over the past few years. We hope to continue with timely announcements and information while providing a broader overview and knowledge pieces in regularly published newsletters.
2018 witnessed in-depth preparations for bargaining, a new IT classification standard and the on-going fight to limit the use of contractors doing the work of CS members.
The CS Group, under the lead of our Contracting Out Officer Eva Henshaw, has spent the past year challenging the use of contractors in various federal government departments. The Contracting Out Action Team, comprised of Eva Henshaw, your Group President, Yvonne Snaddon (Bargaining Team) Dean Corda (Consultation Officer and Bargaining Team) and Robert Tellier (Bargaining Officer) have reviewed tenders and filed grievances against egregious contravention of our collective agreement language on the use of contractors. We feel that these funds can and should be used to hire CS employees and that this work, with the appropriate training can be done by our capable and talented membership. We have also, through our efforts, established the dire retention and recruitment problems facing departments that is fundamental in negotiating wage increases.
We are also meeting with departmental representatives from DND, ESDC and SSC in an as yet unsuccessful attempt to agree on guidelines to be employed when considering the use of contractors. Based upon a Memorandum of Agreement, a team consisting of your President, Eva Henshaw, Lucille Shears (Bargaining Team and National Executive), Pierre Touchette (Vice President), Robert Tellier (Bargaining Officer), Yvonne Snaddon (Bargaining Team and National Executive), Craig Bradley (SSC Consultation President) and Glenn Maxwell (DND Consultation President) has been striving to find common ground that protects our work and complies with our collective agreement.
The government announced the creation of a new IT Classification Standard in June 2018, that once implemented, will replace the current, outdated CS Classification Standard from 1984. PIPSC has assured us that consultation has been ongoing between Treasury Board and the union. Members of the CS Group and AFS Group executives met on July 11, 2018 with Eric Beaune of the Institute’s Classification Section as well as the Director of National Labour Relations, Richard Beaule. We asked that a communication be prepared that details the consultation that occurred including advice accepted and refused. We requested training on the new standard for our stewards and a short information session be developed for presentation to members. We are still waiting for critical action from PIPSC on the new standard that has raised reasonable concern amongst the CS membership.
We began to set the stage for our next round of negotiations early in the year with a survey to our members. Priorities and demands were identified through the survey, the work of our contract proposals committee and the honing and development of the final proposal by your national executive and bargaining team under capable direction of our Bargaining Officer, Robert Tellier.
We will have met with Treasury Board and begun negotiations by the time you are reading this. One of our goals is to achieve parity of economic compensation with other government workers, the private sector, as well illustrate the huge disparity with payments made for the contracting of the same work we do as federal public servants. We will not hesitate to do everything in our power to ensure our members are equitably paid the wages they fully deserve.
The success of all we do will result directly from the support of you, the members. Time and time again we have been able to achieve much for our Group and our union because you have stood behind us. Our core National Organizing Committee – VP Pierre Touchette, Stacy McLaren (Secretary), Debbie Butler (Treasurer), Guy Abel (Steward Officer) – working closely with our Communication Officer Tony Goddard, Sub-Group Officer Rob Scott, our Sub-groups and our indispensable Regional Organizing Committees, will be engaging and mobilizing our members throughout the coming months. We need you to follow their lead and stand firm for yourselves and your co-workers.
In Solidarity,
Stan Buday
President
CS Group
Ctrl-Alt-Del
It’s time to reboot the CS Group communications flow and reconnect with you, the CS members. I will resurrect some of the communication tools we have used in the past and will entertain adding new communication methods to our toolbox. The goal is to open a two-way flow of information between the Group executive and the Sub-Groups and you, the members. So, if you have something you would like to share, send it to me (agoddard@pipsc.ca).
If you or your Sub-Group have held successful events and you would like to share your experience or a couple photos with the rest of us, please send it to me and I will try to get it into the next newsletter.
In solidarity,
Tony Goddard
Communications Officer
CS Group National Executive
Contracting Out Officer
It’s been almost one year since we started looking at the buy and sell tenders for CS work and after looking at 500 tenders, we have over 250 tenders that we are grieving and we will continue this fight. So what progress have we made?
Treasury Board has agreed to have co-presentations done with key departments who continually contract out CS Work. Our president, Debi Daviau will be presenting on PIPSC’s behalf. Treasury Board has met with the Public Service Commission to discuss having readily available pools for departmental use as well as having talks with Public Services and Procurement Canada around the process of contracting out CS work and the obligations that departments have to our collective agreement.
The replies that we have received from departments on the reasons why they have to contract out will be invaluable in supporting this round of negotiations. These “reasons” support our stance that there is a retention and recruitment problem within CS Group. The bargaining team will be quoting these departments.
We have learned a lot through this process and we have heard from our members who are forced to contract out. This knowledge is the first step in trying to change how CS work is delivered.
Where do we go from here?
We will continue to monitor tenders and grieve.
We will start to apply pressure, with facts, to the appropriate decision makers in departments on: Funding; Staffing; Training and future plans around IT.
If the presentations, mentioned above, do not have an impact on the number of contracts that we see, we will move ahead with the hearings of our grievances.
How do you fight contracting out? Politically, locally, changing mindset, monitoring tenders and grieving, bargaining, education, public awareness, etc.
We got this,
Eva Henshaw
Contracting Out Officer
CS Group National Executive
CS Membership by the numbers
The CS Group is the largest group in the Institute. Here is the membership breakdown by Region as of September 18, 2018.
| Region | Regular Members | Rand Members | Total CS Group Members By region |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Atlantic |
1 019 |
95 |
1 114 |
|
British Columbia/Yukon |
480 |
129 |
609 |
|
National Capital Region |
9 999 |
1 199 |
11 198 |
|
Ontario |
830 |
62 |
892 |
|
Prairies |
669 |
172 |
841 |
|
Quebec |
914 |
72 |
986 |
|
CS Group Summary |
13 911 |
1 729 |
15 640 |
Regular Members: Have signed a membership application and can participate in the affairs of the Institute such as voting in elections and holding office.
Rand Members: These are members who have not signed a membership application and under the “Rand Formula” benefit from the collective bargaining of the Group but also have to pay union dues. These members cannot vote on the collective agreement ratification.
For more information on Membership in PIPSC, the electronic copy of the Guide for Members can be found here: https://www.pipsc.ca/labour-relations/stewards/pocket-guides/pocket-guide-for-members
CS Unsung Hero
Do you have an “Unsung Hero” in your work place or on your Executive?
We all know the one or two people who are always the first to volunteer, have you said thank you lately?
The CS Group would love to help you say thank you
Send us the name of this “Unsung Hero”. Any PIPSC member can nominate any other PIPSC member. Please send your nominations including a brief description of the contributions and achievements of your nominee to smclaren@pipsc.ca
Thank you very much for supporting and recognizing the Unsung Heroes of the CS Group.
Stacy McLaren
Membership Officer
CS Group Executive
Labour Relations & Consultation
I'm Dean Corda and my current portfolio on your CS Group Executive is Labour Relations and Consultation.
In this role I liaise between the Group and the Departmental Presidents of Consultation. Lately I have been delivering updates on our Contracting Out Action Plan which has produced over 200 grievances against the Employer but I'll leave those details for the Contracting Out Officer, Eva Henshaw.
I also report back to the Group Exec with highlights of the discussion emphasizing topics of particular interest or concern to the CS community. Examples of which may be how departments are implementing generic job descriptions to prepare for the IT reclassification or the importance of virtual work for us and how competitions shouldn't be limited to one location.
If you have a concern with the way in which your department is handling an issue then you can reach out to me at dcorda@pipsc.ca or your Consultation President by going to the PIPSC website... https://www.pipsc.ca/labour-relations/consultation
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all the very best in 2019.
In solidarity,
Dean Corda
Labour Relations and Consultation Officer
CS Group National Executive
Important 2019 Dates
| CS Group Meetings | Date | CS Group Elections |
|---|---|---|
|
February 5th |
Open Nominations |
|
|
Executive Meeting |
February 8th |
|
|
NOC Training |
February 9th |
|
|
March 3rd |
Nomination Deadline |
|
|
Sub-Group Presidents’ Meeting |
March 30th |
|
|
Executive Meeting |
April 1st |
|
|
April 6th |
Publish Candidate Resumés |
|
|
May 15th |
Send Ballots |
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|
June 5th |
Voting Closes |
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Executive Meeting |
June 7th |
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|
CS AGM |
June 8th |
Announce Election Results |