Toronto IT Subgroup AGM, Sept 26, 2023
Present:
Roy Philip (President) Judy Chow (VP) Nuşin Brown (Secretary)
Andrea Agh (Treasurer) Bill Sukloff David Darling
Stan Buday Yvonne Snaddon Doug Powless
Faron Moses George Georgopoulos Mathieu Leblond
Ace Quan Chesley Burris Jason Ng
Kaja Thalayasingam Karla Yelland Robert DeSantis
Tanya King Akin Tawo Jian Xin Wu
Thomas George Bohoon Kim David Horn
Mark Garcia Paulo Legaspi Glen Horenblas
Jake Martin Chen Lim Gaurav Dhanda
Yujun Jia Raymond Wong Henry Yip
Harry Mark Arthikan Nadarajah Lenny Settino
Serguei Zinine Usha Vashishta Jeramie Iacobucci
Marc Verbrugge Arnav Ghosh Kabilan Uthayakumar
Carlo D'Aguanno Joanne Hau Samir Ahmaddi
Rodger Aryee Hassan Sheikh Shen Li
Andrew Moon Yves Roger Nehan David Hakes
Opening: Welcome by Roy Philip at 6:20 pm. Roy introduced the Toronto IT Subgroup Executive.
Tanya King made the land acknowledgement.
Motion to accept the Agenda: Moved by Bill Sukloff, seconded by Faron Moses, carried.
Motion to accept the 2022 AGM Minutes: Moved by Faron Moses, seconded by Usha Vashishta, carried.
President’s Report – Roy Philip: Roy mentioned the Glen Maxwell Executive Award of the year which was awarded to Stan Buday for exemplary service in his role as an Executive member of a PIPSC Ontario constituent body. The IT Group awards citations to members who have served a long time. Andrea Agh was presented with a citation for dedicated years of service.
Financial Report – Andrea Agh: Financial numbers for the last year were presented. Finances are reported mid-year to mid-year. We have 572 members, our allocation is $XX/member + $XXX.
From Sept 13, 2022, to Sept 12, 2023; we paid for last year’s AGM and Executive meetings. Other meetings were covered by PIPSC National. We did not ask for an allocation in 2022 as the subgroup had funds. Visibility items were not purchased in 2022 as there were remaining items available from before. The allocation allows us to do fun events and lunch and learns. We will be requesting our 2023 allocation. We supported the PSAC strikers while they were picketing.
Andrea moved the financial report and budget, Tanya King seconded. Motion carried.
Bargaining Update - Stan Buday and Yvonne Snaddon: Yvonne is the contracting out and Labor Relations Officer for the National Executive. She is also part of the bargaining team. First contracting out grievances were heard in 2019. We wanted them to be heard by the PSLRB. There were 3000 policy grievances filed. We want to stop continuous work by contractors. The 6 strongest cases will be heard November 20-21. We are going into arbitration partly because of the language in Article 30, contracting out.
We are coming towards the end of negotiations. Other groups that have settled, like the AFS and SP groups will have an impact on our outcome. This bargaining session has been very long. The bargaining team looks at proposals by other groups. They met Treasury Board 14 times since the beginning of bargaining. Before agreeing to any counter proposals the Treasury Board wanted to see outcomes for other groups. Mediation will take place next week. We hadn’t gone to arbitration in 40 years. We are constantly gathering information on contracting out.
Hours of work and shift work was discussed. We still look for stronger language on performance management. Departments are not making any effort to modify article 30 about contracting out. AFS accepted the PSAC deal. We would like to push for an extra 1.5% to get parity with the AFS group. Arbitration date has been set to December 5th. We cannot vote on the arbitration decision. It’s a done deal. There is a risk. Arbitrators tend to look at other deals and unions, we have a better chance to get parity through them. We may just get the PSAC deal.
Other Updates: David Hakes from the Winnipeg IT subgroup was introduced.
Regarding information sessions; please contact the Subgroup Executive with your ideas for virtual sessions.
The Subgroup Executive were discussing a community with channels via WhatsApp. We would like easier and less formal communication among members. It will help in getting feedback as well. A QR code has been generated for members in attendance to scan.
Elections facilitated by George Georgopoulos:
5 positions were up for election: Vice-President for a 2-year term and 4 members-at-large.
There were 2 vacant member-at-large positions available. Nuşin Brown and Bill Sukloff are in the 2nd year of their 2-year term.
The only candidate for Vice-President was Judy Chow, nominated by Yvonne. Judy was elected by acclamation. Andrea closed the VP nomination, Thomas seconded.
The following persons were nominated for member-at-large positions:
Stan Buday nominated Faron Moses
Andrea Agh nominated Bill Sukloff
Stan Buday nominated Nuşin Brown
Roy Philip nominated Kamla Ishmael
Usha Vashishta nominated Karla Yelland
All interested executive members accepted the positions and an election was held. Successful candidates were: Bill Sukloff, Karla Yelland, Faron Moses and Nuşin Brown
Elections 2024 will require a ballot for President and a ballot for 5 members at large if nothing changes in the body.
George made a motion to close the elections, Roy seconded.
Adjournment:
As President, Roy thanked everyone for attending the AGM and made a draw for prizes. Meeting was adjourned at 7:55 pm.