GTA Branch Annual General Meeting - May 16, 2024
Present:
Stan Buday (President) Kuini Chuen (Vice President) Roy Phillip (Treasurer)
Alice Da Silva Nuşin Brown (Secretary) Nathanael Mathi
Faron Moses Yu Gao Nicole Henshaw
Vini Khurana Stan Chow Yvonne Snaddon
Delores Sui Young Woo Ji Andrea Agh
Eva Henshaw Angela Chan Aaron Cumal
Akin Tawo Carmen Chan Dennis Kim
Caroline Gutman Richard Morris Robert Corkum
Simon Zhou Tanya King Chenel Lozon
Lalita Jeethan Denys Shashura Ian Douglas Ferrier
Fan Xu Jeremy Craigs Jinkui Wang
Khushmeet Gill Oliver Squire Robert Mertens
Shen Li Sucheta Sikdar Tao (Wendy) Huang
Tom Belyk Tricia Brownridge Wei Zhang
Zoe Xu Michael Kim David Yeung
Absent: Keri Kwong
Opening: Welcome by Stan Buday at 6:20 pm. Stan introduced the GTA Branch Executive.
Motion to accept the Agenda: Moved by Nuşin Brown, Seconded by Yvonne Snaddon, carried.
Tanya King did the land acknowledgement and explained the Moose Hide Campaign.
Stan introduced the Acting PIPSC President, Eva Henshaw.
Motion to accept the 2023 AGM Minutes: Moved by Nuşin Brown, Seconded by Nicole Henshaw, carried.
President’s Report – Stan Buday: Stan has been the President of this Branch since 2006. The Branch started 18 years ago with 1200 members and is growing. We doubled in size since to 2400 members. We organize various events around the GTA.
- The previous GTA Branch AGM was held on April 18, 2023. We had 3 new Executive members elected.
- Steward Council was held in September.
- A family event was held at the Toronto Zoo October 21st instead of our regular picnic
- The Summer networking social event was held June 13th at The Pilot, a second social event was held on February 15th at the Frog and Firkin.
- Steward Appreciation Dinner was held in November.
We are the largest branch in Ontario and had 24 delegates at the ORC consisting of Executive members and activists.
The Pilot has been booked for June 18, 2024, for this year’s Summer Networking Social event.
Becoming a Steward is encouraged. Stewards represent the Union. It makes a difference to people we work with.
Stan introduced the Executive members.
Motion to accept the President’s Report. Kuini seconded the President’s Report. Report was accepted.
Financial Report – Roy Philip: An AGM must be held in order to receive the yearly financial allocation from PIPSC. The last AGM was held in 2023. The 2023 allocation was requested. A social event was held in February 2024.
In 2023, expenses were incurred for the Branch AGM, Executive meetings, Networking Events, Lunch & Learns, the GTA Branch Family Zoo Day and visibility items.
Motion to accept the Financial Report. Moved by Stan. Seconded by Nuşin. Carried.
GTA Branch Budget 2023-24 was presented. A Steward Appreciation Event took place in November 2023. The Zoo Event was very popular, and another will be planned for 2024.
Roy moved a motion to accept the budget, Tom Belyk seconded. Motion carried.
Elections facilitated by Stan Buday:
No email nominations were received in advance for Members at Large or Vice-President.
Vice-President (2-year term) - Kuini was nominated by Tanya. Position acclaimed.
5 Member at Large positions for a 2-year term are available.
Up for election: Nuşin Brown, Nathanael Mathi, Yu Gao, Keri Kwong and Nicole Henshaw.
Keri stepped down.
Roy Philip, Delores Sui, Tanya King, Yvonne Snaddon are in the 2nd year of a 2-year term.
The President position has 1 year left. Other positions will be decided upon at the Strategic Planning Meeting.
Elections 2025 will require a ballot for President and 4 members at large.
Lalita Jeethan, Rob Corkum, Simon Zhou and Bena Lands were nominated.
Nuşin, Nathanael, Nicole and Yu Gao were re-elected. Lalita was elected as a new member at large. Yvonne stepped down.
Motion to destroy ballots was made by Faron, Andrea seconded. Motion carried.
PIPSC Acting President Eva Henshaw: Eva Henshaw thanked Stan Buday for the invitation.
Each Region has a Regional Director who is on the Board of Directors. Eva explained the structure of the Board of Directors at the national level. The BOD carries out Union business between AGMs.
Return to the office is now a current issue. PIPSC heard about this through the media before it was announced by Treasury Board. All unions are working together to voice our displeasure. The government cannot reduce its footprint by 50% then ask members to go to the office 3 days a week. Some members have to wait until midnight on Sunday to book an office space. There will be a larger recruitment and retention issue. In order to entice contractors to work 3 days a week, their pay will be increased. The blanket RTO announcement does not work for everyone.
Bargaining for many groups have come to a close. Contracting out is still happening. We are defending our pensions.
PSHPC changes happened to Canada Life. There are still issues with Phoenix. The union is doing a lot of work at the national level for their members. There are 275 PIPSC employees, mostly in the NCR, also in regional offices.
The PIPSC AGM will be a 2-day event to be held November 9-10, 2024.
A question-and-answer period was held.
Q: Tracking attendance, cards etc. how will it work. Will privacy of staff be protected? Will this data be targeted for anything else like performance management.
A: If you are working 2 days a week at the office, it will be increased to 3.
Every department will tackle this differently. It will be dealt with at consultation level. Employees who cannot get a workstation should record the dates they were unable.
Q: Are there any surveys done about the public’s opinion on the 3 day requirement?
A: Surveys are very costly and time limited, therefore, bargaining agents will work together to have the survey go through the whole Summer.
Q: How can new members find EROs?
A: The website will be revamped to display regional offices better. New members can also reach out to stewards.
Q: Any direction for NPSW?
A: Unions are encouraging members not to attend employer events
Adjournment:
A draw was made for door prizes.
As President, Stan Buday thanked everyone for attending the AGM and made a motion to adjourn.
The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.