The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada
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74th ORC - Kingston DND Branch Activity Report

Spring 2018

Kingston DND Branch continues to increase our activities and participation.  We are proud to have made some inroads in visible minority and gender representation in our branch executive and will continue to strive for inclusion improvements.  A few highlights of recent activities as well as our outlook on the upcoming year:

New Stewards:  We continue to increase the number of Stewards that we have and are focusing on further training and mentoring of our most involved and engaged Stewards. 

Representation at Consultations:  Our Branch has several very involved consultations stewards including a National and Regional representative.  Our goal is to have representation at every unit on base that has a committee and so far we have met this due to our increase in active stewards.  

Union Office Space Update:  Happy to announce that we have regained our office space and have two shiny new desks with desktop computers and a phone as well as a boardroom table and secure storage for our Steward files.  We have just started moving materials and banners/posters etc in to the office.  The goal is to have it for use between our stewards as well as secure storage for our visibility items and banners and as well as our confidential materials.  Each Steward will have their own locked cabinet or drawer for storage.

Ongoing Issues: 

  • SMC – Service Management Centers – Centralization of CS work has impacted many our members and is a process very much in flux.  We are dealing with this at local, regional and National levels.  I am the National lead on this and so far have participated in talks in Winnipeg, Trenton and Ottawa on this subject already this year. 
  • Positions staffed by Contractors – although there is a general agreement that these positions are best staffed by civilians there still seems to be reticence to do so – so far under the CS collective agreement there is language that allows us to grieve this – I have signed the first such grievance!! – more to come.
  • Phoenix! Phoenix! Phoenix! – I probably don’t need to say more as this is something that every Branch president and Steward is dealing with. 

Looking Forward: 

  • We are already fielding questions about a possible expedited round of bargaining.  We are trying to temper expectations at the same time as using interest to mobilize our members to get ready for the next round of bargaining. 
  • As Regional Training Committee Chair I’m ashamed to say that we have not had a local lunch and learn this year (as my schedule has been  fairly tightly packed) so I’ve assigned this as a portfolio to one of our exec and look forward to what they come up with in the coming weeks and months.
  • More Stewards!! Our goal is to sign up another 4 or 5 in the Branch in the next couple of years to increase our visibility.   We cover off a unique geographical area and work for close to 30 separate Lodger Units on Base so it is imperative that we have eyes and ears in as many of these places as we can in order to best represent all of our ‘hidden’ members.

Better Together!!

Pete Jozsa