Our National President visits the Alberta Branch

2 December 2014

On November 26 and 27, CIU National President Jean-Pierre Fortin and newly elected Alberta Branch President Dave Degenstein met with Border Services Officers in Edmonton and Calgary to discuss employment contracts and labour-management relations.

A Brother honoured at the Quebec Police Awards

2 December 2014

At the November 20, 2014 16th annual Quebec Police Awards in Montreal, Brother Charles Dudemaine, Intelligence Analyst, was awarded an honorary plaque for having helped put a stop to human trafficking that was occurring in Quebec. Those entering Canada illegally were using unguarded roads in the regions of Stanstead and Trout River as well as waterways on the Akwesasne reserve.

CIU continues to promote the creation of a Border Patrol to strengthen CBSA’s ability to carry out checks between crossings.

Sister Chantal Rajotte, CIU’s Fourth National Vice-President, and Brother Normand Lespérance, Second Vice-President of the Montreal Branch, attended the Gala.

CIU delegates at the PSAC Prairies Convention

30 November 2014

CIU National President Jean-Pierre Fortin and CIU delegates attended the 6th PSAC-Prairies Triennial Convention, which was held in Saskatoon on June 27, 28 and 29. Sister Marianne Hladun was reelected Regional Executive Vice-President. Brother Sam Akinsanya (Trade) was elected the Racially Visible Representative and Timothy Hunt (Prairie Region Campus) was re-elected as the GLBT Representative for the Prairie Region.

Sign the pledge: Support healthy workplaces

30 October 2014

No one should face a choice between going to work sick or losing pay.

Treasury Board has proposed a “Go to work sick” plan that would encourage people to come to work sick, passing the germs onto their co-workers or the public they serve.

Support paid sick leave for federal government workers, and for all workers across Canada

Show your support: sign the pledge

Our new elected National Representatives

5 October 2014

The new elected CIU National Representatives have taken the oath of office at the 17th National Convention.

National President
Brother Jean-Pierre Fortin, Eastern Township Branch
Re-elected by acclamation

First National Vice-President
Brother Mark Weber, Toronto Branch
Elected

Second National Vice-President
Sister Brea Lewis, Saskatchewan Branch
Elected in second round

Third National Vice-President
Brother André Beaulieu, New Brunswick Branch
Elected

Fourth National Vice-President
Sister Chantal Rajotte, Headquarters Branch
Elected in second round

Equal Opportunity Representative
Brother Murray Star, Toronto Branch
Elected

Alternate Equal Opportunity Representative
Brother Insa Fall, Headquarters Branch
Elected by acclamation

Youth Representative
Sister Lauren Baert, Sarnia Branch
Elected

Alternate Youth Representative
Brother Craig Steinhauser, Vancouver Branch
Elected by acclamation

Rally to support our bargaining teams

3 October 2014

As a National Convention event, the Public Services Alliance of Canada, National Capital region and the Customs and Immigration Union organized a rally today.

Continuer

One day before National Convention

2 October 2014

Our Seventeenth National Convention starts tomorrow in Ottawa, ON. The National Convention, which is the supreme governing body of our Union, is held once every three years and provides an opportunity for all CIU members to become involved in the operation and future of their Union.

As the supreme governing body, the National Convention provides a forum for delegates, elected by their peers and on a per capita basis according to District Branch membership, to represent their Sisters and Brothers in making decisions that govern both the administration and the policies of this Union for the ensuing three-year period. The National Convention is also the forum where the Union’s National Executive is elected for its three-year term. The CIU By-Laws (By-Law 8, Section 17) provide an opportunity for all members to submit resolutions, within the prescribed format, dealing with all aspects of the Union.

Follow us on Twitter during the Convention (@ciusdi_en), or interact using the hashtag (#BeTheUnion

CIU takes part in a demo at the St. Armand border

23 September 2014

On Friday September 19th, in the context of the solidarity campaign sponsored by PSAC-Quebec during which a demonstration takes place on on the 19^th day of each month, members of the Customs and Immigration Union joined their Sisters and Brothers of PSAC-Quebec in St. Armand, Quebec to denounce the conservative government’s policies and budget cuts at the border. Members of the Union of National Defence Employees (UNDE) were also present in support to their Sisters and Brothers.

“Without the necessary staff to ensure an effective front line and intelligence capability, it will be difficult to prevent firearms, drugs, terrorists, sexual predators and hardened criminals from entering our country” said Jean-Pierre Fortin, National President, CIU.

For more pictures of the event, check out our Facebook page.

PA team defends sick leave and other workplace rights

12 September 2014

The PA bargaining team met with our Treasury Board counterparts for three days during the week of September 8, 2014.

The government presented the same proposal to gut sick leave to all of the Treasury Board bargaining tables. Among other things, the government’s proposal calls for a short-term disability plan, the elimination of sick leave banks and a maximum of 37.5 hours of sick leave a year. All of the PSAC bargaining teams rejected this proposal.

We delivered the following message at the table:

We come to the bargaining table every three years or so to improve wages and working conditions for our members. We are interested in negotiating any provisions that will result in a healthier workplace and will improve the public service. We think your sick leave demands will create hardships for our members, so we are not interested.

After the TB team presented their sick leave proposal, our team stood up to prominently display t-shirts provided by PSAC Atlantic, stating “Give up Our Sick Leave? Hell NO!”

There is a special technical committee comprised of members of the five TB bargaining teams that is working on sick leave – a very important issue. Please feel free to contact your union representative with any feedback.

Fixing compensation

Also at the bargaining table, Treasury Board provided a presentation on the Occupational Group Structure-Classification Reform process that was first negotiated into the 2007 collective agreement. This is an important issue for so many PSAC members who are not being properly compensated because of our outdated classification standards. Our team expressed our outrage about Treasury Board’s lack of progress on classification reform. TB negotiators said the task was bigger and more complex than they originally anticipated.

Our team signed off on a change of mileage rates to kilometric rates, which is consistent with the National Joint Council directive. Additional topics discussed included:

The union’s proposals to add gender identity and expression to the “no discrimination” clause
Adding Treasury Board policies on pre-retirement, self-funded leave and leave with income averaging to the collective agreement
Improving the compassionate care language and moving it to a stand-alone article
Expanding the definition of family in the collective agreement

Our bargaining team will keep you informed throughout this process. Help support our efforts by speaking to your co-workers and participating in upcoming workplace information sessions.

FB bargaining team tells CBSA that workers deserve better

12 September 2014

Our FB bargaining team met with Treasury Board and CBSA from September 9-12, to continue talks for a new collective agreement.

At the outset of bargaining, our team put management on notice that recent events in Emerson, Manitoba and at Pearson Airport in Toronto only serve to strengthen our resolve to achieve enhanced protections for PSAC/CIU members at CBSA. To that end, we spoke again to our proposals prohibiting abuse of authority, demanding protections against management harassment and surveillance in the workplace.

We also introduced proposals that would greatly enhance protections in the context of discipline, including paid leave for investigatory suspensions. Clearly, CBSA management cannot be trusted.

Fixing problems

We raised at the table problems related to excessive management discretion concerning career advancement and tuition reimbursement. We also indicated that there are serious concerns with respect to ABC machines at airports, and spoke to our proposals to protect against the contracting out of our work, including work performed by our Inland Enforcement members. None of these issues have been resolved.

Government tables “Go-to-work-sick” proposal

This week, the government presented the same proposal to gut sick leave to all of the Treasury Board bargaining tables. Among other things, the government’s proposal calls for a short-term disability plan, the elimination of sick leave banks and a maximum of 37.5 hours of sick leave a year. Our team joined all PSAC bargaining teams in rejecting this proposal.

We indicated that we are interested in negotiating improvements in this round of bargaining, and not concessions. We also reminded Treasury Board and CBSA that federal law prohibits unilateral changes to our sick leave plan, and that no changes can be made without negotiation and written agreement from our union. We will fight to defend our sick leave.

We are meeting again the week of November 17.