18 Dec 2013
5:00 PM
Westman Area Council
Double Decker Restaurant
Meeting called by: Glen Johnston
Type of meeting : General Meeting
Note taker: Roy R Clark
Attendees:
Glen Johnston, Roy Clark, Susan Norman, Trudy Taylor, Jeff Sexton, Martin Kaminski and Randy Walker.
Regrets: Nil
Visitors: None
Minutes
The meeting was called to order at 5:05 PM by Glen Johnson.
PSAC Harassment Statement
Susan Norman has agreed to be the PSAC harassment advisor for this meeting.
Previous Minutes
The previous minutes were read and accepted as read.
Correspondence
Clint Wirth as the Regional Representative for Health and Safety sent an email expressing his desire to connect with Safety personnel within the region. He would like to know if anyone is interested or thinks that they need to speak to him. Also included was a summary of Bill C-$ changes to Health and Safety provisions.
A memorandum from Robyn Benson, informing members that the implementation of the 2014 Union Development Program has been postponed until 2015. This decision was made due to changing priorities including the tabling of Bill C-4.
Keith Gauthier has resigned as the Youth Worker Representative on the Prairie Regional Council as he has accepted a position in Regina.
Pay in Arrears -The transition for this and the required payment will be made in 2014 and will only be a paperwork transaction as it affects members' salaries. The pay system will advance employees the funds that are required to make the arrears payment. This advance will be completed on members' retirement, when the members will receive the difference in their current pay and their pay on retirement.
Business from Correspondence: Nil.
President's Report
There was not an all candidates meeting due to the numerous other events that were ongoing at the time.
The United Way Christmas Tree event was successful and Marianne Hladun was able to attend. The funds for this activity came from our $750 allotment, $750 was donated from the Social Justice fund, $250 from Brandon District Labour Council and $500 from the UNDE local in Shilo.
It has been reasonably quiet except for PRC matters.
Treasurer's Report
The current bank balance is about 700.00 after all of the payments and deposits from the Christmas Tree Auction.
New Business
Auction Report We received funds as per the President's Report. There were pictures taken at the event and some have been circulating. Marianne did not arrive in time to see the decorating. She did see the auction. We had two members from UNDE in Shilo helped to decorate the tree. $1500 was our limit during the auction and so we were not able to purchase our tree as it went for $1600. However, we did purchase a separate tree for $1000. With $500 left over do we want to keep this amount or make other donations, which were discussed later in the meeting. This event was great fun for the participants. Our family was a single mother with a 13 year old daughter and two sons, 11 and 9. Overall about 26K was raised by the event.
Bill C-4 Fight Back
The campaign information for this was only recently received. We would like to encourage everyone to talk to their family, friends, neighbours and MP regarding this bill. The changes to Health and Safety legislation are significant. If the bill passes Management will solely determine essential services. If over 80% of the employees in a location are deemed as essential services there will be no right to strike in that location.
Area Council
We will need a representative as well as an alternate to PRC. The registration date for the PRC Convention is 12 February. We will meet in January to elect this representative and alternate.
Convention Call
This was discussed by the members present.
Resolutions
Resolutions from Area Councils need to be received by the 5th of March 2014.
Veterans Affairs The Brandon office of Veterans Affairs will be closing . Services Canada personnel will be assisting with queries for a short period of time.
Points from Around the Table
· Susan brought up a discussion regarding the meeting posters. They need to be getting out earlier to the locals. We should also consider phone calls to the locals to inform them.
· Glen brought up a discussion regarding meetings. BDLC has a new meeting room and they will allow us to use it if we book ahead in enough time. Discussed whether we need to have dinner meetings. Later meetings might draw more people, although those that do come long distances to attend prefer the earlier start time. New and or young members are afraid to be seen being involved in union activities. There seems to be a lot of fear that the employers will punish employees that participate in locals and councils.
· Next meeting is tentatively set to be held at the BDLC office for the first week of February at 5 PM.
· Discussed and decide to not make any other donations this year.
· The next Executive meeting will likely be the 20-21 of January.
Adjournment
A motion to adjourn was made at 6:35 PM. The motion was carried.