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welcome everyone and thanks for joining us on tonight's webinar about sick leave and the attack on our members rights originally we were supposed to have this webinar uh about Labor rights we have a webinar every every uh month on the second Wednesday of each month and this one was scheduled to be about Labor history but because of everything that's been going on with sickle and uh you know especially after the federal budget was tabled uh and the inquiries that we were getting from Members we decided to shift our Focus um and and and give members the opportunity to ask questions and and discuss discuss this really important issue and you know even since we've shifted the focus uh they came up with the budget implementation act um so there's even more to discuss so tonight's webinar is about the attack on our rights and cly and we'll postpone the labor rights webinar for another day so uh tonight joining us is uh P National president Robin Benson and uh Prairie's Regional Executive Vice President maranne plon they'll discuss what's going on what the lat sort of what the latest information is um what members can do to be to get involved and then we're going to go to your questions we really want to focus on on questions tonight and give give members the opportunity to ask anything uh that they may have so if you want to ask a question use the little chat feature on the right hand side to uh type your question to me and we'll get to as many as we can on the call so um like I mentioned last month's budget bill called for 9 million in savings from axing sick Le even though we are still actively in negotiations on this very issue more recently in the past week or so the budget implementation act uh proposes to give the government the power to override negotiations altogether and impose any deal they choose so I want to bring Robin Benson into the conversation first Robin thanks again for joining us what are your thoughts on the latest attacks on our members rights and how uh will PC respond thanks so very much for asking me to be here we all know that our Sith leave is an insurance policy and uh certainly is there for us to use uh should we be ill and when we leave uh the federal Public Service then the uh si le stays there so so Mr clment and I have had many discussions around it so in back from a convention on Thursday it was Thursday or Friday of last week uh they tabled the budget implementation act which is uh bill c-59 and it's been a whirlwind of press and I'm hoping that some of it uh filtered down into the Prairies uh with respect to us challenging the government because that's certainly what we're doing um this this has gone further than just our sick Lea brothers and sisters you you have to appreciate that uh while the government says that they want to uh negotiate sick leave and Mr clment is saying there's room to negotiate sick leave we've been really clear that on one hand um uh you know we're certainly not going to go to work sick in order on the other hand to have h a full paycheck so uh because doesn't matter what uh what program they've uh put in front of us there still is an element of Leal pay and we certainly uh cannot afford that so having said that the Bia comes along and uh it's called division 20 and I'll invite you to read uh Pages 147 On Through To oh practically maybe I don't know maybe 10 pages or so of it um and I'd ask you to actually read that uh May 19th for 19 minutes in your workplace because I think that uh uh if it was me uh I'd want to know what's in the budget implementation act and and more specifically uh division 20 which says s leave with disability programs uh and so what they've done is they've tabled this and now um Mr CL and I are really uh uh exchanging words if you will because this as I said goes further than than our sickling this goes against our Charter of Rights and freedom and so we have contained within the charter the right uh to have free collective bargaining and so by this act what they intend to do is pull out a portion of the Collective Agreement uh riing up if you will and uh impose uh short-term dis ility program outside of our Collective Agreement and we have very clearly and have been saying for over a year now that uh we're certainly not going to uh going to accept that we um have had meetings with your national board of directors your uh uh component presidents your Regional Executive Vice Presidents today I had a meeting with the uh National Joint Council uh Union presidents which is all of the other unions uh within the federal Public Service um we cly had meetings with negotiating teams I'm sure many of you know they came into town this week and they were going to go into negotiations but how can you just go into negotiations uh with an employer like this we needed to take this week to re-evaluate how we're proceeding to look at what kind of actions we need to take both uh in terms of letting the employer know that we're unhappy and uh legal challenges so uh we have a number of uh events that we're going to be um hosting over the next uh uh couple of months certainly uh May 19th and I'm sure Marana will speak to you about mobilization on the 19th uh June 19th during Public Service week I think that that's an incredibly appropriate week to uh talk about uh respect from your employer to talk about um the court challenges that lie ahead and the Supreme Court over and over again have confirmed that we have those rights so we believe that this legislation will be uh passed by the end of June they're not uh uh they're not wasting any time and I just uh read an interview with uh Mr CL with the Ottawa Citizen where he uh would like to have this all wrapped up before the election October 19th um and certainly uh he can uh he can indicate he'd like to have it all wrapped up but if it means uh that our members have to choose between going to work sick and having a full paycheck uh then that's certainly not going to happen so I think I've given you just a flavor of uh what's been taking place lately uh in the last two weeks since convention and certainly the determination of your negotiating teams uh to ensure that uh you're well represented uh your uh leadership um in terms of uh the work that they're going to do and have done on your behalf and will continue to do right up until the next federal election when we will change the government so Jeffrey is there something else you wanted me to add uh Robin I think that was that's good for now it's a good uh opener we'll now hear from Maryann to talk a bit about um how members can get involved right now and you know what we're calling on members to do and then we'll go to some questions and and uh hear from marann and Robin some more Marianne great thanks Jeffrey and uh thanks everyone for coming on the webinar it was um while we had the topic scheduled uh the nice thing about technology is that we can change the focus when we need to um so I thank Robin for being available um Robin had talked a little bit about uh the the bill c59 that was just introduced and and you know over the course of April uh and most of May I I've been out in the region with bargaining team members doing bargaining updates and one of the things that we've been talking about is that you know when the teams are sitting at the table with treasury board when we were talking just about sick leave you're negotiating with treasury Ward at the table um by virtue of the government putting this in the budget and then Tony Clement going to the media saying that he's going to implement this this has now become political and this you know as Robin said this isn't a sick leave issue anymore this is about a government who doesn't respect our right to free collective bargaining uh and is going to try and Bully and intimidate our members uh into accepting something at the bargaining table and um so from the minute that it that it was brought forward um at at every level there was a commitment to say we'll fight this and do whatever we have to do so um Robin Ed mentioned you know there there's different legal Avenues and um you know all of those are are being prepared and will be filed including a charter challenge because this is against our the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and this is about your right to participate in a union and your right to elect someone to go to the table and negotiate for you um and this is not something that um we can just sit back and let go through so um you know robinet had mentioned uh about reading out uh Vision 20 bill c59 um you know there's all kinds of different things that that are going to be coming out at the national level and the regional level um but one of the main things that I want to talk about is and Robin mentioned this next week all of the members of parliament are back home that's the one week that they are back uh in their home uh writings between now and when uh the session ends in June and you know what some MPS are saying is that they haven't heard from our members um now I'm not saying that's accurate information uh but that's what they're saying they're saying that well no one told us they didn't like this um so one of the most effective things that we can do is call your MP and um it's a really scary thing to do if you've never done it um it you know it may take you out of your comfort zone but sisters and brothers this is the time uh if if this was if there ever was a time this is it because looking back this is not law yet now are the chances of of um convincing ing a majority conservative government to not proceed with this uh what are the chances but you know what what were the chances that we would turn Alberta Orange um so we need to try and if you honestly believe that the government is trying to bully us into something that that is our right to negotiate on um it's time to make that call so members are are um calling their MPS requesting appointments uh for May 19th which is June July August September October which is 5 months away from the federal election uh you know so you can call uh whether they're in or not if you can get an appointment to go in they're people like everyone else um and they need to hear put the bill in front of them and say what does this mean to you and can you explain to me how in your mind this doesn't uh um this doesn't take away from my rights under the charter because if they're voting on it and outright ask them how they plan on voting on this bill uh and if they won't meet with you then make sure and let us know and if you meet with your MP make sure and let your regional office know I know in many areas uh some members are saying they're going to go stand out in front of their MP's office for 19 minutes on the 19th uh or sometime that week so um you know get a few friends take the dog for a walk if you happen to stop in front of the MP's office and shuck Dar and you have a picket sign on um you know but it's time to let them know that they are accountable to their constituents um not Tony Clement uh not a political party they are elected to represent you so um that's one of the main things so May 19th we've been asking members to do events on the 19th um you know Robin mentioned um take 19 minutes stand up and read out loud division 20 of of Bill c59 and you know it it's clear when the legislation says you know the the basically these changes could go in effect by order made on the recommendation of the president of the treasury board which means any day that Tony Clement wants to pull the pin he can do that um so make sure that members know we need to talk about it we need to talk about it in uh in the context that this is um this can't be allowed to happen in silence um you know some of the area councils are looking at possibly um uh targeting some writings where MPS have been extremely vocal about this uh you know if you're up to writing a letter to the editor to let people know uh in your community that um you know you find this offensive and and also National Public Service we've had a boycot now this will be the third year that uh unanimous decision of the board uh to boycott National Public Service week activities it's not personal to your manager if you happen to have a good manager and I know they do exist um but all of these actions are reported up and at at this point we need to make sure that the employer is reporting to the government that there's a strong movement not just from the leadership of psac but from the Grassroots from locals um so this really is an opportunity uh for those of you on uh on the webinar to you know hear some of the information and we really just wanted to have an opportunity for people to ask questions so I think I'll stop there uh and you know we can we can just spend the rest of the hour going to questions Jeffrey okay great thanks Maryann so I'll just remind everyone to use the chat function on the side there to send me a private message with your questions um if you have anything any question about uh you know what's been happening with the latest budget implementation Bill and sick leave and all that um and what psac is doing you can send me a question in the chat box and indicate if you want to ask it or if you want me to read it out your microphone doesn't work or you don't have one and we'll go from there so um I've been getting a lot of questions so far uh I guess I will start um with this one from from Mark um Robin this one is probably for you Mark says I certainly support our Union's effort to push back and I believe we need to fight we lost our Severance and pension is next so the effort and push is appreciated my question is should they legislate this which they will if we legally fight it could some sort of injunction be put into place so we can stop the short-term disability from going forward or our hands tied in other words if they proceed and we challenge it can it be stalled until a legal decision is rendered so Jeffrey and and Mark that's a really good question uh just look at the uh Alberta Union of public employees and the injunction that they were uh able to get successfully so uh I think I had said in my opening remarks but I'll certainly repeat again that um we're going to use every legal Avenue that there is so you know injunctions Court challenges unfair labor practices you name it uh we're going to do it because uh we certainly don't believe that this government has the right to uh take something out of the Collective Agreement um via uh legislation so you know certainly um we will uh will'll follow the injunction um and and should this legislation come in into place uh before the election then uh so be it because if you read uh division 20 or section 20 it calls for a four-year period because while they they talk about a short-term disability program they haven't been able to find a carrier yet I you we're talking hundreds of thousands of uh of employees that uh that they want to Sher their responsibility uh to so uh you know certainly uh it speaks to a four-year window and uh I I can uh almost assuredly tell you that after October 19th um they won't be the government of the day Jeffrey thanks Robin and actually just stick around here because um I have another question for you from from Shantel so um we know that all 18 Federal unions took a a solidarity Packa before bargaining began uh in terms of no concessions on sick Lea so shantel's asking uh based on the meetings you've had this week um are the unions Still Standing United oh definitely you know it was a really really good uh meeting today um and as a matter of fact we had a bit of a demonstration uh this morning because the teams of course as I said were in and we chose not to go to the table because we need to reevaluate reg group whatever you want to call it um so we did a bit of a of a demo um at Pierre pv's office and so for us in the west um that's maybe not a household name but it certainly is a a household name here in uh Ottawa uh it's an individual who um has done nothing uh other than be a uh politician um and and a lobbyist I think so uh so long and short of it uh he's very interesting in uh his remarks about public service workers and so it seems seemed appropriate for us to uh go to his uh constituency office uh unfortunately he wasn't there of course he was probably in the house but uh suffice it to say uh we did a bit of a demonstration there we left him a copy of the um Charter of Rights and Freedoms just in case uh uh uh he didn't understand what it was and uh so I think that um uh for us uh the and where I'm going with this is that there were several uh presidents there from the other unions um they spoke uh gave uh uh you know greetings and and uh solidarity pledges and then we went on to the meeting of the full National Joint Council and at that meeting we reaffirmed our commitment to each other uh reaffirmed our commitment to our membership because that's the most important thing here is that uh uh we want to represent our members to the best of our ability and we want to make sure that uh they'll have to go to work sick and uh we're all in the same place at the same time so it was a really exciting meeting today glad to hear that now we'll get to Maryann give you a break Robin uh Maryann I have a question here for you from um Louise so she wants to know uh what is the impact what will the impact be of our visit to MP offices so there's a couple interesting things to this um you know I've met with uh my m and several of the MPS primarily in in Saskatoon when I was there um and they honestly know especially if you have backbenchers uh there's there's a few MPS that will tell you inside information uh without knowing so number one that's that's one way of doing it um you know to be able to get some information back but the reality is that no Member of Parliament can know everything about everything um you know the legislation that's put in front of them so a lot of times what's happening is they're reviewing legislation that someone else has told them is good um they don't necessarily read it uh with the the lens of of what does this mean how does this impact my constituents and you know they're they're told I mean the reality is in this majority government um they're basically they're told how to vote uh because it's a conservative party line it's not not necessarily what's good for their constituents so um sometimes it's interesting to watch an MP to look them in the eye and have that conversation with them and make them accountable and you know as much as we may think it doesn't make a difference uh or very often I'll hear well my mp is a conservative so there's no point my mp is a liberal so there's no point um the the reality is um if they have enough of that information when they go into their back rooms and I honestly believe because of the pressure that we've put on uh MP since the whole sickle debate has started uh you know the pressure around bargaining um all of that has kept them from doing anything up to this point um because there's cracks um and not everyone agrees with stuff so we can if we can put enough doubt in their mind to let them know number one that the membership support this that everyone is on board um that um you know we better be careful how we do this because they're not backing off um they're going to call our Bluff um so I I think that's why it's really important is to let them know so that they can't say nobody talk to me uh and you know what it's empowering for you uh when you walk out of an MP's office after having a discussion and the reality is they may ask you a question you don't know the answer to you just say I don't know I'll get back you and then you call our office and we help you with that um because it's it's a conversation I'm concerned about this how do you plan on voting what are you doing and they report that stuff up and one visit to an MP office they they have numbers and I always get them mixed up but it's something like for an actual office visit they equate that to the equivalent of like a thousand constituents because not many people uh actually take the time to book an appointment so that must mean that you're you're extremely serious about an issue so you know try book an appointment uh it will not only take away their argument that they don't know but it'll make you feel um empowered to continue and to go back and talk to your co-workers as well thanks Maryann and Robin did you have anything to add to that to that question I I do if you don't mind uh just some exciting uh events happen to day that um even Maran is not aware of so it'll be news to her as well uh the negotiating teams uh were the members were able to go to Parliament today for a question period um many were there um uh through uh the opposition uh gallery and uh some were in I guess what's called like the public Gallery so suffice it to say they went there and the uh liberals asked a question in the house and uh Mr Clement was actually there and then the NDP asked two questions so there were questions and and statements by both uh liberals and uh uh and and DP uh and it was all around uh c-59 and keeping our sick Le and uh treating us with uh dignity and respect and so um we took the opportunity because uh you know some of our our team members uh met with uh Thomas mare uh leader of the NDP and some of our team members met with um Roger cner who who is the labor critic for the uh liberals and at that time we you know clearly asked uh Mr cner uh were the Liberals uh prepared to uh to keep our sick Lea um you know or or did they uh still think it was a liability uh the way that you know they had been thinking about it a while back and uh today the Liberals announced that they would leave uh the intact uh in the Collective Agreement so they have come out and said that they are against um uh Bill c59 uh that they feel that the uh conservatives should be negotiating uh with us uh but when um when asked further uh they said that they felt uh that it should be uh left uh within our Collective Agreement and of course uh you know I shouldn't say of course but I all of you should know that the NDP have been supporting us uh throughout this whole process and uh as a matter of fact some of the members of parliament have actually come out to some of the demonstrations that we've had uh because they are very committed uh to working people so I just wanted to add that because it just happened today thanks jeffre thanks Robin um so I mean Maryann I I'll go back to you because it sort of Builds on what you were talking about with the MP here um I've had a couple questions here one from [Music] um who where is that question a lot of questions going in right now uh oh here we go one from from Sylvie and uh another one from Diane both asking how can we find other members in our writings to go to MP's offices with so um I think the the best thing to do because you know we we do have privacy issue so so we won't uh give out uh your names uh to to other members we we do respect the Privacy um what I would say is that um we can easily through the regional office and I can I can talk to the staff in the morning uh if you want to go but uh you want other people with you uh maybe call the regional office so Edmonton uh Calgary Saskatoon Regina or Winnipeg and all of the phone numbers uh or emails are on the quair website uh if if you're looking and and you're looking for some support or you want to get a group together to just you know even just stand outside um for 19 minutes you know with a sign saying you know respect my Collective Agreement um you know or whatever message you want so call the regional office and uh leave a phone number and an email address and um you know I know some of the area councils um are already kind of making some phone calls and trying to see who they can gather so so that would be the best way to do that and before you turn your webcam off here I have a question from uh B cantao um for first name just B but um they ask Will PSC and other unions email bullet points to bring forward to MPS and I know here at PC we are working on some some um notes for members to take to MPS um so you know what's the best way for us to to get those to members um I think probably what the best thing is gu we're working on it because I recognized that that um you know sometimes even though it's it's best to talk from the heart you need that piece of paper with a few points on it right um so so it's not you know we won't be doing a script or anything but but we'll give you some factual points that you can raise and then uh just to kind of help frame you and give you that Comfort um so I think what we'll do is we will send that information out to your local president uh so each of the Regional Offices has a contact list with your local executive um rather than I don't want to put it on the website because then it becomes public and you know uh so we'll send that out to the locals if you haven't seen it um or don't know who to contact call the office and we'll make sure and let them know that if any members call for the information we'll send it out to you and and that would be on a personal email we won't be able to do that through a government email great so Robin I'm going to go to you next I've had a couple questions about timelines so Wendy asks are we looking at no sick leave by the fall and Greg asks when is the earliest members could lose sick leave benefits do you have any idea on how quickly this could unroll sure it's easy they're not going to lose their sick leave benefits because we're going to have a new government October 19th of this year um and uh suffice it to say we have no intention of negotiating uh lesser Provisions than what's in the Collective Agreement right now this government has not told us it even though we've asked repeatedly what is wrong with the c Le Provisions that we currently have uh give us the stat statistics tell us why you have this grandio plan about a short-term disability program and all we get is that they want to modernize it well that's simply uh conservative ideology so quite frankly we have no intention of giving up the sickly so as I said uh they don't even have a carrier in mind um we we will uh continue with the bargaining process we'll be back at the table in June um we have a number of issues that we need to to uh talk about uh so you know we'll we'll negotiate on through the summer into the fall as as one would normally do so and um we we will change the government in October and then um we won't have to worry about this so in short Jeffrey we're not giving it up got it okay brothers and sisters in short we're not giving it up good answer hold strong so another question for you though um because we know Tony Clement has been um making things up in the media he's just recently talked about how he's been bargaining with us for 200 meetings he's you know said that um this needs modernization and all kinds of things but he's also um spouted the 900 million um figure and so uh one member here is just wondering sort of if we know where that $900 million came from is is that how much sickly costs and and if not is there any sort of way that um another person says is there any plan to give a real uh a real figure for how much this costs so those are excellent questions because here's here's what I know today um I was on power in politics uh with uh Evans Holman um um probably just last week no this week I think it was this week and anyway I'm I apologize and I'm not trying to be pacious but the days are certainly uh running together and and uh uh the membership in the Prairies uh can appreciate U most of you know me so you'll know we've been pretty busy so long and short of it uh at the time uh it must have been um uh after the budget was uh was presented over the 900 million so it wasn't the budget implementation act that for that power of politics that was the one before for the budget proper when Clement was talking about the $900 million and I I I said to Evan solman will you ask him because nobody knows where he gets this $900 million from and if you listen to the interviews that he that he's doing he says well it's $900 million and but there's room to negotiate within that so like really what are you talking about so um so that's number one we don't know where he's getting his figures from uh number two the the accounting practices or how you show liabilities all changed a couple of years ago so so they're they're they're showing this differently they're showing it as a liability well I mean we all know if we're off for a few days with the flu we don't get replaced if we're off for a week you know with bronchitis we don't get replaced um if we're off for any Fair length of time of course we would get replaced or if we were a shift worker you know working at the border or working in a Penitentiary something like that where you know you need to have somebody there if you have a two person Port then you need to have two people there so so that's where it costs some money if you will the Parliamentary budget officer was really clear that there's there's no uh um sense of a liability the way that the government is making it out to be because if you look at the budget proper on one page of the budget it talks about um the liability and uh it talks about booking the $900 million and then you look at the budget uh at another point where it talks about uh people don't have enough sickle two-thirds of the federal Public Service uh don't have enough sickly don't have three weeks of sick leave well then then is it only oneir that has like 900 million or more um that that they're carrying over so really the numbers are skewed because they're making up and every time we ask them where they're getting the numbers from um we get a different answer and we get a different a different um what do I want to call it uh roundabout if you will I know that uh the other day uh when I did a radio um uh live radio they interviewed uh Mr CLT before me and he said something about uh you know he's got no one to dance with and I said well I'm not dancing to the same tune as he is so no I'm not dancing with him because he really is not um he's not uh truthful I suppose or the information that he's getting uh to share his speaking points um uh don't uh have uh actual figures because there's been two parliamentary budget officer um uh uh reports and uh they both uh they both say a we don't use the sick Le that he says we do that we you know we're in line with anybody else and B we're not the liability the makes us out but you know for uh him around his election for his voter base and uh you know so for us um we just need to keep telling the truth um and keep hammering that home and you know his 200 days um he said that many times now and he knows uh some of the cases that he's interviewed before me and sometimes he's interviewed after me they like to um they like to have the two of us kind of together I I suppose so that we can argue with each other uh I I feel I win but that's just my thoughts but uh um Jeffrey we've had about five sessions and so that's probably three four 4 days uh each session for for each of our teams now granted they you know they all come in together so that's the pa the SV the EB the TC and the FB so you have uh you know all those teams coming in but they only meet three to four days uh five sessions so really uh unless he's counting everybody because all of the national Joint Council unions are in negotiations so once again you know this is his way of uh of uh doing the math and and we all saw how Apprentice uh did his math and and what happened so you know I can hardly wait to see what happens to Mr Clement that I and I I don't think I can add any more to that Jeffrey that's fine that was a great answer Robin but I do think uh Maryanne wants to get on in this one so Maryann do you have something to add to that well yeah I just wanted to kind of ADD and Robin kind of mentioned it and and this is an example of little things that uh uh what you might think is a little thing that members can do uh so last week um you know Tony Clement is great on Twitter um so when c-59 was introduced and it was clear that um that they were planning on on bullying us and and trying to impose us in our Collective Agreement uh some members took this and uh several prairies members uh took to Twitter and uh you know I got a message saying get in here um and so in a matter of about half an hour I don't know how many tweets there were but it was about the number 200 because uh Tony Clement is really good at pulling a number uh out of the air out of a hat out of his you know what whatever you want to call it um and not being able to back it up and as soon as you challenge that he shuts down um as does anyone in the government so when he said you know we've had over 200 meetings uh you know one of the respons was uh well we've only met with you five times so I know math is hard U but that doesn't add up so and you know promptly within a few minutes he had blocked a bunch of people from Twitter um because that's how they do it they'll talk to you when you listen uh when you agree with them but as soon as you don't he'll block them and I think there's many par members who have been blocked by by uh Tony Clement and other MPS but that's one of those little actions where you know make them accountable a for the stuff that they're putting out there um somebody sent me a link today of a video and it was from Ottawa And the reporter said that CLE rolls over to retirement um so I watched the clip he did say it so I tweeted back to him and said you were wrong um no is that going to appear anywhere no but we have to challenge this stuff and so if they say that send a letter to the editor saying you know what I got 2,000 hours in my bank um or you know I but we need to challenge that but but if you're looking for any logic and the numbers that they've thrown out around this you're not going to find it even the the Parliamentary budget officer couldn't find them so I just had to add because it it it was quite um um having a Twitter fight with with some of these politicians is actually quite amusing maryan stick around though um because you you mentioned something in your response that uh a a member has raised and I want to bring that to your attention so um you talked about you know members sharing that they have a certain amount of sick leave and uh Karen wrote me saying um I was offered the people soft print out of a recent retire showing over 2,000 plus hours Bank time um and she's wondering sort of you know what can she do with this sort of information does national office office want it or how can this sort of information be utilized um yeah you know what um if they're willing to do that I would block out the um um you know the the the last name and and the PRI because that's private information um but you know what send that send that into to our office and um you know I I think it's something that we can be tweeting we can be sending out to uh members of parliament and you know we if we can utilize that we can put that out and say here's an example of someone who retired and this is what they left in their bank so absolutely if they're willing to share that uh please send it in to my office or Jeffrey please perfect so um just looking at some questions here now we're getting a lot of questions um so Maran you talked about going to MP's offices lobbying making your voice heard but Samuel asks what can members do at their workplaces to show the employer that we are not happy with this and that we are mobilizing ourselves perfect and you know what that's that's a perfect question um what we're seeing more and more um as we've been doing multilocal bargaining update meetings and I've been doing work site visits um you know it's really clear in a lot of workplaces that employers are are pushing back and they're they're Crossing that line and they're you know they're saying for our members well you can't put this on the Bing board you can't do this and you can't do that and yeah there are there are lines I mean and that was kind of the focus of our April webinar was about political rights in the workplace um but just like Robin said um on power in politics and it was to no it was Monday Robin that you were on power in politics um just as as she had said on there you know we won the right for political rights 25 years ago um so when you leave the workplace you can put a sign sign on your Laine you can work for any candidate of your choice but in the workplace you know there we have to start pushing back because because if you want to stand up on on May 19th and all go into the coffee room and and read out division 20 of c-59 um you have every right to do so just like you can talk about what happened at your kids hockey game uh what happened on you know the American Idol last night um so the employer tries to to stifle that conversation that's your right um so you know hand out copies of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that's one idea I heard how can employer tell you uh that you can't distribute the Canadian Charter you know Circle the section that gives us freedom of Association um read that out uh you can do a lunch and learn you can um go for a walk around the block with uh with a flag or with a sign um or just let people know that you're doing it in support of bargaining um and most importantly you need to talk to each other um um so we have 21,000 members in this region not all who are treasury board to be clear this uh budget implementation Act only covers treasury board proper employees right now right now um but we know whatever happens there is going to trickle down or trickle up whichever way you want to look at it to everyone so we need to talk to people and really understand what's at stake here um and actually I'll mention um on the Prairie's website there is a new video that we just put up uh recently and it's some members in in the Prairies in Lethbridge uh who have the misfortune of currently um battling cancer and they wanted to tell their story and they wanted to share it with members so you know what go into a boardroom take your laptop take your phone sit down and everybody watch the video for 10 minutes um and talk to people who think that SLE is not an issue because they've never needed it um and then talk to them about the bigger picture about the fact that somebody negotiated this so conversation talk talk talk uh and October 19th vote um you know we'll be working into strategies for the federal election uh coming down to it but we need to start getting people engaged however they want to vote never going to tell you who to vote for uh but ask the questions because candidates are coming into the doors so those are some of the things you can do thanks maranne and I just sent a link to everyone on the call right now to that video that marann referenced um and I'm going to send a couple other links as well someone had asked me to send the link for uh bill c59 so I'll send that and some other things that we've referenced and then all of this will be posted on the website as well so you can find those links uh later this week on the Prairie's website which is psc.com praries now I want to go back to Robin for a question so um Robin a couple weeks ago at the uh National trianal Convention of the psac um the delegates passed an emergency resolution unanimously for a $5 million campaign so I have one question here from uh Greg where did that question go here we go Greg says What specifically are we using the million emergency resolution funds for and then a question from Kathy which I think sort of goes well with it is I think it's important to gain public support and want to know if there's a plan to present or release information to the general public okay um thank you very much but let's be clear because uh it's not a $5 million campaign it's up to $5 million um the resolution itself uh inm I I'm just going to read a bit I won't read the whole thing but I'll just paraphrase uh that we cond cond demn the conservative government for undermining the collective bargain process uh we stand up and oppose any government actions that uh compromise any of the members rights uh that we will continue to organize and mobilize our members through concerted and strategic actions uh to defend our rights we'll take necessar necessary legal action to defend our constitutional rights and you know that was before the biia so it makes it even more appropriate now uh that we will work to El a federal government that worker and union rights and uh will not let this government or any future government intimidate us or take a a um take away our rights and that we'll use up to $5 million uh uh to coordinate a strategic campaign so the national board of directors met and uh they had quite a discussion about this because it was a a a resolution that was presented on the floor um and at that time we talked about a leadership tour so the leaders are going to be going across the talking to our membership uh we talked about uh doing a uh pledge card uh like a a petition if you will so that um we could uh ensure that we're talking to our membership and let them know that uh um get them to sign up on it because then um we'll probably present it to um Mr clment we talked about uh you know lobbying the MPS we talked about the public service week uh we talked about an advertising campaign because our our members are continuously saying that they want to see the psac in the news in on TV or the radio um so we'll we'll be very strategic about how we do it because uh as I've said uh over and over again we've been very much a part of uh the Canadian Labor congress's uh campaign and uh their commercials uh um and bus ads Etc so we will be doing a lot of that work between now and October 19th but we're very cognizant that we have up to $5 million and it's not just that you we're going to go out and spend $5 million we're going to be really careful how we do it and um ensure that uh we use that money wisely because we're very cognizant to the fact that it's uh members dues and we want to ensure that members benefit from it and by that I mean that they've had the opportunity to have discussions have dialogues uh know what it is uh uh with respect to their rights because you know in as much as what some of the questions have been uh you know if if we lose the sick leave or or what will we do and when will we lose it um you know it's it's not finished yet brothers and sisters by any sense of the imagination uh this fight is not over just because they've tabled a c-59 just because there's this division 20 contained within it it doesn't mean that we're done I mean we've been Fighters All Along I've been a Union member for 35 years and for me I think that uh it's a uh uh um uh it's just another battle that we have and it's another fight that uh we need to take to uh defend defend our rights um this isn't a done deal I mean why would we let this government bully us I mean if we think back to the mid 90s and the conservatives then and then after that election where only two of them were left my God I think we can do it again and I think that you know quite frankly the The public's on our side right now I I I truly believe that the Canadian public um are really fair and and we're we're we're part of that Canadian public when I did a radio show the other day and they said well you know about uh uh Canadians and I said well kpes we're out there coaching hockey we're you know taking our kids to dance class you know we're doing this with our grandchildren we're grocery shopping at this corner store we are in your communities we're we're taxpayers as well so we need to start talking to our friends and our families and our neighbors be proud of the work that we do and let them know that we're Public Service workers and we're there for them and that we're not about to let this government bully us and we're not about to succumb to pressure so I mean is is is it a battle of course it's a battle is it the first one we've had nope this going to be the last probably not so but this is one that we're going to win and and I truly believe in my heart of hearts uh that we're going to win this and we'll do it uh with the help of each and every member not just PSC members uh but all members of the federal public uh service unions um and uh the other unions as well that uh belong to the Canadian labor Congress thanks well hold on a second before you run here I think you mentioned it earlier in your opening remarks but um maybe just touch on it again because I have a question here from Brenda she says would it be effective to have a generic letter with the facts questions um employees signatures to send to the MP's office and I know that we are working on a um a petition right now right and we'll be releasing our petition can you talk a bit about that so the petition the petition uh in and of itself is to make sure that we talk to our members you know we started our campaign we're all affected probably a year or two ago um we had about uh well I hope that we talk to every single one of our members but we got about 40,000 uh CL cards here in uh Ottawa um and so so I know that that one-on-one conversation is taking place um I also know that we need to talk to our MPS or send letters to our MPS emails I'm getting a lot of uh emails now uh of copies of emails that our members are sending to their MPS um the problem with form letters and what I'm I'm told is that when the MPS receive a form letter uh they sort of put it to the bottom of the pile because even a four four line letter in your own handwriting they have to respond to because um you know goner the days uh where we did the form letters I think back to the uh pay Equity uh um battle and that was another one 15 years 32 years for uh Canada Post and we won those battles um but but I think back to the invoices and we had thousands and thousands of invoices and we fa them and when you know that one line quit and we had another fact number and so you know um that that plugged up the uh uh fax machines for sure but now with today's technology it takes but a minute to send an email um and so I I suppose if we were to give you the text and you wanted to cut and paste uh that would certainly work um but a handwritten um uh letter you know really does work it's a personal touch and uh postage is free it keeps uh your your uh brothers and sisters in cupw um you know working uh because they have to deliver the mail and uh I I think that uh it's it's important so we can give you some hints in terms of what you should put in a letter or how you want to word it um but it just takes uh you know just a very few minutes to drop a note to your MP to let them know that you're you're disappointed you're disappointed that uh your collective bargaining rights are contained within the budget implementation act that your uh the you know Charter rights are being infringed on and that uh this government has absolute disdain for their employees our members perfect thanks Robin Maran I'm going to go back to you for a minute here because earlier you were talking about uh members engaging on social media and uh the little Twitter battle between Tony Clement one of many that we've seen uh the other week but this member asks uh a question from Shantel she says as a member can we use social media to share articles and information speaking against the conser the government without recourse we held a a webinar last month addressing this very subject can you sort of share what was T discussed on that webinar yeah um so of course social media is is out in the public right um so the one thing that was suggested uh from uh it was Edith bramel who is uh the coordinator of our representation section is that um you know it is public information even though you put privacy settings on sometimes that stuff gets out it really is best in your when you're identifying yourself on social media not to put your department um or not to make comments about where you work um so you know I I wouldn't go on and say well I'm a cfia inspector and you know cfia inspector suck or the agency sucks or or there's a problem right so you know don't identify necessarily your department because when you're on social media if you're making those comments make them as as a citizen make them as a Canadian uh and don't uh Target it back so if you have identified uh in your profile for Twitter or or Facebook that you work for a certain Department um you know that it it would be best to take that down um and you know you can you can make comments as long as you're not basically saying and I know this because um uh I work there my my personal um kind of measure when I'm doing stuff although um now as elected officer it's I can be a little more free with my comments um but my my kind of um the lens that I put on stuff is am I putting out information that any member of the public could get even if they a tipped it um so if if a Canadian files an access to information and they would receive this information uh then you know that that kind of it it's basically available to anyone uh if it's stuff that no one would know that's internal information then you want to be really cautious and you know one thing I'll I'll mention on that as well because I somebody just asked me this um yesterday you know if we're doing a rally or you're at another Community rally uh or you're out in the public uh a lot of times reporters will come up and and put a microphone in your face and say you know you're here at this rally you know where do you work and you get that moment of panic um and as happened to me as I'm sure it happens you know to a lot just say no comment uh if it's a psac sponsored event uh and the media is invited we'll have someone uh identified as a speaker and they'll have notes and they'll know uh what our message is because too often reporters can and that's their job they're they're good at their job um we'll we'll try to get you to say something and they'll they'll you know so you might tend to give up more information than you would uh had you had time to think about it so you know kind of kind of watch what you're doing um and the the webinar that we did around political rights is posted to the Prairie's website so you can go back and listen to it and um you can also um share it on social media if you want to share that out some people perfect thanks marann so I just want to make an announcement that it is 8:00 and this this webinar was scheduled for um for 1 hour so we have got a lot of questions we're going to get to two more questions and then we're going to wrap up um so you know if you can if you can stay with us for another uh you know 10 minutes or so we'll get through two more questions and then unfortunately we'll have to wrap up um so Robin I want to go back to you on this question here [Music] um and here we go considering the government uh took sickle out of the equation um with the with this bill c-59 what will the bargaining process look like going forward will the unions keep meeting with treasury board and negotiate so I know that the teams uh stepped away from negotiating this week do you want to talk about sort of why they did that and and what what that process is going to look like going forward now um thanks you know certainly we're going to negotiate uh um we did postpone negotiations for this week I think what we needed to uh take an opportunity to uh look at where we've been look at where we're going to be going um look at what type of mobilization what kind of actions we'd be asking from our membership uh how we would be talking to our our members in terms of ensuring that uh their rights are defended that they stand up uh to defend their own rights uh you know and and you know it turned out really well this week the the negotiating teams uh got to uh go to Parliament they got to uh meet with both the Liberals and the NDP I'm sure that they Tred to have discussions with the the conservatives but that hasn't uh been reported back to me but certainly you know when when you're you're in the house you have an opportunity to talk to folks so I I think that in of itself uh was great um now the team's also looked at uh what demands they have left and how they're going to move forward and uh we're going to be back at the table in June we still have a lot of demand Brothers and Sisters Let's be really clear here we uh sent out our input call you know quite a long time ago we asked for uh uh you know demands from the locals we went through the process with a uh National bargaining conference electing the teams Etc so for us I think it's really important that um uh we we uh uh keep um doing our our negotiations um we we um continue to uh uh go back and forth I mean we've got demands at the table workplace issues that need to be looked at so we're heading back there in June it's it's our responsibility and our right uh to free collective bargaining Robin another question for you here which I I think um a lot of members have been asking here in the Prairies um Angela asks will we end up striking Robin are you still there I'm I'm sorry can you repeat that please oh perfect yeah so Angela asks um will we end up striking we're nowhere near a strike right now I I know Jeffrey you have a a flowchart you could share with um with the the Prairie members but there's a number of steps ah there we go there's another number of steps that we have to take before we would be in a legal strike position we need to uh go into mediation we need to go to the public interest um uh commission they we need to make presentations there they need to write a report um you know there needs to be cooling off system uh in place you know a number of days so for us uh after the the the pck we call it the public interest commission um that's where we would look at uh uh after the report um is um is released then we would look at whether or not we would be going out on strip you have to remember that now with the changes and I think it was under the modernization ACT where they made some of these changes um that our strike vote is only good for 60 days so we would take it at an appropriate time when we were going to use it so at this point in time I'm not uh I'm not too worried about a strike I'm I'm more concerned about us standing up us telling the MPS that uh we're not uh we're not going to take it and that they shouldn't be voting for this and that they should come to the table uh freely to negotiate with us in good faith without predetermining the outcome which is what they're trying to do now and that we'll we'll progress and and do the negotiations that we need to do okay thank you Robin um now it's 810 we're unfortunately gonna have to wrap up so thank you I know we have tons of questions here thank you so much for for your time Robin um Marian I want to throw it back to to you to close things off and for your final thoughts um on tonight's webinar and just this issue in general any anything else you want to add that we haven't discussed yeah um so I I'm just taking a quick look at some of the questions and um so you may or may not hear your your question and some of this um you know have we been monitoring public opinion well a poll is only as as you know today is only as good as the people that were called um but but we are we are looking at public opinion and I honest ly do believe that the public is starting to realize um that um some of the stuff that this government is putting out and you know overall I think the thinking is that this budget didn't do for Canadians what they were expecting it to do so uh talking about the cuts uh we are getting public uh opinion on our side on that what works even better is when you talk to your neighbors and say you know um when you hear on the news about those lazy public servants remember that they're talking about me uh which will often change The public's mind um we um um um um uh can we go to the Supreme Court to fight our rights absolutely um you know we already have a charter challenge in on the essential Services uh and as Robin said uh they're preparing all of the legal cases we can right up to injunction uh and we'll let you know uh if you make an appointment with your impede do you have to tell them what you have to talk about um they'll ask you but the most important thing to say uh you can sayi am a constituent I vote in this writing I am one of his or her constituents and I want to talk to them about something the government introduced I want to know how they're going to vote what their position is uh if they don't meet with you won't talk to you uh please let the regional office know uh so that we can we can do that um I think so you know at the end of the day here's what it comes down to folks um there's a lot of things that that we can do um but there's a lot of a lot of things that members can do so right from all levels of leadership that we have right now um there's a lot of work that's being done but the most effective thing is the grassroot things the the impromptu uh Twitter fights the the impromptu uh Demos in front of an NP office talking to your neighbors talking to your co-workers uh making sure that you stay current on on bargaining information you know the teams will be going back in June uh We've we've done uh just concluded a whole round of multilocal bargaining meetings um but if team members can't come to one of your meetings if you're having an AGM we can try to get someone to call in we need to talk about this process um but right now the time is our fight now is with the government um and so we need to be selective and in uh in in our messaging uh and we need to let them know that we're not backing down and and I thank you Robin for coming on because I've heard you say it many times uh but we now have it on tape of the national president saying we're not giving up sick Leaf uh it's it's not it's I mean I I keep hearing you say it um but we we have you recorded so uh you know when members question um you know thinking that we're going to falter not only are we not giving it up but none of the other unions are so um I also got a text from one of the team members who was in the House of Commons today who uh uh uh apparently Tony Clement said that 47 meetings have been canceled this week uh by unions who don't want to talk to them today um so there's a lot of work being done call your Regional Office contact your area Council uh you know if you want to do a session on how to Lobby on on you know you need some help you need some assistance um by all means call our regional office so thank you all for your time oh can I get a last word in well I guess you're the president so I guess we'll let you have the last word I'm sorry I clicked PR so we'll let you okay oh thanks thanks much I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that except that this is like so exciting I have to say this is the first time that I I uh uh really do a webinar um uh you know we've done all those telephone town halls and you know you're kind of talking to the boy this this way at least tce I I can see maryan so this has been great fun I I really appreciate it and and you're right you've got me on tape and what you've got you know on tape is that okay folks um we're still fighting we we are going to defend our rights uh this isn't a done deal because you know this government isn't going to take away from you they're not going to make you go to work sick um in order to have a full paycheck there's absolutely no way that the is going to negotiate uh anything less than what you have contained in your Collective Agreement if they want to give us more then what's in the Collective Agreement if they want to uh if if they want to enhance what's in the Collective Agreement we'll certainly take that I um in one of my um uh I call them snits and since I'm talking to the Prairies they know exactly what I'm talking about uh in one of my discussions uh with some some managers uh you know like the upper echelon she's they're like well what is it that you want and I said well hey why don't you give us what you've got which is wage replacement all the way up until you should need to have a long-term disability um after they had Apper Plexi and almost choked um because that's what the MPS have they don't you know have to account for any SI days or anything um but where I'm going with the sisters and brothers is that you know certainly um you have contained in your Collective Agreement sickly Provisions those provisions are there for you as an insurance policy should you need to use them you also have contained in your Collective Agreement uh the wherewithal how these uh sick lead Provisions are managed and that's that's Management's job and that's why they get their bonuses and so we're not prepared to um we're not prepared to uh uh uh have a third party uh look after us you know um uh if we're away sick uh we want to talk to our supervisor that's who we believe uh cares about us in the workplace so the long and short of it it's a battle It's A War I don't know what you want to call it but uh we're going to win it and we will win it with each and every one of you standing up to be counted I think MaryAnn's giving you some great ideas to do on the uh 19th of May and the 19th of June and um I'll come to the Prairies anytime you invite me well sorry Maran but I will so if you uh if you want uh if you want Mar and I DET tour around your workplaces you just send uh Maryann an email and we'll make it happen and the deadly duo will come to your work coming to a workplace near you so I I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me this opportunity it's been great fun thanks so very very much all right thanks Robin thanks Maryanne and uh a reminder for everyone who's participating when this call ends you'll have an opportunity to take a survey we encourage you to give us your feedback I've also had a couple questions about the presentation we will post uh this presentation was uh this webinar was recorded we'll post that on the Prairie website which is prairie. psc.com um or psc.com prairies either of those work um so we'll post this a link to this uh video as well as the slides on the Prairie's website I'll post all the links that we've discussed on the call on the website and uh we encourage you to share this information with your colleagues thank you again and have a good night