PRESIDENT’S REPORT
TO THE CONVENTION
2005
This is the second time that I have had the honour of
presenting a President’s
Report to our National Triennial Convention. This report will cover
the Stewardship of the Office of President for the last three years.
Under the By-laws of UTE, the specific duties outlined for the Office
of President are as follows:
Union of Taxation Employees
By-Law 8
DUTIES OF OFFICERS
Section 1- President
The President shall:
(1) represent UTE on the National Board of Directors
of the PSAC as required by the Constitution;
(2) (a) uphold the Constitution of the PSAC and
the By Laws of UTE;
(b) preside at all meetings
and Conventions;
(c) be an ex-officio
member of all committees;
(d) perform all duties
that are incidental to the office of President;
(3) be responsible to the Executive Committee, to the
Executive Council and to the Convention;
(4) make written reports on the administration
of the office and on the affairs of UTE to each regular meeting of the
Executive Council and to each Convention;
(5) be responsible for the administrative management,
control and allocation of staff in the National Office;
(6) be responsible for the receipt and keeping
of all monies of UTE along with their disbursement under the direction
of the Executive Council;
(7) ensure that notices and agendas of each Executive
Council, Executive Committee meeting, Presidents' Conference and Convention
are prepared and circulated in advance;
(8) be responsible for the minutes of all meetings
of the Executive Council, Executive Committee and Presidents' Conferences
and will countersign them along with the first Vice-President;
(9) be responsible for the preparation of a complete
record of any Convention;
(10) ensure that copies of minutes of the Executive Council
or Executive Committee meetings are sent to each Local within four (4)
weeks and ensure that the record of any Convention is sent to each Local
within four (4) months;
(11) ensure that the National Office provides services in both
official languages; and
(12) ensure that UTE directives, policies and procedures are updated
and subsequently forwarded to Locals.
Although the Office of the President is directed by the specific
duties listed in our By-laws, direction and/or guidance is also received
from the Supreme Governing Body of our Organization, our Triennial Convention,
the Executive Council, Executive Committee, Presidents’ Conference,
Locals and UTE members.
I have tabled written reports at each of the scheduled
Executive Council meetings since the last convention, which were published
with the minutes of the meetings.
To say the least, it has been an interesting and busy three years. This
goes for the membership, local executives and stewards, as well as, the
national executives. At the last convention, I said in my report
that “to my recollection, we have never spent as much time conducting
union duties as we have in the last three years” and if it is possible
I believe that we were even busier from 2002 to present. Much of
the work of our national officers and local executives is keeping them
occupied almost full time. Our employer has kept us busy and active
and our membership demands the excellent representation that they expect
from their Union, the Union of Taxation Employees.
I would like to formally thank the membership for their support of their
Union, the Union of Taxation Employees. It must be stated clearly,
that without the membership we could not accomplish anything. The
membership has shown repeatedly their commitment to achieving what is important
to them. This certainly holds true with the process of negotiations
with the CRA during the last round of bargaining. Whether it was
conducting information pickets, plantgating, participating in strike and
ratification votes, or walking the picket line; the members were there. They
were the ones who sent the message to the employer that they are ready
and willing to fight when they need to.
The local executives and stewards also deserve recognition, as you are
the front line of the union for the membership. You are the ones
who listen to members, represent them at the initial stages, deliver the
Union message and conduct the votes and campaigns. Your work is invaluable
to the organization. The cause for a great deal of the local activism
of the membership can be attributed to the local executives and stewards. I
know that at times it feels like a thankless job but something always keeps
us going. I call it dedication, drive, perseverance and maybe a real
need to do the right thing. Whatever it is, it works. The
CRA recognizes that we are not a Union to be taken for granted.
I would also like to thank the members of the Executive Council. They
are all opinionated, passionate on issues and very vocal to say the least. However,
for the last three years I can say that we have worked together as a unit
regardless of the differences of opinions. Once a decision has been
made, there is a commitment to move forward and to get the job done.
Finally, I would also like to thank the Staff for their contribution to
the Union of Taxation Employees. Their work with the National Committees
is exemplary and we have made a conscious effort to reduce the grievances
on hand. I will admit however that we need to continue that work
on a daily basis. We have developed and delivered an excellent course
for local executives called “Developing Membership Activism” and
the reviews have been very favourable by the participants.
I would now like to look back on some of the major issues that have faced
us since our last Convention.
Negotiations:
During the press conference on November 1, 1999, I said, “the only
good thing about going into Agency status was that we would finally be
able to “bargain” directly with our employer and not the nameless,
faceless people at Treasury Board. Our bosses all over the country
could finally be held accountable for the state of negotiations”. We
would also be able to pursue issues that were of specific concern to our
members instead of having to share time with the diverse groups represented
at the Treasury Board Tables. After three rounds of bargaining, most
of our members are paid higher than their counterparts in Treasury Board
and we have clauses in our Collective Agreement that are specific to us.
We did manage to settle two rounds of negotiations since the birth of
the CRA without a strike but not the third and most recent round of bargaining. The
last round was by no means a “normal” round of bargaining with
the stubbornness of the CRA, the delays caused by the CRA, the proximity
of our table with the timing of the Treasury Board tables and the intervention
of no less than three Cabinet Ministers to settle the matter. A lot
of the decision making was taken out of our hands through no fault of ours
or our Negotiating Team. However, when the membership supported the
strike vote they also acted positively when it came time to call the strike. As
I have stated at many recent Annual General Meetings, it was the first
strike that has happened since I took over the Office of the President
but certainly not my first strike, either legal or illegal. I found
out very early on that no matter what decision I made, I would not satisfy
everyone. The phone calls and e-mails that I received prior to, during
and after the strike confirmed that fact. However, the membership
was the most positive thing to come out of the strike. Their actions
were united, determined and creative when it came down to the strike and
strike activities. We had our first taste of Strategic Strike Action
and the members from Client Services, Cash, Mail Room and Call Centres
were front and centre for that call to action. It is not easy to
find activities for over 3000 people to do when they could not picket their
own worksites. However, it was done and it was successful. These
members deserve special recognition from the entire organization for their
efforts.
I would like to see the day when there is no waiting for a “retro
cheque” because we would have concluded a collective agreement before
the old one expires. As you know, everyone should have a dream and
that one is mine. Personally, I would like to see the teams go into
a room on a given date prior to the expiry of the old collective agreement
and not come out until they have reached either a tentative agreement or
an impasse.
As you know, Bill C-25 will change the way we bargain, the timing for
strike votes and strike, as well as having Essential Service contracts,
instead of “designations”. I have already served notice
to the CRA that we would like to conclude the Essential Service Agreement
prior to mid 2006. This is one hurdle that I would like to see put
behind us early in the process. I suspect that the future rounds
of bargaining will prove to be quite challenging.
Finances:
I continue to fully support the changes that have been introduced over
the last three years to tighten the spending and managing our assets. We
need to continue to watch our funds, control our spending, account for
our expenses and look ahead to see what we want to continue to spend our
money on or what new endeavors we want to pursue. We should always
be looking 4 or 5 years ahead.
The state of the PSAC’s finances is also very important to UTE members. Effective
financial control and monitoring within the PSAC was one of the things
that UTE delegates demanded at the 2000 and 2003 PSAC Conventions. It
is necessary if UTE members are to get value for their dues. That’s
why I stood for re-election to the PSAC National Board of Director’s
Standing Finance Committee and why I have been actively involved in its
work over the last three years. I can report to this Convention that
the finances of the PSAC have continued to improve over the last three
years. I do attribute some of it to the active roll of the PSAC Standing
Finance Committee.
Communication:
I know that we have continued to improve our communications with the membership
over the last three years. The following are some of our improvements:
- The invaluable work of our Communications Committee.
- The hiring of a full time Communications/Web person.
- The UTE Membership Questionnaire. This was the first time that
the Organization went directly to the members for input.
- The National and Regional Action Plans that were developed from the
input of the Questionnaire.
- The UTE Newsletter.
- The establishment of a “News Group” with over 300 individual
e-mail addresses to directly receive Union information.
- The establishment of a “Subscribe” system on our website.
- The timely updating of our website.
- The updating and distribution of our publications.
- The continued training aspect of our Presidents’ Conferences.
- The UTE training courses and sessions on specific issues that are conducted
either nationally or regionally.
CEUDA:
I really did not want to report on this issue again but I feel that I
must. The “Riche Decision” came down and the individual
local anomalies were also looked at and decided upon. A few other
individual cases have also arisen over the last three years and do continue
to arise from time to time and the PSAC National President has and will
continue to rule on these situations. The most recent being the GST
Pools in Saskatoon and Regina. The members in those work sections
have been assigned to us.
The most positive thing that I can say about this issue is that we no
longer have two people sitting side by side, doing the same job, but belonging
to two different Components. It is the will of the entire National
Executive to have all PSAC workers in the CRA to belong to the Union of
Taxation Employees component and we will continue to strive to make that
happen.
CRA Staffing Regime:
Staffing within the CRA is protected by the legislation that enacted the
Agency. Currently the only thing the Agency has to do is submit a
report to Parliament, which I believe no one will even read. This
has been an area where our gains have been slow in coming. However,
even using the rules that the CRA has put in place, we have had few failures
to date in our challenges using the Independent Third Party Review (ITPR)
process. We have now named individuals in the field to handle the
staffing challenges, as we did with the appeal representatives. A
training plan for them needs to be concluded, as soon as possible.
We should also continue to table staffing demands at the bargaining table
and educate the members as to their importance. It would be quite
a change if the members were willing to strike over good staffing language.
Youth:
In my report to the last Convention, I stated that we needed to work on
involving the Youth of our organization. UTE held a Youth Conference
since then and we have reaped some of the benefits of this by way of some
Youth becoming activists in our locals. However, if we look around
at our local executives and the national executive, we are still hard pressed
to find many members of the “youth” group. It is obvious
to me that we still have more work to do.
It was my great pleasure to chair the Youth Caucus during the conference. It
certainly brought renewed vigor to me. Their enthusiasm was quite
contagious. I think that we must remember that we will not be around
forever and that we have a need for a mentoring program for those that
will continue the union work after we have left our positions. This
is something that we should encourage and not be afraid of.
PSAC National Board of Directors:
As National President of the Union of Taxation Employees, I am a member
of the National Board of Directors of the Alliance where I represent the
interests of our members. I serve on two of the Alliance’s
NBOD Standing Committee’s, the Finance and the Collective Bargaining
Committee. I am also a member of the Special Structure/Roles and
Responsibilities Committee. The work on the last committee has been
tediously slow over the last three years but I hope to see some changes
come about prior to the 2006 PSAC Convention.
The Board meets three times a year and I have presented resolutions on
behalf of our Executive Council and our members. Most have been adopted. On
issues that came from other Components, Committees, or the Alliance Executive
Committee, I have voted in accordance with UTE policies and in the best
interest of our members. Brother Bob Campbell is always present at
the Board to provide me with advice whether requested or not.
UTE Committees:
The committees have been extremely active in pursuing their mandates and
reporting to the membership through their minutes or Executive Council
Reports. Some have also issued Bulletins or Memoranda for the locals
to circulate to the membership. There continues to be a need for
improvement in the completion of requested surveys or information to the
locals. The Committees that seek information from the locals in order
to conduct their work require this information or they would not be asking
for it. Most of the committees are autonomous with the Chairs keeping
the National President informed of their progress. There are times
however when the National President is requested to intervene or meet with
the CRA or the PSAC on behalf of a committee. However, happily this
is rare.
Executive Council Activities:
The following is a list of some of the items that the Council has
dealt with over the last three years:
- Moved amounts of budgeted line items around to reflect current needs
and spending.
- Adopted a formula for the Regional/Inter-regional budgets.
- Dealt with all left over items from the last convention.
- Provided for many donations to various groups and/or individuals.
- Reviewed the Policy and Procedures Manual and made appropriate changes
to the UTE Regulations.
- Authorized the Developing Membership Activism course and planned the
role out of this course each December.
- Reviewed and updated our UMC Agreement with the employer for signing. It
should be noted that the CRA has yet to agree to such an Agreement. Bill
C-25 has moved them to a generic Agreement that they want with all Bargaining
Agents in the Agency.
- Have made several changes to our Regulations that were sent to all
locals and will be presented for ratification at this convention.
- Have added several events to the Non-UTE Events list.
- Have authorized four new locals: Lethbridge, Moncton, Policy
and Planning and Barrie.
- Authorized an IT Audit for the National Office and set rules for inventory
control and the care and maintenance of the UTE computer equipment.
- Have authorized several Honours and Awards to be presented.
- Authorized the use of electronic correspondence instead of hard copy.
- Authorized the UTE Membership Questionnaire to be developed and distributed.
- Authorized the development and distribution of a New Members Kit.
- Authorized the development and distribution of a UTE Newsletter to
be mailed directly to the members.
- Approved the Terms of Office for the EO Representatives on the EO Committee
to two years.
- Have attempted to deal with the continually change by Air Canada to
the airfares that UTE provides to the locals and individuals. This
is an ongoing problem due to the changes being made by the airline.
- Approved the budget being proposed at this convention.
- Approved partial funding for our delegates to the PSAC Regional Conventions.
- Approved the formation of a Building Committee to look at the needs
of UTE and adopted the recommendations of this committee to stay within
the PSAC building with additional space and renovations to encompass
future needs.
- Approved the formation of an Ad Hoc Political Information Committee
and adopted recommendations made by this committee.
- Adopted a rule that minors will only be allowed into any UTE Hospitality
Suite if they are accompanied by an adult UTE member or staff and it
is before 8:00 PM.
Equity:
Since the last convention, there have been regional Equal Opportunity
Conferences and one National Conference. A wide variety of issues
were discussed and presented at these conferences. I attended all
Regional Conferences and the National Conference and in my opinion, all
of them were extremely well received by the participants. The organizers
should be very proud. To my knowledge, the UTE is one of the first
Components that provided such conferences for their membership. Every
member is welcome and there is no one who does not learn, teach, or share
something at these conferences. We are an inclusive union who attempts
to educate the membership on all issues. The Union is a part of
equity and equity is a part of our Union.
A Rule of Life:
In life, you only need two tools: WD-40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't
move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use
the duct tape.
In conclusion, the UTE has always functioned as an “organization”,
not single individuals. The Executive Council must work together,
as well as in harmony with all of the locals. The initial membership
contact is at the local level so it is extremely important for most of
the activity to take place at that level. This is where local development,
guidance and experience can be shared by the Regional Vice Presidents and
National Officers. But first and foremost the locals must have vitality,
be visible to the membership, have the expertise needed to do the job and
operate as a single unit as UTE when required (i.e.: during bargaining
or separate campaigns taken on by the UTE etc). We have made progress
over the last three years but there is still work to be done.
However, over the last year I have seen several local executives spending
a lot of time and energy fighting among themselves. This is neither
productive nor healthy for the membership of a local. The only ones
that this hurts is the membership and it certainly does nothing for the
credibility of the local with the employer. We do not have to be
best friends and like everyone to work effectively with them. This
was something that I addressed at the first Presidents’ Conference
after I was elected six years ago and it seems that it is time that I addressed
it again.
Respectfully submitted,
Betty Bannon
National President
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