Adam Jackson
Both the Political Action Committee and The Communications Committee met January 9-11, 2012 at the request of the National President. The goal was to follow-up on the November meeting, and arrive at a completed campaign plan and rollout strategy.
Adam Jackson chaired the meeting. In attendance from PAC were Jamie VanSydenborgh, Brad Feraday, Annette Melanson. In Attendance from the Communications committee were Sabri Khayat, Chris Aylward, Barry Melanson, Susan Duncan and Shane O’Brien. Brother Lorne Roslinski who had chaired the last joint meeting in November was absent with reason.
The group spent the three days establishing timelines, documentation and material for presidents to be delivered to them during President’s conference. The campaign will have two important elements to start. One will be the engagement of local MPs by local presidents on the importance of pensions and severance for our members. The second will be an engagement of all members to provide information in business card format when they shop at local businesses. The message on the card is very simple: Support Public Service Workers, We Support You. The card has a website address where interested parties can go to find out information. This is a very non-confrontational approach; one we believe will be the most effective. It will highlight the union value of shopping locally, and will show that most of our income is spent locally, supporting local businesses.
As stated above, this will be rolled out at the Presidents conference, but I, as PAC chair will be emailing instructions out to Presidents and RVPS so that this does not come as a surprise. PAC will also be providing a presentation on the campaign itself, including lobbying, and severance to ensure the Presidents have the background information they will need on the subject. We have also arranged to have James Infantino provide a presentation on pensions.
Respectfully submitted,
Adam Jackson
Chair of the joint committee meeting