Jamie vanSydenborgh
The Committee met January 19th & 20th in Ottawa and developed a lobbying campaign to convince the Federal Government to remove CRA bargaining from under Treasury Board (Bill C-45) and back to separate bargaining. There are currently campaigns being run by the PSAC and the Canadian Labour Congress regarding pensions. The proposed legislation (Bill C-27) would change pensions for workers in federally regulated agencies, such as Canada Post and NAVCAN, from defined benefit to risky defined contribution plans. We ask that you include this when meeting with your Member of Parliament.
For almost a year, we have been dealing with PHEONIX pay issues that our members have been experiencing and felt that this would be an ideal topic to discuss when meeting with MPs.
The Lobbying Campaign was released on January 26th and as of the writing of this report a few locals have already committed to lobbying. We intend to remind our Local Presidents and RVPs of the importance of this campaign at the March Presidents’ Conference. Of note, the Canadian Labour Congress held a Lobbying Conference in early February, we did not have details of this conference but noticed that several UTE activists participated.
I would like to thank my fellow committee members Brother Cosimo Crupi (Co-Chair), Brother Brad Feraday (Presidents’ Representative) and Sister Annette Melanson (Staff) for their help on the committee and developing our campaign.
Respectfully submitted,
Jamie vanSydenborgh
Chair of the Committee