Phil entered last week’s contest by telling us that the GSU 2020 convention is being held at the Temple Gardens Hotel & Spa in Moose Jaw, and it was his name pulled out of the hat as our winner of two Rush tickets.
If Phil has been waiting for the right moment to bust out his neon hammer pants, this is the occasion. It’s 80s night at this Saturday’s game when the Rush take on the Colorado Mammoth in Saskatoon. In addition to the usual chest thumping that is encouraged at Rush games, fans can get up and dance during the half-time show by Streetheart.
Have a great time, Phil.
Check back next week when we’ll be sweeping in with some tickets for an event that will rock your world.
An intervention by GSU rep Steve Torgerson produced a solution for a member of Local 2 (Viterra Head Office) who had been waiting for seven weeks as their claim for EI benefits languished at Service Canada.
The member in question was laid off in mid-December as a result of the elimination of their position in Viterra’s Regina head office. When issuing the record of employment (ROE), Viterra’s payroll department mistakenly indicated that the member was on a leave of absence. A co-worker heard of the predicament and contacted GSU.
Steve Torgerson contacted HR to sort out the problem and a corrected ROE was issued to Service Canada.
“A lot of worry and frustration could have been avoided in this situation if GSU had been contacted sooner,” said GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner. “We do our best to find solutions and answers for GSU members and it all begins with a phone call, email or text message.”
No problem is too small. If you have a question or a concern, don’t hesitate to contact your GSU staff rep. Their services are provided to you as part of your union dues. There is no additional charge for assisting you.
The 2020 GSU Biennial Policy Convention is coming up on March 19-21, 2020, and we want you to join us for what is shaping up to be a fantastic convention.
The venue
Moose Jaw’s Temple Gardens Hotel & Spa in the heart of downtown Moose Jaw is the ideal setting for our 2020 GSU convention. Learn more about the venue here.
The convention
Ask anyone who has been at a GSU convention and they will tell you the people are friendly, everyone is welcome, the opinion of every delegate matters.
The policy convention sets the tone of the union for the next two years, and we need you to join us, tell us about the goals and concerns of workers in your workplace, and let us know what changes you want made in how we represent you and your fellow union members.
We have already lined up a great guest speaker, entertainment, and an exciting agenda we’ll be telling you about soon.
The entertainment
There is plenty for you and your fellow convention delegates to do outside the regular convention hours.
Casino Night GSU will be hosting a night of games and entertainment with a private casino evening for convention delegates.
World-renowned geothermal mineral spas. Early-birds can enjoy a 7:00 a.m. early-morning soak in the indoor/outdoor naturally warm spa waters, and night owls can soothe away their aches and relax their minds in the pools until 11:00 p.m. Wednesday/Thursday, and midnight on Friday.
Tunnels of Moose Jaw Travel back in time under the streets in Moose Jaw’s tunnels
Casino Moose Jaw Feeling lucky? Head across the street to the casino. If you take the pedway you won’t even need your coat.
The game changer for Mandel came when his private struggle was broadcast during a candid moment on a live radio show, and the public support Mandel received assured him he wasn’t alone in his challenges. You can hear his powerful story in the clip, above.
A trip to a counselor or psychiatrist to care for your mental health is as important as seeing your dentist or your doctor to care for your physical health.
One in five people in Canada will experience a mental health issue or illness in any given year. Stigma surrounding mental health is the number one reason two-thirds of those living with a mental illness don’t seek help. We must do better.
Do your part to end the stigma around mental health.
Talk about it, be kind, and be a safe place to allow others to be open about their struggles.
You can help raise funds just by using your phone on Jan. 29.
On Bell Let’s Talk Day, Bell will donate more towards mental health initiatives in Canada by contributing 5¢ for every applicable text, call, tweet, social media video view and use of their Facebook frame or Snapchat filter.
We’ve got two tickets to watch the Rush take on the Colorado Mammoth, and we’re giving them away to one GSU member. It’s easy to enter our contest draw. Just answer our contest question and you’ll be entered to win.
What venue and city are the host of GSU’s March 19-21, 2020 convention?
Get your answer to gsu@gsu.ca by 9:00 a.m. Feb. 4 and we’ll get your name into the draw drum.
Foreground: ILWU Canada president Rob Ashton on the Unifor Local 594 picket line.
On Jan. 25, ILWU Canada president Rob Ashton led a delegation to visit the Unifor Local 594 picket line at the Federated Cooperative Limited (FCL) refinery in Regina. Ashton was accompanied by five ILWU Canada members from the Vancouver area and GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner.
“The purpose of our visit was to bring solidarity greetings to the Unifor 594 members who are on the line to defend their hard won pension benefits against the efforts of an aggressive employer,” Wagner said. “Unifor’s brave stand has rallied the labour movement across the country. I was proud to stand with Rob Ashton and members of the ILWU Canada family as he brought best wishes from more than 15,000 members in Canada.”
GSU members employed by Viterra went through much of the same thing when their employer decided it wanted to be done with union members’ defined benefit pension plan.
Much like FCL today, Viterra had convinced a GSU bargaining committee to agree to exclude future hires from joining the defined benefit pension plan and promised that it would guarantee the pensions earned under the defined benefit pension plan.
Only a few years later, Viterra said it no longer wanted to stand behind its pension guarantees and proposed to wind up the defined benefit pension plan thereby cutting the pensions of pensioners and the earned pensions of active employees by up to 22 percent. GSU fought Viterra and won, but it was a grueling and expensive battle.
FCL’s propaganda about employee contributions is a red herring. The FCL pension plan for refinery workers in Regina is one of the promises made by the employer as part of the give and take of their collective bargaining relationship.
In 1979 FCL set up an employer controlled and funded defined benefit pension plan in addition to an employee savings plan. FCL did not ask employees to contribute to the pension plan and in turn it had control over the plan including the ability to make investment decisions and determine how investment surpluses were deployed.
FCL proposed the defined benefit pension plan that it now wants to dump in order to attract and retain qualified workers in a labour market that was highly competitive and in a work environment that highly technical, dangerous and stressful. These were FCL ideas and proposals to the union. This was not an arrangement that the union foisted on or extracted from FCL.
FCL never took issue with the design of its pension plan until 2017 when it convinced the Unifor local to agree to exclude new hires from the defined benefit (DB) pension plan and have them participate in a defined contribution (DC) pension plan. Unifor members concede that they made a mistake on this issue in 2017, but relied on FCL’s promise that all those who remained in the DB plan would do so for the rest of their employment.
What FCL is saying this time around, is that all Unifor members at the refinery must move to a DC pension plan and/or that those who want to remain in the DB plan should have to pay all of the supposed 11.5% wage increase being offered into the DB plan in addition to eliminating their company sponsored joint savings plan worth another 6.5% of employees’ pay; all in return for a significantly inferior pension calculation formula and the removal of employer pension backstop guarantees.
It seems FCL has become accustomed to throwing its weight around. After all, it was FCL that was behind the six-month strike/lockout over two-tier wages at the Saskatoon Co-op. It was FCL that was behind the 17-week strike over wages at the Wynyard Co-op several years ago. And it is FCL that seems to run the show at each of GSU’s bargaining tables with Discovery Co-op (North Battleford), Lake Country Co-op (P.A.), Lloydminster Co-Op and Prairie Co-op (Cupar and Strasbourg).
“Unifor has always been a strong force for good in the workplace and I urge every GSU member to do whatever they can to support Unifor Local 594 at the FCL refinery in Regina,” Wagner said.
Staff rep Steve Torgerson is working with members and the newly elected executive in Local 9 (Hi-Pro Feeds) to strengthen their workplace health and safety committees. Members are concerned the company isn’t fully engaged in their workplace H&S Committees, so they approached Steve for his guidance and assistance to help protect plant and mill workers by returning the committees to acceptable standards.
Do you need help? Just want advice? GSU can help. If you need advice or ideas about how to handle a workplace situation, contact your GSU staff rep. These services are provided to you as part of your union dues. There is no additional charge for assisting you.
As a worker, it’s frightening to think that your employer can demand concessions to your pension plan.
As a GSU member, the good news is this time it’s not your employer demanding pension concessions. The same can’t be said for nearly 800 Co-op Refinery workers are still on the picket line trying to protect their pension plans.
Choosing to strike is never an easy decision. Negotiations between Unifor and Federated Co-op hit an impasse when the employer demanded massive concessions on pensions, despite an explicit commitment during the last round of bargaining to maintain the current pension plan.
Would you be willing to strike over major concessions to your pension plan? Or would you look the other way? Look beyond Facebook and media headlines. Challenge yourself to talk to a locked-out worker and ask them why they’ve been on a picket line for a month in the middle of winter.
UPCOMING BARGAINING DATES: The previously set Feb. 25 bargaining date was postponed until March 24, and postponed again due to COVID-19. No further dates are set at this time.
GSU’s collective agreement with The Western Producer expired July 31, 2019.
Bargaining committee members representing GSU Local 5 are Sharlene Tetrault, Michelle Houlden, and GSU staff rep/bargaining spokesperson Dale Markling.
Collective bargaining is how the union and company management arrive at the terms and conditions of employment for the workers in the bargaining unit.
Sides meet, proposals exchanged
Source: Jan. 21, 2020 TMM
Union and company committee met on Jan. 14 in Saskatoon and exchanged a number of proposals. When the two sides didn’t agree on most of the larger issues, they did agree to create a sub-committee to meet and attempt to and narrow down issues.
The next bargaining session has been scheduled for Feb. 25.
GSU’s collective agreement with The Western Producer expired July 31, 2019. Bargaining committee members representing GSU Local 5 are Sharlene Tetrault, Michelle Houlden, and GSU staff rep/bargaining spokesperson Dale Markling.
If you aren’t enjoying solid sleep for a minimum of seven hours, chances are your body needs more rest. (And no, napping doesn’t count.)
Getting a proper amount of sleep is vital for your overall health and well-being. A deep, prolonged sleep allows your body to mend, stay trim, and combat heart disease and other ailments. If you spend nights tossing and turning or you are sleeping well for less than seven hours, you are interfering with your ability to focus and complete complex tasks, and you are increasing your risk for Alzheimer’s.
Use the frigid weather as an excuse to hit the sheets early.
Recent conversations with members of Local 1 (Viterra Operations & Maintenance) and a recent workplace incident have reinforced the importance of employees’ rights in relation to hours of work.
Employees who receive less than 24 hours’ notice that the start time or time-frame of their scheduled shift has changed should decline to change and report for work at their originally scheduled time.
The right to 24 hours’ notice is covered in section 173.1 of Part III of the Canada Labour Code which applied to GSU members in Locals 1 & 2 (Viterra), 4 (Grain Millers), and 14 (Richardson). The Code also provides that employers shall provide employees with their work schedules in writing at least 96 hours before the start of the employee’s first shift under the schedule.
Exceptions are provided for in the event of a threat to the life, health or safety of any person; threat of damage to or loss of property; or the threat of serious interference with the ordinary working of the employer’s industrial establishment.
Employees should be staffing their operations adequately and should not rely on employees constantly interrupting their plans, their family or private time or compromising health and safety on account of fatigue.
The weather may be cold, but the fellowship will be warm Jan. 18 as women and their allies around the world will join the fourth annual march of Women’s March Global, a yearly event that brings together inspired, international change-makers committed to fighting for equality, justice, and human rights worldwide.
In Saskatchewan, supporters in Saskatoon and Regina will gather to march for change, mutual support, and to create connections for the future.
Learn more on the following Facebook links:
Women’s March Canada 2020 REGINA Sat. Jan. 18 – 10:00 a.m. March / 10:45 post-march social YWCA – Regina 1940 McIntyre Street, Regina, SK
We asked GSU members to tell us what event they would attend if the sports fairy granted them tickets, and we learned about a lot of fantastic events all over the world that we didn’t even know existed. We could only draw one winner, and this time it’s Glenda Hunter-Craig who gets two tickets to watch the Rush take on the Colorado Mammoth this Saturday evening in Saskatoon.
We wish we could have the sports fairy whisk you away to the 2020 Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Glenda, but at least you and your guest will enjoy the Rush game. Thanks to everyone who played along. Check back for more chances to win.
Archives [Jan. 7, 2020]:
The Rush season has started off well and we have two tickets to the game and we are giving them away to one lucky GSU member. You can enter our ticket draw by sending us your answer to the following question:
If the sports fairy flew down and told you she was sending you and 10 friends to any sporting event in the world you wanted to attend, where would you ask her to send you?
The board of directors of the GSU Defense Fund met in Regina on Dec. 11. The meeting agenda included receiving an update on the Fund’s assets and receiving an investment portfolio review presented by Keith Pavo of RBC Dominion Securities Inc.
GSU Defense Fund has current assets (market value) of $4.7 million. The investment and management of the Fund is overseen by a five-person elected board of directors. Current directors are Dennis Piasta (Local 14 – Kindersley), Ron Gerlock (Local 8 – Regina), Sharlene Tetrault (Local 5 – Saskatoon), Wilfred Harris (Local 1 – Carnduff), and Darryl Knelsen (Local 1 – Fairlight).
Directors are elected to two-year terms by delegates to GSU’s biennial policy conventions. The next round of elections for directors will be held during the 2020 GSU policy convention scheduled for March 19 to 21 at Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa in Moose Jaw.
Shortly after the 2020 GSU convention, the directors will meet again with RBC representatives to review and renew the investment guidelines for the Defense Fund.
With two meetings to go, a strong majority of GSU members attending 2019 annual meetings debated and ultimately voted to continue the additional union dues of $10 per member per month being paid into the GSU Defense Fund.
So far, a majority of 86 percent of voters have approved the motion to continue the additional dues for another year and to vote again at the 2020 annual meetings of GSU locals and sub-locals.
“Although the motion to continue the additional dues to the GSU Defense Fund has been approved every year since voting began in 1996, the annual process is fundamental to union democracy,” said GSU general secretary Hugh Wagner. “This is by far the largest and most important asset GSU members collectively own. It is one of the key aspects of defending GSU members’ rights, so it stands to reason that the subject is revisited every year.”
