AFS Saint John Subgroup Meeting Minutes - November 27, 2024

AFS Saint John Subgroup Meeting Minutes

November 27, 2024

Held At: Lily’s Cafe
Commenced: 5:45

 

IN ATTENDANCE:

Lori Rowe, Mike Kane, Mike Melvin, Mike Maxan, Jeffery Wayow, Gayle Armstrong, Dawn Brown

ABSENT:

Sabra Howe, Aaron Everett, Jennifer Sparks

 

ITEMS

The meeting was called to order at 5:45 pm by Chair, Lori Rowe. UPON MOTION duly made by Lori, seconded by Mike Kane, and unanimously carried, it was resolved the agenda of the meeting was verified and approved.
 

1. Previous Meeting Minutes – Minutes were not available for review and distribution. UPON MOTION duly made by Lori, seconded by Jeffery Wayow, and unanimously carried, it was resolved to defer the review of the minutes to the next meeting. 

2. Financial Report presented by Mike Kane in the absence of Aaron Everett – The account balance is $XXX compared to $XXX at the same time last year. 

 

The budget for the AGM this year was $XXX based on the previous year’s actual expense. The actual expenditure this year was $XXX due to unexpectedly high turn out. UPON MOTION duly made by Mike Kane, seconded by Jeffery Wayow, and unanimously carried, it was resolved to accept the financial report. 

 

3. Old Business – No old business was discussed as the minutes of the previous meeting were not available for review.

 

4. New Business

a) PIPSC AGM updates – There was a $XXX dues increase passed at the AGM. The extra funds will, among other things, help fund additional EROs. 

 

Fredericton historically has not had a funded ERO position and it was finally passed and funded. The position is currently not staffed. 

 

The results of the voting are out. Only about 1/8 of the members voted.

 

b) Impact to AUs in Saint John after Commissioner announcement – 3 of 5 term AU members were let go. There is no clear indication how the decision was made to retain any term members or why which ones were chosen. 

 

It has been passed on to union representation that Fox indicated to higher HQ leadership that no CPAs were let go.  This is factually incorrect as 3 names were immediately identified at the table. This would seem to correspond to the 3 AUs let go.

 

The question was raised why we have retired members working on contract and simultaneously collecting a pension while we are letting younger members go. This point was raise by Lori at higher level meetings and the matter is “being looked into”. The contract workers currently on the floor in Saint John are all reporting to HQ.


c) Lunch & Learn planning - There are several topics that need to be presented to the membership, especially given how many of the new members are. 3 Lunch and Learn topics were put forward to be presented with a tentative schedule:

1. PIPSC and AFS Awareness (PIPSC 101 or PIPSC and You) - January
2. Duty to Accommodate - February
3. WFA - March

The proposed idea is to offer each session twice. One PM session on a Tuesday and one lunch session on a Wednesday. This will provide the greatest opportunity to reach the most members as Wednesday tends to be the day of the week with the most people in the office. The suggested locations were:

O’Leary’s

the Library

the Union Club

the masonic temple
 

Dawn Brown will contact Kelsy Ferguson to find out the details on booking O’Leary’s for the January session. The tentative date is January 14/15. 

 

 

WFA training is not currently available and Lori has reached out to Chris Roach to schedule a call for Atlantic stewards with him. This call will be to discuss WFAs and equip the stewards to respond to members’ questions while a suitable training package is sourced for delivery.

 

 

More to follow – Date and time for call with Chris from Lori, booking information from Dawn

 

d) Mobilization – We would like to have a plant gate to illustrate the low morale to management. It was decided that we will hand out name tag stickers to members that say “I am #### of #####”. The message being sent to management is that we do not feel like we are treated as people. We are being treated as numbers or machines in a collective. Mike Maxan will get a price on printing the stickers out.

 

More to follow – Prices from Mike, plant gate time and date, volunteers 

e) Grievances Update – There are currently still grievances ongoing in relation to the mandated 60% return to office.

 

5. Round Table/Other Business – No other business was put forward.

 

Motion to adjourn the meeting was made by Lori Rowe at 7:45 pm.

 

Minutes prepared by Mike Melvin.