Happy New Year friends and colleagues!
I hope this newsletter finds you happy and healthy as we begin the new year. I am honoured to start my second term as Regional Director for the BC/Yukon and am committed to representing our needs on the Board of Directors. We have a new President, Sean O’Reilly as well as nine new Board members. I am excited to work with them and feel quite optimistic about our union’s future even with the challenges we face.
The intention is to have at least two newsletters per year with the goal of updating you about information you might find useful and interesting, regional events, and to also celebrate our accomplishments. We also invite members to submit to the newsletter.
To view the stylized version of this newsletter, please click HERE.
The Medium is the Message
- submitted by NCVI Branch President Alan Messner
As branch presidents, we struggle to keep our members connected. There are so many ways that people communicate from Instagram to Facebook, Whatsapp, Discord, Teams, Slack. How would you get a branch to choose a medium? There are generational biases too. Email? websites? Our members want their messages now and in their calendars in a heartbeat.
We recently tried a new approach: we sent members of the North Central Vancouver Island Branch a summary of the recent Regional Council in Kelowna. For those who have never been to a Regional Council, they can be mysterious at first. I attended my first council as an observer almost 15 years ago. The room was packed. Important votes were taking place to decide how many AGM places should be allotted to smaller branches. The speeches were passionate. The vote was tied and had to be referred to the regional director to make a decision!
There are a lot of issues simmering on the back burners for our members: international politics, trade, changes in government. They all affect us in different ways.
We need to communicate in new ways about the goings on of the institute if we are going to be effective. How is a member who has an interest in participating in our institute going to know if participation fits their spirit of volunteerism? Many think we are paid union reps but we are not. Salary replacement is a far cry from being paid. Why don’t we send our members a summary of our AGMs? Our Steward councils? It is only mysterious to those who were not there. Why do we communicate? Ultimately, each of us within the branch executives know that our last task is to find our own replacement.
We stay connected, we stay informed - better together.
"Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable" - Coco Chanel
Stewards
I would like to take a moment to appreciate all of the stewards in our region. Thank you for stepping up to make sure our members are represented when required whether it is in active disputes with the employer, informal resolution, understanding your collective agreement, or just being an ear to listen to issues. I really appreciate you. If you are not a steward, I hope you will consider becoming one. You get access to excellent training and networking opportunities. You also help increase the strength of our union and support of our members. Active stewards also help lighten the workload of our Employment Relations Officers (EROs). I found the majority of my steward work is helping members (and their supervisors) understand their contracts and entitlements. Sometimes you will be asked to file a grievance - an important part of the role, but there are resources such as other stewards and the EROs mentioned above.
To learn more about becoming a steward (including the application form) go to: https://pipsc.ca/labour-relations/stewards/becoming-a-steward/become
Director Outreach
I truly enjoy my role as your Regional Director and appreciate meeting and talking to members all over the region. I get to hear your concerns and success stories and share information directly. Some highlights from the past year include:
In February we held our Regional Executive meeting in Nanaimo and I was able to attend the North Central Vancouver Island Branch AGM and have a meet ‘n greet with Nanaimo SP subgroup at the Pacific Biological Station. I made two visits to Whitehorse to meet with members of ECCC, DFO, CIRNAC, RCMP, and Yukon Hospital Corporation as well as attend the joint YHC/Yukon Branch AGM. I was joined by Terri D’Souza and Davy Chiu and they organized youth member events that were very successful. In April I attended the SP AGM as a guest speaker and a joint SP/IT movie event in Vancouver (New Westminster), both of which were very well attended. Later that month, I attended the Retired Members Guild AGM. Another wonderful event was the Victoria Branch BBQ in June and an NCVI Branch event in Nanaimo. We hosted a member engagement event in Harrison Hot Springs as part of our September Regional Executive meeting. I was pleased to attend the Okanagan Branch AGM in Penticton, also in September. I also attended the SP Sub-Group presidents meeting and member engagement event in Vancouver. As director, I am also a member of the BC Federation of Labour and attend a meeting in September as well. In October, I spoke to the SP Consultation team who were meeting in Victoria. November took me to Vancouver for the Vancouver Branch AGM. In December I attended the Victoria Branch bowling event which was hugely successful. I also attended a NCVI holiday event and the Fraser Valley Branch AGM held in Abbotsford. If you are holding an event and would like me to attend, contact me at mcranny@pipsc.ca and I will attend if my schedule permits it.
Events
Advanced Training School was held in April in Burnaby. Topics covered were Duty to Accommodate, Progressive Discipline, Burnout Prevention, and Employment Relations Officer Case Review. It was an ambitious schedule but was well received. The next Labour School will be in April so Stewards, look for that opportunity.
Our Regional Council was last June in Kelowna and we also hosted the Board of Directors for our meetings, which was great. I feel that some of our counterparts focus on the National Capital Region, so it’s good for the Board to meet folks in our region. This practice of bringing the BOD to a region once in their 3 year term is something I hope continues. Regional Council is again in June this year and will be held in Parksville.
Steward Council was held in Vancouver in October and while I had to miss it for medical reasons, it went off without a hitch thanks to the BC/Yukon Regional Executive who worked hard to make sure everything was covered. I really appreciate our team - everyone pitches in so we can meet our goals and responsibilities.
In November we had our Executive Leadership training. This course was given by peer-to-peer trainers Pete MacDougall and Cynthia Denman. They did a great job and the feedback was very positive.
Regional Executive funded Member Engagement Events
This past year, we offered Regional funding for members to hold member engagement events that may not fit existing funding options. It was a great success - we had 20 requests and were able to approve 13 events. Here are some pictures from some of the events.
DFO Engineering Lunch event organized by Derek Kwok in Vancouver.
A lunch event for CO members from Public Prosecution Service of Canada in Vancouver organized by Josh Vandenham.
A team lunch event organized by Quinn Yusef for PG members from CFB Esquimalt in Victoria.
Salesh Prasad from PacifiCan organized a team lunch event in Vancouver.
Sara Pyke from BCFNHA organized a fun Karaoke and Appy event in Prince George.
We don’t have photos, but there was an event in Ft. St. John for members of BCFNHA organized by Nikhil Gandhi and Klair Phillipoff and another engagement event organized for members of Yukon Hospital corporation by Jeff Delisle.
Board of Directors
As the Regional Director, I sit on the PIPSC Board of Directors. The board meets every 6-8 weeks to tackle national issues, as well as issues brought forward from the Groups and Regions. If there is anything you would like to raise to the national level, you can bring it to a steward, a member of your local sub-group executive, local branch executive, a regional executive, or even to me directly and we’ll do our best to see that it is addressed. My email is mcranny@pipsc.ca
Important Dates:
Advanced Labour School - April 9-12, Victoria, BC
Spring Basic Steward Training - April 30-May 3, Vancouver, BC
Regional Council - June 13-14, Parksville, BC
Steward Council - October 17-18, Whistler, BC
Fall Basic Steward Training - November 20-22, Vancouver, BC
Executive Training - December 7, Vancouver, BC
National AGM - December 12-13, Toronto, ON
Downloadable PIPSC Calendar
Get your digital Calendar here: https://pipsc.ca/member-tools/downloadable-calendar