RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS
STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING
Ontario Regional Executive
May 18, 2018
Meeting Date May 18, 2018
Time 9:00 am to 5:00 pm
Members (Present)
Peter Gilkinson, Regional Director and ORE Chair, and Labour day parade co-ordinator
Din Kamaldin, ORE Vice-Chair, and Labour day parade co-ordinator
John G. Purdie – Ontario Regional Council Chair & Branch Liaison and Newsletter Editor
Linda Joly – Ontario Regional Council Vice-Chair, and Event Co-ordinator
Tom Yantsis – Ontario Region Treasurer
Christopher P. L'Estrange – Recording Secretary, Training Committee Recording Secretary
Judy Chow – Training Committee Member & Lead Social Media Manager
Peter S. Jozsa – Steward Council Chair, and Training Committee Chair & Social Media Manager
Yvonne Snaddon – Training committee member, Branch Liaison and Newsletter Editor & Social Media Manager
Dean Corda – Branch Liaison and Newsletter Editor, Training Committee Member & Social Media Manager
Tim Azab – Labour day parade co-ordinator & Legacy Foundation Champion & Social Media Manager
Members (Absent) None
Alternates None
Invitees/Observers None
Presenters None
Secretariat Christopher L’Estrange
Item #
Discussion Summary
Action Required
Completed Action
1. Call to order by the Chair
Motion to begin the strategic meeting.
Moved by: Din Kamaldin
Seconded by: Dean Corda
Motion Carried
2. Approval of Agenda
The secretary did not prepare an agenda for the strategic meeting as in the past it was imbedded in the regular meeting agenda.
The group tailored an agenda to be used for this and future meetings.
Discussion regarding the agenda.
Motion to approve the meeting agenda.
Moved by: John Purdie
Seconded by: Christopher L’Estrange
Motion Carried
3. Elections for Regional Executive Positions
ORC Chair: John Purdie
ORC Vice Chair: Tim Azab
Regional Vice Chair: Din Kamaldin
Secretary: Chris L’Estrange
Treasurer: Tom Yantsis
Training Committee Chair: Pete Jozsa
Branch Liaison Officers: Yvonne John Linda, and Dean
Training committee members: Judy, Yvonne and Dean and Chris (recording secretary)
Events Committee Chair: Chris L’Estrange
Social Media Manager: Judy Chow
Yong Professional Chair: Yvonne Snaddon
Legacy Cup Champion: Tim Azab
Labour Day Organizer: Din, Peter and Tim.
Resolution Committee: John and Dean
4. Identification of Strategic Goals
We should consider the strategic plan as an evergreen document which includes what we accomplished and what we still have to work on.
Steward Coverage (across the Region):
Peter says that he has obtained a spreadsheet with the number of members at each building (job location) and the number of stewards at those locations.
His analysis shows that we have very good coverage. There are gaps. Some job locations with a handful of members have no stewards. We don’t have a situation where a large number of members have no stewards at their job site.
We discussed the locations where there are no stewards.
We decided that the Branch Liaison would work with the Branch Presidents to reach out to those members near them to ensure those members are aware that PIPSC is nearby even if not present at their work site.
Peter explained that this is a starting point for us to form a plan to connect with the smaller pockets of members – engagement and mobilization – reach out with members – mailout package – part of Better Together Campaign – include a message to let them know the stewards that you can contact for representation – we need a list and identify the members who may be isolated or who may not have a visible PIPSC presence.
Facebook Page:
We should be going in and inviting people to join. We need to build our numbers. Increase the group size.
Perhaps a message on the PIPSC National Facebook page to announce that the Ontario Region also has a Facebook page may help spread the message.
Ontario Provincial Election:
Politically, the upcoming Ontario Provincial election is important with the Ontario Conservative Party having a negative agenda as it affects our Ontario members. The Ontario Executive would like to avoid endorsing a particular party but we also see the agenda of the Ontario Conservatives are not in line with the best interests of PIPSC members or union members in general.
Yvonne says that President Daviau has responded to her text regarding the Provincial election in Ontario, to say that PIPSC will be sending a message out to members through Nation Builders. Also, if Ontario does proceed with any actions or communications, we should be consistent with the message sent through the National PIPSC office. PIPSC is also working with the Provincial unions on this topic.
Action Item: Peter to write a letter to the National President, asking for funding for lunch and learns and mobilization events for $20,000 to inform and engage members on issues surrounding Ontario Provincial election.
Peter Gilkinson
Provincial Political Awareness Events:
These would be Non-Partisan events highlighting issues that effect our members in Ontario and urge our members to get out and vote and be active.
1.Invite MPPS to speak – list of questions to ask and answer
2.Invite “We Own It” Campaign Speakers
3.Invite Union Leaders from the community
4.Discuss 3 pillars
Resolutions from the ORC:
Ontario delegates to the ORC, with smaller branches.
Our calculation is one delegate per 100 members. We may want to change the formula. Perhaps one delegate per 80 members for example. There is a minimum of one per 50. That would be very costly. We do have some leeway on the formula per the by-laws.
The resolution which passed at the last ORC has to be passed by the Board of Directors. Then it would take effect at that time.
Peter asked John (BLPC) if we could put this in the regulations to allow us to proceed straight away. Or do we have to put this in the by-laws which delay it to next year.
Regulations can’t supersede the by-law.
Yvonne pointed out that if we change the formula from one for 100 to one for 75 it would still not help the smaller branches. That formula change would help bigger branches – branches with more than 75 members to have more seats.
The point of the resolution was to increase the presence of the smaller branches at the ORC. These are branches with fewer than 50 members. Those branches can send one delegate to the ORC or to every second ORC. They want to be able to have more delegates because of succession and training purposes for their active stewards.
We decided to stay with one in 100 for the time being. However, we would like to address the resolution passed at the ORC regarding funding 3 additional observers which takes effect at the 2020 ORC.
The PIPSC by-laws (National) allow plus 2 delegates. We could use that by-law to fully fund 2 additional delegates to the ORC in 2019.
We could decide to allow this plus 2 delegates for 2019 and even to use this each year going forward. However, the resolution spoke to observers, so for 2020 ORC we still need to address the resolution regarding observers.
We will vote on a motion regarding this tomorrow at the regular meeting.
Resolutions Committee:
The resolution that we have been discussing shows the need for a resolution committee. The committee would handle the logistics of how the resolution should be transacted; whether being transmitted to the Board of Directors, or the PIPSC AGM or any other way.
The committee will work to ensure that resolutions are also consistent with PIPSC by-laws and in all ways proper for submission.
The committee shall now work with the authors of future resolutions so that when they come to the floor of the ORC they are word smith’d and ready for a meaningful discussion.
In some cases we have seen where the ORC spends time rewording the resolution and this not a good use of the time of the delegates as well as getting very complicated with amendments to amendments and complications in procedure which can be avoided with the use of the resolutions committee.
Labour School:
Heather monitors the attendees of the labour school. The ORE would like to diversify the attendees. We should see new faces and perhaps advertising it better might be an idea.
So this year there was only one person who was on the waiting list and that person applied late (two days before the event).
RCMP – newly added to our membership list:
Nationally 10000 are CS group – of a total of 1400 new members.
The following news article has much information.
https://ipolitics.ca/2018/01/03/federal-unions-scramble-sign-rcmp-civilians/
Better Together:
Linda explained that the Branch Presidents have been told the money is there many times, and still they don’t apply for it. Linda suggested that we make it easier for them by giving drop down menus and list what is covered and what is not covered.
The ORE doesn’t know how many requests there were last year and how many were approved and how many weren’t. Some are sent to the Ontario Executive and most are sent to PIPSC directly, therefore the total numbers are unknown.
The ORE would like more communication regarding Better Together funding.
This was sent to the Branch Liaison committee to discuss with the Branch Presidents.
Action Item:
Pete to report to Branch Presidents and newsletter on availability of processes of event funding.
Pete Josza
Separate Employers:
Peter Gilkinson placed this on the agenda as he points out these include Hospitals etc. and our steward training targets the larger employers and usually Federal rather than Provincial.
We need to find ways to better address our members who are under separate employers.
This began a general discussion to form ideas which include these members more inclusively and this includes rewriting our training or bringing in some new training targeted to the members.
We need some numbers from PIPSC to understand how many and where these members are situated as well as their needs in order to begin this process.
Action Item: Pete Jozsa (Training Chair) to discuss with Marcia to formulate a plan to address separate employers for training purposes.
Pete Jozsa
5. By-Laws – Board of Directors – OR to the PIPSC AGM
Peter brought the two by-law changes to our attention:
By-law 17:
Whereas: PIPSC spends around $2 million a year on external legal fees
Whereas: Matters of interpretation of bylaws and policies are made by the Board of Directors between Annual General Meetings
Whereas: The Board may need assistance in matters of interpretation from time to time
Whereas: Matters of interpretation are often first referred to external legal
Whereas: PIPSC has a standing Bylaws and Policies Committee
Whereas: It is more cost effective to use the Bylaws and Policies Committee vs external legal
Whereas: The Bylaws and Policies Committee are experts in the matter of interpretation
Be it resolved that: where assistance is required in matters of interpretation of PIPSC bylaws and policies, the matters be referred first to the Bylaws Committee
And be it further resolved that: new bylaw 17.2.2.1 be enacted as follows
17.2.2.1 Interpretation of Institute By-laws, Regulations and Policies
When the Board of Directors requires assistance in interpreting Institute By-laws, Regulations and Policies, the matters shall be referred first to the By-Laws and Policies Committee.
By-law 20:
Whereas, the positions of Vice President were created at a PIPSC AGM
Whereas, the duties were not defined
Whereas, over the years, the assignment of work to the Vice Presidents has been a source of conflict
Whereas, the membership at the 2017 PIPSC AGM reaffirmed support for the concept of 4 Vice Presidents
Whereas, the practice of paying Vice President has changed from an average of 2 weeks per month, to pay only for work assigned
Whereas, under the current by-laws, no work could be assigned
Be it resolved that, the following new By-Law be adopted
20.2.1 Portfolio’s The President shall assign to each Vice-President one of the following portfolio’s annually
1. Finance
2. Negotiations
3. Consultation
4. Canada Labour Congress and Recruitment
The ORE had a discussion on these two issues. These are being brought before the PIPSC AGM in November. We will vote on our support for these two resolutions tomorrow at our regular meeting.
6. Round Table
No additional comments.
6. Meeting adjourned at 5:00 pm
Peter Gilkinson thanked the executive for a productive meeting.