SH AGM Minutes 2019
Present – Ruby Adriosulo, Janet Allen, Joanne Bouchard, Michael Bouwers, Nancy Brown, Andrea Cameron, Rene Campbell, Jennifer Cantwell, Isabelle Chabot, Carrie Doan, Adam Fenwick, Kimberly Fragomeni, Lisa Freeman, Bruno Gagnon, Deborah Gaon, Kathleen Gibson, Selena Glover, Terri Gobeil, Susan Harris, Brian Harvey, Paul Hesch, Lynn Huff, Terry Hupman, Christina Hymers, Carolyn Hynes, Dandra Jansen, Jane Jarvis, Loressa Klassen, Jean-Paul Leduc, Colleen Leinenweber, Isabell Lessard, Eric Massey, James McGrath, Donald Moisan, Colin Muise, Laura Lee Mullin, Erin Neeson, Lynn Ohlson, Sandra Quigley, Peter Rodrigues, Gerry Saunders, Pam Schille, Ian Shaw, Charles Shih, Kasey Taran, Ginette Tardif, Patty Thomas, Jolene Underhill, Elizabeth Vieira, Christopher Viquiera.
Regrets – Jeremy Mayer Negotiator: Jean-Paul Leduc
1. Welcome from President Bouchard at 9:04 a.m. Meeting rules of engagement discussed.
Huge thank you to Monica Seguin, our administrative assistant, for all her hard work.
2. Introduction and Roll Call
3. Approval of Agenda - Motion: Joanne Bouchard, Brian Harvey. Carried.
Motion: Colin Muise and Adam Fenwick be moved from Observers to Delegates. Joanne Bouchard,
Rene Campbell. Carried.
4. Approval of Minutes from Previous Meeting as amended- Carolyn Hynes was present at last AGM.
Motion: Lynn Ohlson, Colleen Leinenweber. Carried.
5. Business Arising from Previous Meeting - none
6. Report of President Joanne Bouchard. Thank you to Carolyn Hynes for organizing this event. We chose Winnipeg in honour of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. We continue to fight the fight with the ongoing Phoenix fiasco. President Daviau has met with Treasury Board president Joyce Murray to discuss Phoenix-related damages and the implementation of a new pay system. The strategy for the upcoming election will be addressed by President Daviau later today. We continue to demonstrate positive gains at bargaining, and at the central table. The members of the bargaining team are here. The Professionals Canada taskforce will have a final working document to be presented at the Advisory Council in August. The SH Executive met yesterday and duties were assigned for all executive members. President Bouchard detailed the duties of all executive members and thanked everyone for their important contributions. President Bouchard attends subgroup meetings across the country as well as meeting with the subgroup presidents. Steward nominations are important. You are encouraged to visit the PIPSC website regularly, sit on committees and become involved locally, regionally, and nationally.
7. Guest Speaker. Kevin Rebeck, President of the Manitoba Federation of Labour. We‘re thrilled to have you here in Winnipeg for the 100th anniversary of the General Strike. A good question to ask is how does it connect with today. Why was that strike so important? The first World War had just ended. Lots of lives had been lost. There was a big influenza epidemic; 50 million people had died worldwide. The cost of living had gone up 67% and unemployment was high. Soldiers had come back from the War. Winnipeg was the third largest city in Canada at the time. The business elite ran the city and had no intention of losing control. In May 1919, 10,000 people went on strike. Strikes were quite common at the time, so why was this strike unique? On May 1 metal workers went on strike. The employers were refusing to recognize them. Workers wanted to decrease the work week to 44 hours and obtain an increase in pay. They knew if they went out on strike alone, they would lose. They went to the Winnipeg trades and labour unions asking if the other unions would walk out with them. Of 11,500 union workers in the city, 11,000 votes yes and they walked out on May 15 at 11:00 am. They didn’t need to wait. Women led the charge when they started on the 7:00 am shift; they unplugged their phones and walked out. By 11:00, 30,000 people walked out, with no guarantee they would still have a job. Everything stopped: street cars, elevators, everything. Sympathy strikes broke out in cities across the country in support of Winnipeg workers. It was a call to action. What really made the Winnipeg strike so unique was that the government completely lost control. The city stopped working, even though steps were taken to try to have essential services working. Business leaders declared the strikers to be “enemy aliens.” A.J. Simpson was a former mayor and a lawyer. He convinced the current mayor, premier and prime minister to give him authority to deal with the strikers. Newspapers said the strike was an attempt to overthrow the government, which was a blatant lie. The term “enemy aliens” was used to sow discord and blame immigrants. It didn’t really work. Soldiers who were now off duty saw the strike as important. There were hundreds and thousands of trained men who lined up on both sides of strike. Simpson was given authority to deport people he saw as troublemakers. He also fired people who refused to cooperate, including the police force. He hired new people and gave them arm bands and batons. Scuffles ensued; people threw sticks and bricks. “Murderous assaults by riotous aliens and enemy ruffians,” things were very carefully scripted; fake news was alive and well even back then. Women played a valuable role in the strike, in every way, on strike, and trying to make ends meet at home with no money coming in. The strike went on for six weeks. Helen Armstrong was a real fighter, was one of the most arrested people during the strike. Delivery truck drivers trying to scab were turned away from their delivery sites by local community members. On June 17, the North West Mounted Police raided various labour temples, arrested people, destroyed printing presses, broke in like bandits, smashed and stole everything. They destroyed furniture, looted, etc., and these people were the authorities! They went to labour leaders’ homes and accused people of sedition and trying to overthrow the government and took them to Stony Mountain prison. After six weeks, 8,000 people joined in a march on City Hall. A street car appeared, was moved off its tracks, and set on fire. Then the mayor again requested assistance from the North West Mounted Police. He read the riot act at Portage and Main. And the police charged the crowd on horseback. Streets were packed. The third time, they charged with revolvers and clubs, and in different directions. One man was shot through the heart and killed instantly, another died a few days later. 91 people were arrested. There were lots of injuries. After that Bloody Saturday, the police started patrolling. Victoria Park was filled with people. June 25 was the end of the strike, for safety reasons. Many people never got their jobs back. We lost that battle; it was a tough day for the people of Winnipeg. However we did eventually win, but it took some time to recognize it. Three union leaders were elected to the legislature. There was a Royal commission, leaders (incl., a young Tommy Douglas) helped form the CCF, later the NDP. We won health and safety acts. We’ve made gains in the 100 years since. But the Alt Right is as racist as ever, blaming newcomers as the fault for everything, when we all know it’s bad government and greedy employers who are to blame. The Alt Right is gaining ground today. The living wage, and free & fair collective bargaining are under siege. We’re fighting the current Manitoba premier. A law passed taking away free and fair collective bargaining. We’re fearful as we see more conservative governments in provinces; they don’t want unions to succeed. Our celebratory events have been successful, 2000 people marched in our latest parade. We have an upcoming concert, Strike the Musical, which will be turned into a movie called Stand. Thanks to the Canadian labour movement, every high school student will get a digital download of the movie. We want this story out there; it has a lot of local and Hollywood talent. We recreated streetscapes from 1919. Dialogues between people joining the police force and the strikers were included: they had more in common than they thought. There will be a streetcar across from City Hall on Main Street, tipped on its side. We’re thrilled with the legacy pieces, and lots of coverage in mainstream media. Is it time for another general strike? Sure hope it isn’t. Strikes are not what Labour is about. We have found ways to resolve our differences. But we do see a tide changing, e.g., attacks on workers, governments catering to elites, the 1%. But if that time has to come, we’ll stand with workers. We have a government that doesn’t listen to workers, bungles the Phoenix payroll system, etc. We fought for enhancements to CPP and were successful. We let people know. We’re fighting for a national pharmacare program, exercise our votes, talk about politics. We need to not be afraid to talk and speak out. Rising costs and stagnant wages are serious. What’s real, what’s fair? We’ll be working hard in the next federal election. Things are pretty crappy here in Manitoba. The bar has dropped so low. The premier of Manitoba has decimated our provincial health care system, with austerity measures and cuts to public services. He lowered the PST by 1%. There is disharmony, lack of clarity, and constant revisions. He passed Bill 29, to make unions fight with one another, sow disunity, spend resources, stressing unions, it’s tough times. He cut investments in education, and slowed the economy by postponing investments in infrastructure. Unemployment rates are rising in our trades. They’ve been lowering health and safety standards to harmonize with other provinces (but we’re the first to do it, to have them) and see who can drop their standards to the lowest. We’ll index minimum wages at poverty level. Even when business and labour tell him the same thing, he goes against everybody. Even when building an agreement, he doesn’t listen to anybody. Children can work at 13. He likes to go to court with everybody. There will likely be a provincial election soon. We’re hoping to grow NDP support. These are not the best of times but the importance of talking to our members can’t be emphasized enough. Solutions are the same everywhere: getting involved, empowering one another. A huge thank you to all of you for being activists and professionals and supporting us. Thank you for coming to Winnipeg.
8. Bargaining Update. Colin Muise introduced the bargaining team and noted that he came in as chair of bargaining team (BT) part way through the process. We’re missing Rick Smith today who is back in Ottawa. Bargaining is not an easy process. There is a lot of critical thinking, not made easier that we’re a group with nine professions and even more subgroups. Here are some of the things we’ve had to consider in bargaining this time. Not an ideal solution. We have to think of the Canadian economy; there are issues everywhere with the Canadian economy. We’re fortunate to have an economist who can analyse the economy. Another thing we had to consider was the central table. We then had to understand what they got. Then another thing that was important was the desire of members to get this done in a timely fashion. Hopefully we will also move forward in a timely manner to get this ratified. Another thing is the political environment. The last Conservative government had bill C4 which tried to destroy the rights of the bargaining movement. We don’t know what will happen in October. The other thing is arbitration. First of all, it is not a golden bullet that will solve everything. It is basically supposed to mimic what happens in bargaining. We make an offer, TB makes an offer and then an arbitrator just picks one or the other. Jean-Paul Leduc then takes over as speaker. This was a really different round. It was the first to do centralized bargaining, for common issues we all had to deal with, e.g., pay, domestic violence. It was slow at first. TB had 25 issues. We haven’t done info sessions yet, this is all hot off the press right now. The highlights of central table: percentages of 2.0, 2.0, 1.5, 1.5 each year, starting Oct 2018. How to implement: we agreed to give them 180 days, only for this round, with compensation of $400 for it. When you get your retro-pay, you will get an extra $400. If goes beyond 180 days, you’ll get an extra $50 for each three-month period they’re late. The $400 is about 20% of the average retro-payment. It’s based on a previous settlement from a small 70-member union who received compensation for $100 for a 4-month delay in implementing their collective agreement. We get that in the ratification process. Ground-breaking is language to give 75 hours a year for domestic violence to deal with things like seeking shelter, seeing lawyers, and covering off non-medical leave. This is not for health issues. There is gender neutral exclusive language (more complicated in French). MOU on common pay administration, this doesn’t affect you directly, but we secured the right to be consulted on the new pay system. EWSP – we signed an MOU to continue to work to get EWSP in place. EWSP will be ratified separately down the road. We wanted to make sure it was in the collective agreement. There is no specific date to get EWSP, but we have until March 2020, it is referenced in the agreement as a placeholder. Do I lose my bank if I vote for this? Even if ratified, it’s probably about two years before it comes into place. Probably 2022 before it comes into place, because of all the things that need to be put in place by the government. There are two chaplains coming into SH Group. Harassment- wanted to recognize general harassment and our members’ right to work without general harassment, trying to reduce harassment in a general sense but also to deal better with individual cases. Bill C65 – about prevention, getting all the data and taking steps to reduce it. Will strengthen language in subsequent agreements. Hours of Work has been a big issue for the SH Group, various scenarios have been discussed. Bereavement leave - we were told by members that we want more time off. One-time entitlement for anybody who dies, not a blood relative, extra five days, one-time for bereavement. Can be taken in two segments, three days and then two days later, for anybody you consider like a brother or a great aunt, etc. We do political lobbying. Have met with MPs and senior management like Simon Kennedy and Sony Perron. You don’t just bargain during the months of bargaining, you have to set it up months before that. For market adjustments, we did individual pay presentations to Treasury Board. The SH Group has been abused for so many years, we have to start speaking out about recruitment and retention problems. There has to be a bigger envelope when coming to bargaining with the SH Group. This time, it was 8%. What has to be created is a second envelope just for the SH Group, at the table moving forward to get what the SH Group deserves. The Bargaining Team had to work within the guideline of 1%, that’s ALL we had to work with. We’re going to start with PS and NP and move on from there. NPs need their own pay scale, not be a CHN. We spent two weeks in the trenches, from early morning until late at night. The Employer wanted a smaller economic increase and more to the market adjustments. Listening to the previous speaker, Kevin Rebeck, there are risks to extending bargaining beyond an election. Another issue: nurses not getting paid until they get to their remote community. There is a letter from Valerie Gideon that will look at how we can improve what’s going on, your travel day will be considered a work day and you’ll get paid, it will be done through consultation. As a bargaining team, we try to be as transparent as we can. We made the decision to publish the market adjustments. We had all nine professionals come in, plus the NPs. We chose to publish the market adjustments, but we know that created expectations. In the end, we had 1% of the Health Services budget to spread around, and try to be as equitable as we could. We have retro pay (remember we were told we wouldn’t get it). This is the best economic increase we’ve had in a long time. NUs who didn’t benefit from National Rates of Pay will get a signing bonus of $1200 for this round of bargaining. Last round, we went from nine regions to two. This time, we went from from two to one. Because BC did not receive anything last time, they get the $1200 signing bonus. Everybody from MB east is moving into the new zone. BC and northern nurses will get the extra money this time because they did not benefit previously. The 7% is there as a part of the overall agreement, it is not separate. For OPs, zone 1 is the max (QC); we’re going to zone 1 for all OPs.
9. Guest speaker. Debi Daviau, President of PIPSC. This is the part of my job I like the most, interacting with members. You’re part of a fairly large group within PIPSC. I come from the CS Group, the largest PIPSC group and I don’t have experience working in a remote location like many of you. To realize our solidarity as a union, we want all parts of our union engaged and feeling that they have our support. Over the past few weeks, it’s been all about bargaining. Five priorities were established at the beginning of the year: Phoenix damages, replacing Phoenix, Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) negotiations, collective bargaining, and EWSP. Phoenix damages: we’ve been finally able to resolve that, we’re very pleased. We also secured a ‘me-too’ clause, where if another union gets more, we get it too. Replacing Phoenix: we lobbied for the $16M for a couple years. We’re now in the details of selecting new software, putting more and more criteria on the vendors. There are still three software vendors in the running. Will soon make a recommendation on which product will be piloted, for a year. It will be a year to three years before a new pay system is in place. Data is completely corrupted for everybody except CRA and CBSA who have another system for calculating gross pay and then it goes to Phoenix for calculating the net pay. Phoenix will never be stabilized, but the data has to be stabilized before it can go into a new system. We’ve seen a moderate improvement in critical cases but not much improvement in the rest of the cases. There is no fixing Phoenix. They’re almost at the point of having to pay for software. They’re only dealing with software vendors, the people who make the software, not like IBM who managed it the last time. Had the government engaged Oracle, that would have made more sense because they made PeopleSoft. Oracle no longer makes updates for Phoenix, there will be no more. As for the PSHCP, a lot of the upper limits are way too low. As the largest plan in the country, we ought to have the best plan in the country because of our numbers, but that it is not the case. Sun Life has been unable to provide us the data we need for negotiations, so it will not be completed before the election. Last time, we waited two years, then they made some cuts, took out about $7 billion from our Health Care Plan. We’re taking a look at naturopathy. Maybe bundles and more flexibility. The only one of the five items that we were not able to complete on time was the PSHCP. Still working on agreements for the RA and CS Groups. 40,000 of our 55,000 members now have tentative agreements, will be working on the rest. EWSP: we’re very proud of the work we’ve done, to modernize and improve the plan, and now working on the implementation of the plan. If accepted by the members, it will be incorporated into your CA. Some groups may not be ready to accept yet but, when you become informed on the details, you should be really pleased. Half of our members have more than 13 weeks in the bank. 25% have more than 26 weeks in their banks. You will be able to keep any amount over 26 weeks. For the first 26 weeks, you will get 100% of your pay, then go to LTD. There will be nine discretionary days. While you’ll be able to carry over three of those days, you’ll never accumulate large banks again. We were amazed at the progress. The new system will be more expensive but better. There will be lots of warning before banks are removed. You will not be compensated for the banks. We want scientific integrity for all, not just scientists. We want tax fairness; Canadians in general believe in tax fairness, everybody paying their fair share. We’re doing a lot of work on contracting out. With the CS, there are lots of grievances on contracting out, a grievance campaign. We’re still fighting for members on the tax implications of NU-EMA settlement. Biggest part of my job is government relations, building relations with decision makers. Not a lot of media are reporting on Public Service issues anymore; we have to look for those opportunities. I will try hard to fix issues you may have. We are here for you; we have lots of resources to tap into to help you. The Better Together mandate is very broad; don’t hesitate to ask for help. We have resources and people to help.
10. Resolutions. Three resolutions were presented, discussed and adopted.
Resolution #1
SH Resolution - 10.01 6.4.1
- Whereas there is a new department “Indigenous Services Canada” (ISC) which includes SH members, ISC should have a Nurse representative on the SH executive;
- Whereas in FNIHB, the majority of Health Canada nurses have been transferred to ISC;
- Whereas since the transfer of Ste-Anne de Bellevue Hospital to the province of Quebec, DND now has more nurses than VAC or HC;
Therefore be it resolved that By-Law 6.2.3 be amended as follows:
Of the five (5) nurses to be elected, there will be one from DND, one from CSC, one from ISC, one NU-EMA, and one from all other departments, excluding DND, CSC, ISC, and NU-EMA.
6.4 Term of Office: The term of office for an elected Group Executive member shall be three years. One third of the Group Executive members will be elected each year as defined in 6.4.1.
To start the transition to the updated representation:
In 2020, the positions of Pharmacy, Psychology, ISC Nursing, and DND Nursing (excluding NU-EMA) shall be elected. For the transition period, the VAC nurse elected in 2019 will represent Nursing from any other department other than DND, CSC, or ISC until the next rotation in 2022.
In 2021, the positions of Medicine, Nutrition and Dietetics, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine and NU-EMA shall be elected.
In 2022, the positions of CSC Nursing, Occupational and Physical Therapy, Social Work and Nursing from any other department other than DND, CSC, or ISC (excluding NU-EMA) shall be elected.
In 2023, the positions of Pharmacy, Psychology, ISC Nursing, DND Nursing, and Nursing from any other department other than DND, CSC, or ISC (excluding NU-EMA) shall be elected.
In 2024, the positions of Medicine, Nutrition and Dietetics, Dentistry, Veterinary Medicine and NU-EMA shall be elected.
Motion to approve: Ginette Tardif, Selena Glover. Carried.
Resolution #2
- Whereas there are SH group members who belong to branches where there are too few of them to form a SH Subgroup;
- Whereas the SH Sioux Lookout Subgroup represents the rest of Ontario’s northern nurses;
- Whereas the SH Sioux Lookout Subgroup membership has already voted to include the Moose Factory and Thunder Bay Zone SH members;
Therefore be it resolved that the SH members belonging to the Moose Factory and Thunder Zones join the Sioux Lookout Zone SH Subgroup and now be called the Ontario Northern Nurses Subgroup.
Motion to approve: Ginette Tardif, Colleen Leinenweber. Carried.
Resolution #3
SH Resolution - 10.02 R.6.9.6.7
SH Group 2019 AGM Proposal:
Whereas the composition of the SH group has evolved and changed in the last five years and the group’s Bargaining Team should reflect those changes;
Whereas it is important to have input and feedback from all occupations as to best reflect group needs during bargaining;
Be it resolved that Resolution R.6.9.6.7 be amended to the following: R6.9.6.7 The Bargaining Committee shall normally be composed of eight (8) ten (10) members.
AND - Be it resolved that Resolution R6.9.6.8 be amended to the following:
R6.9.6.8 The Bargaining Committee shall normally include five (5) nurses four (4) nurses, one (1) NU-EMA and one (1) psychologist. The last two (2) remaining four (4) positions shall be filled by representatives of the smaller groups (Dentistry, Nutrition and Dietetics, Medicine, Occupational and Physical Therapy, Pharmacy, Social Work, and Veterinary Medicine). Once the bargaining team members have been selected, the SH executive and the bargaining team shall normally appoint a representative from each of the smaller groups not represented on the team. Those representatives will work collaboratively with the Bargaining Team to prepare and/or present issues specific to their professions.
Motion to approve: Adam Fenwick, Ginette Tardif. Carried.
11. Annual Financial Report. The treasurer gave her report. Motion to accept financial statements. Lynn Huff, Brian Harvey. Carried, with note that budget presented did not have current bank account balance.
12. Update on the Activities of the Respective Professional Groups
Dentistry. Contracting out continues. Dentists will not travel to remote First Nations and Inuit communities and provide intra-oral treatment for a DE-03 salary. Contractors can make $1,700 a day now, in addition to all expenses being paid. Fee-for-service positions in the north can make even more. All DE positions are now in ISC. For bargaining purposes, we don’t compare DEs to private practice or the Armed Forces, but even taking into account all the benefits of being an employee in the public service, DE dentists in PIPSC are not close to being fairly compensated. This is in light of their requisite level of education and the higher salaries paid to administrative dentists by other levels of government in Canada.
Nutrition and Dietetics. The ND group is one of the smaller groups, we make up about 65 positions and we have 3 ND sub groups. We work across a number of departments including Indigenous Services Canada, Health Canada, DND, and Correction Services Canada. One issue within our sub group has been apathy, but, over the past year, efforts have been made to increase and advocate for ND engagement within the broader PIPSC union. In August 2018, a number of bargaining focus group meetings were held with NDs to identify and discuss their concerns. ND members are now asking more questions on workplace and collective agreement issues, and seeking information on becoming stewards.
Medicine. Similar comments to the NDs. We also have problems with retention of MDs that could get worse. Phoenix is always an issue for our members.
DND Nursing. I would like to thank everyone who has contacted me over the last year with concerns and issues; in some cases, we are stilling working on them. I would like to thank Jeremy Mayer for his help with the social work concerns. The implementation of the educational allowance for social workers with masters was a long and tedious process. While maternity leave is not a Phoenix issue, it seems to be a constant issue over the years for DND workers. In terms of professional development, we were told we need nine months’ notice to go on a course, then recently were told a year or maybe not at all. Reimbursement of licensing fees always seems to be a problem; sometimes members are repaid more than once. Contracting out is an issue; however this year it seems a lot more Calian contractors want to become public servants. There is still a discrepancy compared with nurses being paid by province.
VAC Nursing. Professional development is problem; it doesn’t happen. There are lots of pay issues with Phoenix; people are putting in grievances. Case managers can be undergrads, not really professionals; they don’t know how to deal with serious disorders.
CSC Nursing. Getting rid of segregation is causing problems as we don’t have the facilities for what management wants to do. Supervised injection site at Drumheller is an issue. There are no stewards in Alberta so a few of us from national went to visit. Important concerns include Phoenix as well as recruitment and retention. Management blames first, then tries to find out if you’re right or wrong, however we’re still trying to work with management.
ISC Nursing. Our ADM, who was working with FNIHB at Health Canada, has transitioned to Indigenous Services Canada, which is good news. We have a lot of issues. There is so much work to do that it will be a long process. In terms of security issues for northern nurses, we have formed a tiger team. Members deserve security; sometimes you have to be vocal. When security guards cannot be provided by the bands, the service will be tendered out. We have to give them the money they need, but also the support. There is a huge problem with recruitment and retention of northern nurses. Staffing has been done remotely, in Ottawa. We had to have intervention meetings with ministers to get anything done.
NU-EMA. We are all being deprofessionalized. We constantly have to tell employees that we are professionals, even though we are managed by non-nurses, non-medical managers. There was a scathing auditor-general report about three years ago. The department addressed the issues in a short period of time. They introduced an enormous amount of change into almost every single facet of operations. We are trying very hard to address this at consultation. But consultation is very difficult. “You really don’t need to be a nurse/doctor/physio to do this” – we have to have a good reply to this.
Occupational and Physical Therapy. Thank you to everybody for eliminating Regional Rates of Pay. Educational allowances are an issue, as is contracting out. Overall, professional development is a major concern and it has to become more standardized.
Pharmacy. Compensation level and recruitment & retention are big issues. The scope of practice for pharmacists is changing, and we’re not getting proper training or funding for that.
Psychologists. Two rounds of bargaining ago, Treasury Board said there were no recruitment & retention problems for psychologists in the public service. Two weeks after signing an agreement, CSC wanted to recruit PSs from other countries because they could not find PSs in Canada willing to work for the low salaries paid in the public service. Last time, we asked for a 10% salary increase for PSs, and we got 4%. This time, we asked for 25%, instead of the 43% we really should have, and we got 2%. That speaks for itself.
Social Work. We will continue to work for more recognition. Phoenix is definitely as issue. Supervision of students and working with chaplains are also issues. Problems can be complex but we are trying to make things work.
Veterinary Medicine. During bargaining, a VM representative was selected to present to Treasury Board. The meaning of being a professional, and being an employee in the public service, was discussed. VMs have complex professional knowledge, and a summary of daily duties for VMs was presented. There is a need to address the disparity between VMs of the SH Group and those in CFIA. We need an immediate 10% market adjustment. The TB presentation seemed to be well received. Professional development and license fee reimbursement are also important issues.
13. Roundtable. Eric Massey testified before senate committee; it was well received. There is a Facebook page for subgroup presidents, a place to get information. We are very active in Quebec, we are a big team, a big family, and we can mobilize. Have to start preparing for next round of bargaining now; we’re engaged to start doing that now. Thank you to JP Leduc for everything you’ve done for us. Thank you for the subgroup presidents meeting. We will get a SH subgroup presidents photo. It is so important for us to work together and understand each other, a big thank you to all. Bargaining was a team effort. Big discrepancies in who gets professional development; this has been brought up in consultation, no improvements to date. NU-EMAs feel like they are under constant attack. Our deal for a new collective agreement is not ideal but, because of Treasury Board, we have to take small steps. President Bouchard thanks everyone attending for filling out the evaluation form.
14. Next SH Group AGM: date and location to be determined by SH Group executive.
15. Motion to adjourn at 5:00 pm. Joanne Bouchard, Brian Harvey. Carried.