CSC National Consultation Team Update 3 of 4
ONTARIO REGION
The Ontario Region has been quite busy over the past year. We set priorities on communication with stewards and sites, improving efficiency and effectiveness in Labour-Management meetings, and ensuring we promote and demand health and wellbeing in the workplace. Coordination with Stewards, our Employment Relations Officer, Todd Ferguson, and the Consultation Team have been improved and expanded, including utilizing new technology, and resulting in improved coordination and response times. We have supported members and stewards in protecting and enforcing our rights and promoting improved conditions across the region. Work will continue to engage our stewards and members, offer additional training, and promote union visibility.
We negotiated a new Regional Terms of Reference for the Labour-Management Committee that allows additional members to attend meetings and sets new rules of engagement for management. Bargaining for a number of our members was completed and new collective agreements have been/are being implemented. The work by the bargaining teams should be commended in the face of difficult barriers presented by the Treasury Board. As a result of a key demand to the Treasury Board, the IT Group has successfully launched a training fund and process for members to support on-going professional development and career progression. The employer has been directed to ensure members can utilize work time to complete training and we have engaged regionally and nationally on this issue. Feedback so far has been positive, and we look forward to continued benefits for our members as a result. Health and Safety in the workplace has been a hot topic this year.
We have supported members in exercising their Canada Labour Code rights and ensuring a safe workplace for all. We have engaged the employer on the topic through the Regional Health and Safety Policy and Regional Labour-Management committees, as well as direct advocacy locally and regionally. More work will be done on this in the coming year, including a coordinated effort between labour unions to ensure each and every one of us leaves work each day healthy. The Regional and National Presidents of Consultation completed site visits across the region including Beaver Creek, Grand Valley, Joyceville, Millhaven, Collins Bay, Regional Pharmacy, Henry Traill, and Warkworth.
In 2025 there are plans for additional site and parole office visits and more info will come as they are confirmed. I am so very pleased to have been given a second mandate by our membership as your Regional President and look forward to all the work we will do in 2025.
In Solidarity,
Adrian Smith, CSC NCT ONT REP
HEALTH SERVICES REPRESENTATIVE
As a member of the National Consultation Team since 2021, I was humbled to be appointed to the team executive as the SH Group Executive Representative in 2024. The team has worked together to improve outcomes for members across the country, under the guidance of the National President of Consultation. With core goals of consistency, fairness and respect for collective agreement rights, the team has engaged on scheduling practices, overtime and sick call processes, the proposed 24/7 nursing pilot, blanket policy applications by the employer, changes in policy and practices, deprofessionalization, and more. Some key wins, the culmination of months or years long efforts of the team at the request of the membership came to fruition including the employer reversing the decision and agreeing to support 2-nurses on nights at 24/7 sites and the clarification and codification of education leave processes nationally. We have worked to secure improved solidarity partnerships with other labour unions, improved information sharing and have demanded a healthier, more respectful workplace; this work remains on-going, as the employer continues to violate our collective agreement rights and struggles to combat the corporate culture it has developed. 2025 is a time for planning and coordination. In reflection of how far we’ve come, and how far we believe we can go, strategic planning, coordination and communication changes are to come. I look forward to continuing what we have started together.
Adrian Smith, CSC NCT SH REP