June 04 2002
Held May 30 an 31 at Whistler. Attended by fully 10% of the membership, the largest attendance since the formation of UPN separate from the Association/College. Elected were:
Steve Kenneth (incumbent) (Local #105) - Vice-President
Terry Riley (incumbent) (Local #106) - Treasurer
Aaron Crowhurst (incumbent) (Local #105) - Director
Don Getz (Local #105) - Director
The President is completing a two-year term and the position was not up for election.
There was a roast for Dwight Wenham, Director, Labour Relations, who is retiring in February 2003. Speakers were Ray Cocking, retired, legal counsel for 20 years; Glen Smale, Provincial Labour Standards Branch and formerly with the RNABC/BCNU; Annette Osted, Executive Director of the College of Registered Psychiatric Nurses of Manitoba; Donna Higenbottam, Executive Director of the CRPNBC; and Greg Wood, Manager, Labour Relations for PSERC.
We are hesitant to report on the progress of negotiations because all information we had obtained and reported on for the past three months has been in error. All items have been resolved except for salaries. The salaries were hung up with PSEC (the former wage control people), and also a couple of the smaller Ministries were alleged to have been having problems with funding. The salaries were, we are advised, referred to the Minister of Finance last week.
UPN and the Douglas College Foundation have established a $10,000 endowment fund to provide bursaries to psychiatric nursing students. UPN also provided five $1,000 grants to students in psychiatric nursing who are family members of current or former UPN members and to current UPN members enrolled in a post-diploma program in psychiatric nursing. The grants were started with a $5,000 donation by the Director, Labour Relations.
Seventeen UPN members attended the May 25th rally in Vancouver to protest the Government's breaking election promises and breaking contracts. Although not very good, we were on par on a per capita basis with most of the other health sector unions (HEU excluded).
UPN President Lorraine Ibbitson confirmed at an election meeting of Local #100 that a memo' claiming Local #100 had been put under trusteeship was false. It had never been contemplated.
Changes were made to the Employment Standards Act which permits employers to schedule shifts of two hours, and permits employers to "negotiate" with their non union employees to work up to 12 hours without overtime. As well as hurting the weakest of the workforce, it removes the level playing field between decent employers and employers who rip off their employees, giving the latter an unfair business advantage. It is similar to when the Government introduced their $6.00 hr. minimum "training" wage. The IGA store in Port Moody laid off four $8.00 minimum wage clerks and replaced them with four $6.00 new hires, giving them an advantage over the food stores who played it fair.
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