Friday 31 October 2008

Final Convention Report Coming Soon

I'll try and get the final day's convention report up tomorrow sometime. I didn't purchase another 24 hours of internet so had to wait until I got home to post anything. I spent today travelling back from Montreal and I'm too tired to write a report tonight. The last day wasn't too eventful but I did speak on a couple of resolutions and I'll go into a bit more detail tomorrow.

In solidarity,

Tim (tired but glad to be back in Port Alberni)

Wednesday 29 October 2008

Convention Report Day 4

Greetings from snowy Montreal. Actually, it has stopped now and there is nothing on the ground but I'm sure it's cold out there. Fortunately for an avid indoorsman like myself there is a massive underground system here and I'm going exploring this afternoon, and maybe take some pictures (since I brought my camera system and hauled it around the airports.)

Today's report is rather short because it was election day. However, there were no National elections and the only election we had in the Western Region was for our four Rank and File members on the Executive Board. Since five were nominated we had to have an election.

Each local cast there total number of votes representing their memberships. 592's count was 326 votes. There were a total possible 40,162 votes. 38,819 were cast and there were no spoiled ballots. We had to vote forHere are the results: four of the candidates and at least one had to be for a woman.

Here are the results:
  • Mark Cameron - 35,983
  • Donna Fauchoux - 33,419
  • Brent Reid - 30,754
  • Terry Schneider - 28,903
  • Angela Adams - 26,217
Angela agreed to step down and be one of the four alternates. The four then drew straws to determine the order they would be called if needed and here are the results in order:
  • Ian Simpson
  • Amanda Freystad
  • Angela Adams
  • Janet Ingram-Jones
Previously acclaimed were Western Region Vice President Jim Britton, AVP Don Boucher, AVP Wendy Sol and Women's Committee members, Lara Acheson and Maria Shupenia.

My congratulations on behalf of our local to all who let their names stand and to all who were successful. Just as a matter of interest, Brent Reid is a member of Local 630 in Campbell River and Ian Simpson is the President of Local 1123 in Campbell River.

I think we will be well served by our Rank and File members and I am looking forward to greater communications with them. Mark Cameron, newly elected today, began blogging in September (a real rookie) and hopefully, he can use the blog to communicate some of what's going on at the Executive level. You can find Mark's Rank & File site here.

That's it for today brothers and sisters. Tomorrow is the last day and we will have to finish up all the resolutions, slap each other on the back one last time and return home for another two years.

In solidarity,

Tim

Tuesday 28 October 2008

Convention Report Day 3

Day three of the convention began with the usual credentials report which showed there are 1035 delegates registered and with all the alternates, guests, reps, observers and staff the total in attendance is 1582 representing 397 locals.

We then heard an address from Laura Penny (and here is her Wikipedia entry). This was followed by an address from NDP leader, Jack Layton who gave a very inspiring speech although one delegate at my table said he had heard that speech five times on TV during the election campaign. I'll admit to not being a huge NDP fan over the last number of years, but, I have to admit that it is a party that comes closest to caring about the interests of the common working person, and that certainly makes me rethink my opinions.

The Neil Reimer award was presented to Nancy Minton.

We then heard from CLC President Ken Georgetti before dealing with a couple of General Resolutions including an emergency resolution dealing with the 11 month lockout of Local 175 by Petro-Canada and calling for a national boycott campaign against Petro-Canada until a settlement is achieved and also calling on local unions to financially support Local 175 on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the lockout on November 17. I have a handout on the lockout and if anyone wants further details, just ask in the comments and I'll elaborate a bit more. The main point, I think is that the local is just seeking the pattern agreement from a company who recorded record profits in 2007 of 2.73 billion dollars. It is also interesting that the pattern was established between Petro-Canada, Edmonton Refinery and CEP Local 501 on May 13, 2007.

The afternoon session was down to business dealing with numerous Constitutional and General Resolutions. I won't bore you with every detail and even though there were some important resolutions passed, there are none that I will highlight but be sure to read tomorrow's convention report on the CEP site for further information, if you are interested. (Here is the link to today's report.)

A donation was taken yesterday (I believe) from the delegates on the floor that was designated to go to a local Montreal charity called Accueil Bonneau which helps the homeless in the city. The donation would be matched by National Union funds and I'm happy to report that $5,701 was donated from the floor and the National matched and rounded up for a donation of $11,500 to this organization.

The last item of the day was the Spina Bifida presentation where the Union makes its annual donation of 10 cents per member and locals who choose to donate come and make their presentation. Unfortunately, I was not up on this prior to convention and never brought it up with the Executive so we did not make a donation as we have in the past.

I had a good opportunity to talk with the brothers from Local 603 whose resolution I spoke against yesterday. They wanted to assure me that the resolution regarding a "me too" clause did not directly refer to us as I had said when I spoke, but was designed to help prevent their own local from going down that path in the future. It was good to clear the air and I have continued to bump into Caucus members who, while not necessarily supporting what we did, are at least understanding. Their main difficulty was our failure to keep Caucus adequately informed and I understand that.

I also find these Conventions somewhat like a revival meeting and I have to admit that I am rethinking my decision to step down from the Executive as I reported in the last Forward Look. However, I need to come back and discuss this with those who may be thinking about running because I don't want to discourage or mislead anyone. It's the nature of a Convention like this that you can't help but be inspired to become more active. Time will tell. I am trying to resist the urge......

That's it for today. I will try and get a report up tomorrow before the Banquet that happens at every convention.

In solidarity,

Tim

Monday 27 October 2008

Convention Report Day 2

Day 2 of the convention got underway this morning with the credentials report which I didn't catch. However, the afternoon report indicated that there were 1033 delegates registered and 1481 total in attendance.

Each day of the convention there is a 50-50 draw with half the proceeds going to the winner and half to the Spina Bifida Association. I report on this because the winner's take today was $1805. I won't say who won but he did a very generous thing in taking only $500 and donating the rest back to the Spina Bifida Association. A very commendable thing to do in my opinion.

There then followed and presentation from the Young Workers Committee and then a CMAW video. The CEP Humanity Fund report followed and I think this is something that we should have a real good look at in our local. It works on the idea of 1 cent per hour donation with a matching company donation if you can negotiate that. The fund is another useful tool in the fight to end poverty and that interests me a lot.

Next was an address by Riccardo Petrella who spoke on issues surrounding capitalism's attempt to own everything. You can read about Riccardo and the other guest speakers here. We then dealt with several General Resolutions dealing with NAFTA, Energy Security and Jobs Campaign, an emergency resolution on the Financial Crisis and a revision of the Energy Policy. The Energy Policy was defeated but later in the day a motion to reconsider was passed and it was then sent back to the General Resolutions Committee for reconsideration with instructions to delete one particular paragraph.

Just as the Constitution Resolutions Committee began their report they were interrupted because Bloc leader Gilles Duceppe had made a surprise visit and he then gave a speech.

The afternoon session was mostly down to work dealing with resolutions but first CEP presented a peace prize to Willie Adams, International Secretary-Treasurer of the ILWU who gave a fairly rousing and inspiring speech.

We then viewed a video on the Forest Industry Crisis followed by the unanimous passage of a General Resolution calling for a Forest Jobs Campaign.

Once again, the Constitution Committee took their seats and the first resolution we dealt with was submitted by Local 603 and called for the doubling of union dues for any local that takes a "me too" clause in their contract. The committee recommended non-concurrence but several speakers spoke and I felt compelled to speak on behalf of our local because this resolution was pointed directly at us and Local 686 and I couldn't let that pass. My job here is to represent the membership and I did not apologize for what we did, but I did explain some of why it was done. The committee's recommendation of non-concurrence passed (which means the resolution does not become part of the constitution. I have to tell you that even though I'm not usually nervous speaking in front of big groups, I was shaking pretty good before and after (must be the coffee.) Hopefully, I'm now used to it because there are two more resolutions that I'm going to have to speak about.

I won't go through all the resolutions that were passed or rejected. You should be able to read the reports on the CEP site. Here's the link to Monday's Newsletter. And here is President Coles' opening speech. Tomorrow is more of the same (here's a link to the Agenda). I'll have a report up after supper (EDT) tomorrow night of those highlights. If you have any questions or want more information about anything specific just leave a comment and I'll try and get it for you. Also, I haven't proof read this report so if there are any spelling or grammatical errors, please excuse me and/or leave a comment and I can correct it.

In solidarity,

Tim

Sunday 26 October 2008

Convention Report Day 1

Bonjour. Greetings from Montreal. My apologies for not updating the blog last night but internet access at the hotel I'm in is $10 extra for 24 hours so I didn't think I needed to report that I had arrived safely and with no hitches. By posting a bit later tonight then I can also post tomorrow night within the 24 hours and then I'm good for another day.

Anyway, on to the report. The first day of the Convention got underway this morning with the usual intros, welcomes and President's address. President Dave Coles gave a generalized report on what has happened over the last two years. It definitely has been a difficult couple of years in forestry and manufacturing. Later on in the day in the report from the Officer's committee we heard that we had lost 12,000 members in the last two years. This was offset with the addition of 10,000 new members via the amalgamation with the Canadian Telecommunications Employees' Association (CTEA). However, the union is currently debt free and the Defence fund is very healthy. While the president spoke of the pressures on locals and the needs to stay strong and not enter into concessionary bargaining he did say, (and I believe I have this quote right) "of course, we will negotiate special deals to save jobs, and we have."

The Constitutional Committee then dealt with a couple of resolutions that had to be addressed prior to nominations and this took some time because people want to have their say, and they did and they have that right.

Following a lunch break, we heard that there were currently some 1200 in attendance. This includes delegates, alternates, guests, reps, etc.

As I mentioned before, we then heard from the Officers' Report Committee. This committee met in September to review the reports to the Convention and prepare the report for delegates on the state of our union. I suppose this is kind of like an audit and the committee had several recommendations on how things could be improved. I would say of primary interest to all who pay dues to the National is that the financial goals of the last two years have been attained. This includes the elimination of the General Fund debt and the building of the CEP Defence Fund to its strongest position ever. Membership strength remains stable at about 133,000 members due to the aforementioned addition of CTEA that offsets the losses in forestry and manufacturing. There is an impact financially and CEP revenues did not meet budgeted targets for 2007-2008. However, all union accounts are in surplus at this time. The committee report was fairly positive on a number of issues.

We then began the process of nominations and former National President (and one time National rep for our local) Brian Payne took over the chair for the purpose of nominations of National Officers. All three positions were back in by acclamation with Dave Coles as President, Gaetan Menard as Secretary-Treasurer and Peter Murdoch as Media Vice President. Then it was time to break into groups for Regional nominations. For the Western Region, Jim Britton was acclaimed as Vice President. Wendy Sol and Don Boucher were both acclaimed as Administrative Vice Presidents. Two sisters were acclaimed for the Women's Committee. I will have their names later when I know I have the spelling correct. Nominated for Rank and File members on the Executive (four to be elected of whom at least one has to be a woman) are Mark Cameron, Terry Schneider, Donna Fauchoux, Angela Adams and Brent Reid. Finally, nominated for Rank and File alternates were Janet Ingram-Jones, Amanda Freystad and Ian Simpson (I'm not sure about the spellings, except for Ian's). The unsuccessful nominee for Rank and File will have the chance to be nominated for alternate.

On the agenda for tomorrow are a couple more reports, an address by Riccardo Petrella and more work on resolutions.

My apologies for the length of my report but I do want to give you some of the information we are receiving. As it is I have greatly condensed the day. I was fortunate to sit at the table with the delegates from Local 76, Powell River and Local 1132, Crofton. I have been asked a number of times by Caucus members how things are going and I tell them it's fabulous! Actually, I try and relate some of the problems with gate hires and some of the other things we are experiencing, but I try and impress on them the fact that, though many of us did not agree with what happened, most of us realize (or at least I do) that we might not be running at all if we hadn't done something. Most I talk with understand, although they don't like what we did and how we did it. All know how difficult Catalyst is to deal with these days.

Here's the link to CEP's Convention report page although none of the report links seem to work yet.

That's it for now. The baseball game is about to start. I'll have more tomorrow.

In solidarity,

Tim

Friday 24 October 2008

Preparing for Convention

Greetings to all who are here checking out the convention reports.

My bags are packed and I'm ready to head out early tomorrow morning for the flight to Vancouver and then Montreal. I'm hoping that I have internet access at the hotel although their web site indicates that standard rooms don't, so I may have to rely on Starbucks to get posts up. Time will tell.

I'm hauling along my DSLR and a couple of lenses so I'll try to get some pictures up of the convention and maybe some Montreal scenics, too if the weather allows. The weather forecast is for rain (at least it's not snow) so I may not venture outside too much.

Anyway, I hope you find this of some interest. It will be different for me this convention going alone, but it should give me time to keep up on the blogging and the World Series. Look for a post sometime tomorrow evening after I register and find out if I have internet access.

In solidarity,

Tim

Convention Reports

UPDATE: I've just been reminded that my Viewpoint blog is not accessible from the mill like the 592 blog is so I will be using this blog for the Convention reports. Basically, you can ignore what I've said below and just check in here for the reports if you're interested. Thanks to Jim VanDusen for pointing this out to me.

Those of you who are interested in the convention reports I plan to make will find them on my Viewpoint blog. I haven't been using it for much of anything else and that keeps it separate from the other info on this blog (although, I'm not sure there will be much happening here for the next little while, either.)

I'll try and post the links here so you know when a new report goes up. A pre-convention post is up right now and you can view it here.

The length and frequency of the report will be dependent on the availability of internet access and for that I'll just have to wait and say.

I look forward to your comments and visits over on my site
.

In solidarity,

Tim

Saturday 18 October 2008

Friday 10 October 2008

2009 Executive Board Elections

To those of you that may be considering letting your name stand for nomination to the 2009 Executive, this could be an opportune time to submit a letter of introduction to Tim to put in this months Forward Look.

Thursday 9 October 2008

October Forward Look Articles

Just a quick note that there will actually be a Forward Look this month. If you have an article please email it to me no later than Monday, October 13th so it can be reviewed at the Executive meeting on the 15th.

Tim

Monday 6 October 2008

From the President

To All Members CEP Local 592,

Due to circumstances that are well out of my control I have found it necessary to step down as president of Local 592 effective November 1st. I would like to thank those of you that have supported me over the years and also wish the entire membership some much needed good luck going into the future.

Pete Rayburn

Friday 3 October 2008

October Meeting Date Changes

ATTENTION ALL MEMBERS

I will be posting some meeting changes for October's meetings. The only two meetings affected are the Executive Meeting and the General Meeting. Following are the dates:

SHOP STEWARDS: Monday, October 6th, 7:00 PM

EXECUTIVE: Wednesday, October 15th, 6:00 PM
Changed due to Thanksgiving and the Federal Election.

GENERAL: Monday, October 27th, 7:00 PM
Changed due to the #4 Power Boiler Shutdown.

In solidarity,

Tim