News

Spring Executive Board 2018

Affiliations

The 2017 annual general assembly of the International Federation of Air Transport Safety Electronics Associations (IFATSEA), sponsored by Nav Canada, was hosted by Local 2228 in Montreal this past November. Although attendance was typical in comparison to past assemblies, the organizing committee had hoped for better participation from the IFATSEA affiliates. Some of the reasons we suspect for the lower than expected numbers relate largely to the location of the majority of affiliates and their cost of travel to North America. In the end, the assembly was a success and the local will help the IFATSEA Executive Board with our lessons learned to improve the organization of future assemblies. I would like to thank Michel Gaulin, Daniel Boulet, Ryan Saw and all of our other volunteers who made the assembly possible.

The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) held its bi-annual Civil Aviation Section conference in January. The topic of this year’s gathering was “Commercialisation & Privatisation of Air Traffic Control”. Over the course of the three-day meeting we heard from panels of members whose employers had already experienced the privatisation transition and others currently operating in successful government-run operations. There were also plenary and group discussions and workshops to learn from each others’ experiences and transfer knowledge in an effort to better equip ourselves for functioning in each of our own corporate, government or transitioning employer environments.

Governance of the Local Union

It is important to remain vigilant in how we use our members’ resources and the national officers are continually looking for ways to improve our policies and processes to do just that. The fall 2017 Executive Board meeting resulted in several motions to amend our Local Union Policies, all of which have now been circulated and passed by the units. Their main purpose is to improve our governance related to how the local expends funds. Specifically, the updates provide more direction for travel expenses, modernize wording related to computing devices, add access to the telecom subsidy for bargaining team members, and define limits for annual contributions to financial appeals approved by the IBEW International President or First District International Vice President.

Treasury Board Bargaining Preparation

This year we again begin the bargaining process with the federal government. The process of collecting proposals and evaluating them at regional steering committees has now been completed. The next step is to conduct the National Steering Committee in June followed by the selection of the negotiating team.  The local plans to begin of face to face meetings with the employer in September.  We sincerely hope this round of negotiations can be completed in a significantly shorter time than the previous round. Paul Cameron and his team will keep our members up to date as they progress in the process.

Meeting Members

I had the pleasure of visiting several of our members’ workplaces in Atlantic Canada in March. I learned very much about some specific workplace issues and was able to meet members during unit meetings and other events in Sydney, St. John’s and Gander. I wish to express my thanks to John Ducey for making arrangements for our visits and to the members who took the time to welcome us and spend time demonstrating the nuances of their work and local issues.

In Solidarity,

Dave Cupples