The newsletter of CUPE Local 15, Vancouver Municipal Education and Community Workers

Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to:CUPE Local 15545 W. 10th Ave.Vancouver, BCV5Z 1K9

General Membership MeetingJUNE

Date & Time:Location:

Under Discussion:

Wednesday, June 27, 2012, 5:30 pm, Italian Cultural Centre, Room 5, 3075 Slocan St., Vancouver • Special presentation by Neil Monckton, Think City Board

Chair – Lower Mainland Workforce Housing Project • CUPE BC Convention Highlights • Notice of Motion – AGM Date Change• Bargaining updates: HR MacMillan Space Centre,

Museum of Vancouver, Vancouver Maritime Museum, Chartwells, Vancouver Coastal Health, City et al, Vancouver Art Gallery

General Meetings provide all members with an opportunity to participate in decisionsthataffecttheunion.(Childcareassistanceandinterpretationavailableupon request.)

2012

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Much of the media coverage of the Quebec student protests has dismissed the protestors as spoiled children trying to

protecttheirunfairprivilege(Quebechasthelowesttuition fees in the country).

The vast majority of today’s university students do infactcomefromrelativelywell-offfamilies.Butrather than weakening their position, this supports the protestors’ claims that we have a serious problem with access to education — a problem that would only be worsened by tuition hikes.

Low tuition fees are not an unfair entitlement for students;theyaresensiblepublicpolicy.Herearefivereasons why we should support a move to low tuition fees everywhere in Canada.

1. Making university education affordable would allow more Canadians to access this key tool for social mobility.

The evidence is clear: university education is a route to considerably higher lifetime earnings and the financialbenefitofhavingauniversitydegreehasincreased over the last 20 years. Yet, in a time of sharply rising income inequality, this ladder to a better life is only accessible to some Canadians.

2. Financial barriers to education impact Canada’s economic wellbeing.

An educated and highly skilled workforce is a crucial element for the continued economic and social development of Canada. But when the ability to pay becomes a deciding factor in who gets education and who doesn’t, our country loses the chance to benefitfromtheskillsandcapabilitiesofmanyofitscitizens.Andbecausefinancialbarrierstoeducationreduce social mobility, inequality will increase, with all the associated social and economic costs to society, including increased health and justice system costs and worsening social tension.

3. Higher education is increasingly becoming a standard job requirement.

Advancededucationincreasinglyaffectspeople’sability to compete in the labour market, the types of jobs they obtain, and the incomes they are able to earn. In BC, it is estimated that over three quarters of new jobs will require some form of post-secondary education.ThefiguresaresimilarforCanadaasawhole. This is why it is now more important than ever to ensure that all Canadians have access to advanced education.

Yet,insteadofincreasingfinancialsupportforhighereducation, governments have steadily withdrawn from funding universities. Government funding has fallen from 84% to 58% of university operating budgets over the last 30 years.

It’s time for Canada to increase our public investment in higher education and reduce the burden that high tuition fees impose on students and their families. We already provide elementary and secondary education to all Canadians free of charge. Why not extend our public education system to cover post-secondary education?

4. Student loans don’t make up for high tuition fees.

We know this because students from lower income backgrounds continue to be underrepresented in universities despite the availability of student loans. Instead of improving access to education, student loans result in high debt loads for those youth from lower and modest income families who manage to make it to university against the odds. The average student debt at graduation from a Bachelor’s degree program was $27,000 in 2009.

This is fundamentally inequitable, because it means that students who take out loans end up paying considerablymoreforthesameeducation(throughinterest on their debt) than their peers whose parents canaffordthetuitionfeesupfront.Inaddition,Statistics Canada analysis shows that student debt continuestoaffectCanadians’financeslongafter

graduation with borrowers less likely to have savings and investments, and less likely to own their homes.

5. Education is a great investment for our public dollars: students repay the full cost of their education through taxes over their working careers.

The conventional argument that students are heavily subsidized because tuition fees do not cover the full costs of their education ignores an important way in which students repay the cost of their education: through higher taxes after graduation. In a recent study published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives,Iquantifiedtheseadditionaltaxespaidby university graduates in BC. It turns out that when these tax payments are added up over the course of graduates’ careers, BC university students as a group pay more than double what their education costs. The research is clear: it’s economically feasible and much morefairtoreducethefinancialbarrierstoeducationby lowering tuition to nominal levels.

Increasing public funding for higher education is notonlyasoundfinancialinvestmentforourpublicdollars — it’s an investment in a healthier, better-educated and more equitable society.

Iglika Ivanova is an economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of Paid in Full: Who Pays for University Education in BC?

Five reasons why you should support a move to low tuition fees

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WWW.CUPE15.ORG CUPE Local 15, Vancouver Municipal Education and Community Workers

Seventeen Collective Agreements to Negotiate

Update from your Executive

by Leanne Toderian, Secretary-Treasurer

The month of June marks a number of events. June 21st is Aboriginal Day. In Vancouver, CUPE BC will celebrate the day

at Oppenheimer Park from 11:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. There will be free food, entertainment, book giveaways, community tables, dancing, drumming, arts and crafts and more, along with special children’s programming.On May 26th the City of Vancouver held its annual Family Day at Manitoba Works Yard in Vancouver and the

weather cooperated and I hear it was a wonderful event. This event is open to all Local 15 members, City of Vancouver employees, and residents of Vancouver. Local 15 provided a bouncy castle for the day which has been a popular attraction for a number of years now. Our President, Paul Faoro, was there to oversee and has photos elsewhere in this newsletter.

For Stewards our fall education calendar will be out sometime in July or August. Watch the CUPE BC website and look under the Education tab forcoursesofferedacrosstheprovince.Coursesofferedatourlocalwillbeonthatcalendar.The City stewards now have a voice mail box at the unionofficeformembersseekingassistance.YoucanaccessthismailboxbycallingtheunionofficeandindicatingyouareaCityemployee.Thestaffwill connect you directly to that mail box and a City Steward will get back to you within 24 hours. This

system follows the highly successful Vancouver School Board steward voice mail box system.

Speaking of the Vancouver School Board, members will have the opportunity to elect their bargaining committee on Wednesday, June 27th at 5:00 p.m. immediately preceding the General Membership meeting.

This is the last newsletter before the summer break and I would also like to remind you to attend the last General Membership meeting before summer on June 27th which is advertised on the front page of this newsletter. These meetings are great for those who want to get involved and educate themselves on what goes on around the union and what keeps us busy. I often hear comments about members wanting more information like this – this istheperfectfirststep.Hopetoseeyouthere.

June is a busy month for us!

Leanne Toderian Secretary Treasurer

Paul Faoro, President

by Paul Faoro, President

Over the last several months I have be warmed by the encouragement I have received from many CUPE members,

friends, and New Democrats to put my name forward for nomination to be the BC NDP

candidate for Vancouver Fairview in next year’s Provincial election. While the opportunity to run in the next election was very appealing to me, especially to run against the current BC Liberal MLA in my constituency who just happens to be the Minister of Labour, I have decided to decline. I thought it was important to

inform our membership of this decision as the nomination contest for Vancouver Fairview is heatingupandhasbeenreceivingsignificantmedia coverage.

This decision was not an easy one for me but when I worked through the work ahead for our local the decision became clear. This year we have an unprecedented amount of contract negotiations with the employers we deal with as 17 of 18 collective agreements expire by the end of this year and need to be renewed. I believe negotiating collective agreements is the most important duty a union performs on behalf of its members and I want to ensure we reach the best agreements possible. I plan to do this by continuing to support our dedicated staff,NationalRepresentatives,andbargainingcommittees and to ensure they have all the tools to get the job done. This includes legal, research, and communication support. On the latter we are midway through a major website upgrade that will make it easier for members to keep up with the latest news.

While I decided not to seek an NDP nomination at this point I am, however, going to set aside the required time to ensure our union is fully prepared and has the capacity to help elect Adrian Dix as Premier, and every other BC NDP candidate running across our province in the May 2012 election. In my role as co-chair of the Political Action Committee for CUPE British Columbia and CUPE National, we collectively

have a lot of work to do. BC families have suffereddeeplyundertheBCLiberalsandwemust do everything in our power to ensure they are not re-elected. Since in power, Gordon Campbell/Christy Clark led governments have nickel-and-dimed British Columbians to a point where the income gap has widened dramatically. BC still has one of the highest levels of child poverty in the country. This translate to 137,000 children living poverty in the province. On the job front the unemployment rate is on the rise and there is an estimated shortage of 61,500 skilled workers in BC by the decade’s end. There must be a change in priorities.

In the coming months you will hear more on the upcoming provincial election and our union’s plans. In the meantime I encourage members to take a look at the BCNDP’s website to see the great work Adrian Dix and all of the BCNDP MLAs have been doing on behalf of working people in our province. Check out www.bcndp.ca. For the techies out there download the new and cool BCNDP App for iPhone and iPad. Voters in British Columbia will go to the polls on Tuesday, May 14, 2013. That’s 11 months, 2 days, 18 hours, 32 minutes until election day but who is counting…

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WWW.CUPE15.ORG CUPE Local 15, Vancouver Municipal Education and Community Workers

Letters, Notices, & Updates

By Leanne Toderian, Secretary Treasurer

The Executive Decided

At the Executive meetings on May 16 and June 6, 2012 the following decisions were made:• To hold a VSB bargaining

committee election meeting on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 at the Italian Cultural Centre from 5:00 – 5:30 p.m.

• To approve six applications to Naramata Spring School.

• To ask a member to organize a Local 15 bike ride with Mayor Gregor Robertson in celebration of Velapalooza and approve $500 to host.

• To purchase three tickets to the Vancouver Spring Fling fundraising event at a cost of $250 each.

• To sponsor the BC NDP Regional Conference at a cost of $250.

• To purchase two tickets to the Shane Simpson Kiwassa Day at the Races fundraising event at a cost of $40 each.

• To purchase a new TV for union education at a cost of up to $1,500.

• TofinalizethesummerExecutivemeeting dates to July 4th, July 15th and August 15th.

• Tobecomeanofficialsupportingsponsor of the Raise the Rates campaign with a $500 donation.

• To send three members to the CUPE Antiprivatization Conference in November 2012.

• To send a letter to the Superintendent of Schools requesting that a Local 15 member be a member of the Kitsilano Secondary Stakeholder Group.

VSB Job Share RequestMy name is Andrew da Silva and I am interested in getting a job share with another SSA. I work for the Vancouver School Board as a School and Student Support Worker. Please phone me at 778-322-2822 or email me at andrewdasilva@live.com if you are interested in job sharing your position with me.

Thank you.Andrew da Silva

All CUPE K-12 Collective Agreements with school districts across British Columbia will expire on June 30th.

In preparation for the upcoming negotiations the CUPE BC K-12 Presidents’ Council has launched an online bargaining survey for allCUPEK-12memberstofillout.Itisveryimportant that CUPE 15 members at the Vancouver School Board complete the survey.

The survey can be found at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7VGDGD3 or on the CUPE 15website(www.cupe15.org)undernews.Ittakes about 10 minutes to complete.

Your input is essential to help prepare our provincial and local bargaining committees and ensure they are aware of the issues that are important to you. Please encourage your co-workersattheVSBtoalsofilloutthesurvey.

Notice of MotionThe following motion will be voted on at the June 27, 2012 meeting:

• The Executive Board recommends to the membership to amend Sections 8.1, 13.1.1 and 13.3.1 of the bylaws to change the Annual General Meeting from April to May of each year effective2013.

The amended sections will read if approved; 8.1 The Annual General Meeting will be

called in May of each year. This and other regular meetings will be held on the fourth Wednesday of each month, except for July, August and December unless designated by special notice to the members and subject to regular meetings being suspended by a majority of the members present at any previous meeting.

13.1.1 At the regular meeting of CUPE Local 15 in the month of April, a list ofofficestobefilledintheMayelections will be announced and nominations received. Nominees will be required to notify the Secretary Treasurer by no later than 5:30 p.m. on the Wednesday immediately following the April General Membership meeting of theirintentiontorunforoffice.Ifnowritten notice is received within this specifiedtime,itwillbedeemedthenominee has declined. The Secretary Treasurer will advise all members of all nominations received.

13.3.1 TheelectionofOfficerswillbeheld at the Annual General Meeting in May of each year and will be conducted as set out in these Bylaws. Voting will be by secret ballot, with the successful candidate for all officesreceivingasimplemajorityofvotes cast.

Special Meeting for Vancouver School Board Membersby Paul Faoro, President

A special meeting has been scheduled for June 27th for CUPE 15 members working at the Vancouver School Board. The sole purpose of the meeting is to elect a bargaining committee for the upcoming round of negotiations with the VSB as the collective agreement will expire at the end of this month.

The meeting will be held at 5:00 p.m. in Room 9 of the Italian Cultural Centre, 3075 Slocan Street in Vancouver.

Members are encouraged to attend this special meeting and stay for the regular general membership meeting starting at 5:30 p.m. at this location.

notices

Have you completed the Bargaining Survey?

Search CUPE 15 for Facebook, and keep up-to-date- on news from your President, Paul Faoro at @paulfaoro on Twitter.

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WWW.CUPE15.ORG CUPE Local 15, Vancouver Municipal Education and Community Workers

Events & Credits

The Members’ Voice is published nine times a year for members of CUPE Local 15 - Vancouver Municipal, Education and Community Workers. The Deadline forsubmissionsis9:00a.m.onthefirstWednesday of each month. All submissions may be edited for brevity and clarity. Signed articlesandlettersdonotnecessarilyreflectthe views or policy of CUPE Local 15.

CUPE Local 15545 West 10th AvenueVancouver, BC V5Z 1K9Phone: 604-879-4671Fax: 604-879-7582Email: email@cupe15.orgWebsite: www.cupe15.org

Local15isacharteredaffiliateoftheCanadianUnionofPublicEmployeesandisalsoaffiliatedwith the CUPE British Columbia Division, CUPE Metro District Council and the Vancouver & District Labour Council. CUPE 15 is a member of the CanadianAssociationofLabourMedia(CALM).

CUPE Local 15 Executive Board

Table Officers:President: Paul Faoro

1st Vice President: Miriam Pulsifer

2nd Vice President: Sally Bankiner

Secretary Treasurer: Leanne Toderian

Sector Representatives:City: Santino Scardillo, Tony Zullo

College/University: Reba Noel, Emma Somers

Cultural: Matthew Quiring

Health/HSSCBA: Patricia Taylor

Health/HSPBA: Chris Losito

Parks: Barb Dickinson, Anne-Marie McGee

K-12: Peggy Wong, Warren Williams

Trustees:Michele Alexander, Kenny Brett, Karla Mairena

Staff Representatives:Kathie Currie, John Geppert, Keith Graham, Graeme Moore

Office & Administrative Staff:Mark Gloumeau, Accounting Coordinator RosemaryMatheson,OfficeManager BarbaraSimpson,OfficeAssistantNadiaThibault,OfficeAssistant

Building Maintenance:JeffZaharia

CUPE National Representatives:Justin Schmid, Tina Meadows, Matt Yun, Rachna Singh

Designed by talkingdog.ca

CUPE proud to support DTES Aboriginal Day Festival For the third year in a row, CUPE is proud to support the Downtown Eastside’s Aboriginal Days celebration. The daylong event is on National Aboriginal Day, June 21, and will feature cultural performances, storytelling, a feast, and children’s entertainment.

“Thereismoretothedowntowneastside(DTES)thenwhatweseeinthenews,”saysDaleWhitford, the Chair of CUPE BC’s Aboriginal Working Group. “This community has one of the highest concentrations of aboriginal people in an urban centre. This event is a vital opportunity to showcase a differentsidetotheDTES-amorepositiveandculturalperspective,comparedtoimageswetoooftenseewhentheeastsideismentioned.”

CUPE BC’s Aboriginal working group is organizing the event alongside the Carnegie Community Action Project,WomenAgainstViolenceAgainstWomen,andstaffatOppenheimerParktoorganizethisyear’s festivities.

“CUPE is a prominent part of the DTES- we have members who live and work in the community, and wehaveahistoryofinvolvementinDTESactivities,”saidWhitford.“Weareproudtobepartofthisevent.”

Everyone is welcome to come down and check out the gathering on June 21, from 11-6pm, at Oppenheimer Park (440 Powell St). If you would like to volunteer please contact, Tina at 778-238-2412.

Family day filled with activities, good food, and great energy!On May 26th the City of Vancouver held its annual Family Day at the Manitoba Works Yard. This year’s event was great, including the weather. Looking at the smiles on the children’s faces we are sure they would agree as well. We know they enjoyed the bouncy castle that CUPE 15 donated. Thanks to all of the volunteers who helped out!