Yukon Employees’ Union2285-2nd Ave.Whitehorse, YukonY1A 1C9

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Yukon Employees’ UnionDec. 2015Breaking new trail for workers' rights & social justice.

NEWS

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, JoyousFestivus, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hannukah,Joyful EVERYTHING toall of you from all of us atYEU! We were able togather MOST of the stafftogether for our 2nd annu-al Family ChristmasPhoto... young Joshwasn’t avail-able... we had toimprovise.

Be happy & please drivesafely!

See you in 2016!The staff of YukonEmployees’ Union

Our 2015 Human RightsSpeaker Series was a greattime to hear new ideas, learnsomething new and be partof some very meaningful dis-cussions. Thank you to allour speakers and all thosewho came out each day insupport of social justice andpositive change.

Page 2 YEU News Dec. 2015

Remember YEU/PSAC members get great discounts on home heating fuel. Call Douma at (867) 633-3322info@heatyukon.com

On Wednesday December 9th 2015, members of both theYukon College (YC) and Yukon Hospital Corporation’s(YHC) Pension Committees met with management and gov-erning Board Representatives from both institutions to dis-cuss our ongoing solvency deficiency issue.

All pension plans are regulated by the Pension BenefitsStandards Act. One of the requirements of the Act stipulatesthat a Pension Plan must have sufficient funds to ensure that,in the event that the Plan terminates, all of the Members musthave their pension benefits paid to them. This requirement istermed solvency.

The YHC and YC Plans have been operating in solvencydeficiency positions for a considerable time. Despite havingan affordable normal cost of benefits and surpluses whenmeasured on a going concern basis, the Plans will continueto require (under the funding rules of the Federal PBSA),additional funds each year to cover the solvency deficien-cies.

At the December meeting we learned that a letter was beingdrafted by the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) to Federal

Finance Minister Mr. William Morneau to be submitted byFriday December 11th, 2015. One of the issues the letteraddressed is the proposal of a permanent exemption fromsolvency funding requirements for all public service plansgoverned under the PBSA. Our group also learned that Mr.Morneau has called a meeting of Canada's Finance Ministersscheduled for December 20th and 21st, 2015.

The group assembled felt we needed to capitalize on thesedevelopments and agreed to prepare a letter for YukonPremier Darrell Pasloski, informing him of our solvencyissues, the upcoming letter from the CLC and the opportuni-ty to bring this issue forward on our behalf at the upcomingFinance Ministers’ Meeting. The group has committed tofinalizing this letter and will send it to the Premier’s office byDecember 15th, 2015.

Members of the joint meeting held a brain storming sessionto discuss other options for solvency relief if the option ofpermanent relief from solvency does not materialize. Wehave committed to meet again in the New Year, this timeincluding representatives from the Yukon Government (YG),to discuss these options further. Your Pension CommitteeUnion representatives have committed to keeping all mem-bers apprised of these developments as they occur.

If you have any questions about these Pension developments,please contact your YHC or YC Pension Committee reps orcall the YEU Hall and they can direct your questions to us.

This article was written and submitted by Becky Nash,YEU/PSAC Representative on the Yukon HospitalCorporation (YHC) Pension Committee.

Yukon College & Hospital Corp Pension Solvency DeficiencyIssues: An Update from YEU/PSAC Pension Committee Meetings

YEU Activist Lisa Vollans-Leduc at our recent HumanRights Speaker Series. Lisa spoke from her experiencesas a vicarious trauma & compassion fatigue educator.

Page 3 YEU NEWS Dec. 2015

50 Years of Memories to Celebrate!YEU activists kicked up our heels Saturday November 21st at a celebration of our first50 years! The Transportation Museum was a great venue for friends and colleagues toreconnect, reminisce and share a few laughs. Mayor Dan Curtis, MP Larry Bagnell,Opposition Leader Liz Hanson spoke, as did past President Dave Hobbis, PSAC REVPNorth Jack Bourassa and northern labour leaders. Special thanks to MC retired PSACNegotiator Jim Brohman... long a fixture in Yukon`s Labour movement, now living thedream in Ontario. Happy Birthday, YEU!

Page 4 YEU NEWS Dec. 2015

Greetings Brothers & Sisters, Friends & Colleagues.

It is a great honour for me to be able to write to you as thenew President of Local Y010. I am humbled to have beennominated and trusted to continue the great work ofour past President and Executive.

I would like to take this opportunity tothank Sister Tammi Sikorski for all herhard work, sacrifice and dedication tothe local. This was greatly appreciatedand I clearly have a high standard tomeet in keeping up with Tammi’s lead-ership over these past few years. Thankyou Tammi, we owe you more than wecan ever possibly convey.

I would also like to thank Brother RichardWagner for his work and representation for the Localand YEU as a whole as our Chief Shop Steward. Hisknowledge, mentorship and representation were greatlyappreciated.

We also say goodbye to Sisters Kat Traplin and YoshikoAtkins, their voice, experience and dedication to the Localwere greatly appreciated and will be missed. Thank you foryour service.We wish you all the best in the future.

Please allow me to introduce your Local Y010 Executive:

President: Rob Jones Vice president: Doug BishopChief Shop Steward: Paul DavisAssistant Chief Shop Steward: Laurie TamminenSecretary / Treasurer: Denise BerkenDirectors: Duane Purych, Khusru Zaman, Aziz MollahKathy Donnelly, Amber Harder and Danielle Swift.

We have two Director vacancies. If you are interested inbeing an active voice in your Local please contact me todiscuss the roles and responsibilities of a Local Director.

Over the next year local Y010 has an ambitious agendaincluding:

Signing off all RAND members:A RAND is a worker in the union environment who has notfilled out a union card; presently Y010 has some RANDs.As a RAND your union dues are being deducted, howeveryou do not have all the benefits of full membership. Wewill be working in the community and workplaces to ensueour members are converted from RAND to fully signedmembers to protect your rights.

Not sure of your membership status? Call YEU at 6672331. They’ll send you a card if you haven’t signed yet.

Shop Steward training and recruitment:Local Y010 has approximately 2500 members and is

growing. At present we have 10 active ShopStewards looking after your representationneeds. These dedicated Brothers and Sistersare working to ensure your rights in theworkplace. If you are interested in becom-ing a Shop Steward or have questions aboutthe roles and responsibilities please contactthe YEU office at 667-2331 or contact meand I will be happy to chat. Moving into2016 there will be new resources and training

initiatives for current and new Stewards.

Social awareness:We’re working hard to ensure social awareness and initia-tives in each community. We’re always looking for mem-bers’ ideas, input and comments on how to move our localforward. Our Local meets at 5:30pm the 2nd Tuesday ofeach month in the YEU Hall. Please attend a Local meet-ing; we need you!

Lastly, this is a bargaining year and our collective agree-ment is on the table. Your Bargaining Team will be work-ing hard to ensure your rights & make sure you areinformed. Ratification meetings will be announced andheld after bargaining; be informed and be engaged. Sign upfor regular bargaining update emails at www.yeu.ca.

Your local executive is working hard for you, we welcomeyour comments, concerns, and ideas. Please contact me atrgjones@northwestel.net or call me at 867 334 4331.

In Solidarity,Rob Jones, President- Local Y010

Greetings from YEU Local Y010 President Rob Jones

Page 5 YEU NEWS Dec. 2015

As we head in to 2016 you will continue to see positivechanges coming out of YEU.

We have spent a lot of time meeting with Local leaders, yourelected executive members from all YEU Locals over the pastyear and we’ve really listened to what they’ve told us theywant and need to build strength and improve their ability toconnect with their members. More training, communicationsand assistance from YEU in building capacity within allLocals were at the top of the list. We’re working with Localsto help build strength in those areas and we think you’ll noticea difference over the coming year.

I want to thank the many dedicated members, activists andLocal Executive officers; volunteers who put in countlesshours of their own time. Without their solidarity and vision,this organization would not be able to serve its members orcontinue working toward our shared goals.

Thanks to YEU Vice President Sister Sue Christianson's dedi-cation to grass roots organizing and her love for education, weare building a strong foundation for the membership. We areagain sending a large contingent to the Canadian LabourCongress Winter School at Harrison Hot Springs. Each mem-ber will be immersed in an intensive training program, gettingto know other union activists and building a srong network.

YEU Vice-President, Communities - Brother Tony Thomas'scontinued trips to the communities have resulted in strongerexecutives, more shop stewards and higher visibility in bothpublic and work sectors. It will be great to see a significantincrease in the number of community members at our next tri-

ennial convention thanks to Brother Thomas's outreach.

At our last convention the membership made some solidchoices when you elected the present YEU executive. It is apleasure to work with such a dedicated and diverse group ofindividuals. Each works to their strengths on our board, andwe are stronger for it. There are a couple of articles in thisnewsletter which reflect the dedication of this group of volun-teers.

I’ve saved the biggest THANKS for last! Many thanks to theAMAZING staff of YEU! Thanks to Executive DirectorLaura Hureau, Executive Assistant Josh Cuppage,Communications Officer Deborah Turner-Davis and IntakeAdvisor Beckie Huston. Thanks also to new staff memberRoseanne Elias in Membership services, Finance OfficerTammy Olsen and our intrepid Union Advisors - ChristieHarper, Sharleen Patterson and Susan Koser. These hard work-ing individuals are responsible for keeping the doors of YEUopen and the business of the Union moving forward.

Please have a safe and happy holiday season! From our YEU family to yours.

Happy Holidays from YEU President Steve Geick

Steve Geick & Kathleen Hare of Yukon Association forCommunity LIving at YEU’s Human Rights Speaker Series.

Page 6 YEU NEWS Dec. 2015

Ready, Willing and Able is a new national employment pro-gram aimed at increasing the labour force participation rateof people with disabilities. This federally-funded initiativehas been launched in 20 communities across Canada andseen some great successes, and Whitehorse is no exception.The Yukon Association for Community Living is movinginto our second year of working with the program.

YACL’s employment team is made up of a Labour MarketFacilitator and several job coaches. Together we haveworked to support more than 20 new employment opportu-nities for Yukoners experiencing various disabilities. As partof our role, we’ve engaged with dozens of employers toidentify employment opportunities and we’ve provided on-the-job support to workers with disabilities and to their co-workers and supervisors. Support comes in the form ofongoing job coaching and other job-specific accommoda-tions.

We hear so many success stories both nationally and locallyas employers access a pool of hard working, long term anddedicated employees who love their jobs. These workers aregaining independence and building a social circle and mean-ingful ways to participate and actively contribute to theircommunity. We start with the employer’s need and work tofind the right match of skills and interest in an employmentcandidate. YACL is working to foster long lasting and suc-cessful working relationships between businesses andemployees who are hardworking, positive and capable addi-tions to the workplace team.

The types of jobs found and supported through Ready,Willing and Able range

from less than part-time tofull-time, in small busi-nesses to large, and acrossa variety of skill sets.

A key component ofReady, Willing and Able ishelping businesses realizethe value in hiring a per-son with a disability whenthe right match is madebetween job position and individual. In these cases, busi-nesses across the country are seeing extremely low turnoverrates, high levels of accuracy and dedication and an overallpositive and motivating shift in workplace culture.

YACL has also initiated and coordinates an Odd Job Squad;a group of people who have interest and ability in labour andtrades work, offering short term services to businesses andcommunity members. They mobilize for odd jobs like smallconstruction projects, snow shovelling, yard work, stackingwood and more. By supporting a good quality and depend-able on-demand labour force we help workers gain skills andmake connections, developing opportunities for longer-termfuture employment.

YACL has partnered with YuWIN and other disability orga-nizations, developing new campaigns to further engage thebusiness community and other potential employers. Thisincludes web-based marketing but also provides opportuni-ties to recognize success. We thank businesses that have

been key players in inclusive hir-ing. We plan to develop trainingand education opportunities forbusinesses who may be interestedin becoming involved but want tolearn more.

If you’re interested in the OddJob Squad or in becoming a sup-porter of our programs pleasecontact Kathleen Hare atrwa@ycommunityliving.com or667-4606.

Article submitted by YukonAssociation for CommunityLivingwww.ycommunityliving.com

Building Strong & Diverse CommunitiesYukon Association for Community Living

Page 7 YEU News Dec. 2015

I attended PSAC’s “Women’s Forum on DomesticViolence at Work” from Dec 11-13, 2015 in Ottawa andhave returned ready to get to work on this very importantissue. About 100 PSAC women from across Canadaattended this forum, including the National President,REVP’s, equity and committee reps, regional reps, nego-tiators, educators, politicians and others – members andstaff coming together to learn more about domestic vio-lence and how it affects victims and workers. The statis-tics were shocking - one third of those surveyed report-ed experiencing domestic violence from an intimatepartner.

Human rights leaders, labour leaders, aboriginal leaders,and women from various women’s movement groupsfrom across Canada and U.S.A. shared information andtheir experiences with us. They inspired us to look atoptions on how to support victims at work and deal withthe risk of domestic violence in the workplace. TheCanadian Labour Congress survey shows that in 53.5%of cases, domestic violence follows its victims at workranging from abusive phone calls to physical abuse,some victims have been tragically killed while at work.

When victims are abused, it’s hard for them to concen-trate at work and sometimes prevents them from gettingto work at all. We need to improve workplace safety forvictims and co-workers. PSAC will be working withother labour groups, women’s organizations and com-munity groups to support victims and will also be work-ing on an education program ondomestic violence for our mem-bers. We will work with thesegroups and employers and politi-cians to make domestic violenceunacceptable.

I will report further on this initia-tive early in 2016. Sue Christianson,

YEU Vice-President

Can Work be Safe when HOME ISN’T?

Congratulations to YEU Local Y043Going where No Local has gone before!For a quiet small town, the residents of Dawson are remarkablybusy. That means it’s not always easy to get a full Executive electedor to get the necessary turnout at Union Local meetings.

The recent amalgamation of Locals Y033 (City of DawsonMunicipal Workers) and Y026 (Klondike, YG) will help spread thework and make it easier for people to get involved. Though they rep-resent workers from two entirely different bargaining units &employers, these two locals have merged to create a bigger, stronger,more unified Local. Stewards will represent workers in their ownBargaining Unit.

We spoke recently with Anton Berger, President of the newlyformed Klondike Collective, Local Y043. The new Executive islooking forward to developing the Local through recruitment andtraining of new Shop Stewards.

Anton tells us that a strong incentive to forming the new Local wasthe desire to keep Union dues in Dawson. Had Klondike YG LocalY026 been resorbed into the Local Y010, all dues previouslyreturned to the region would have flown instead to the much largerLocal Y010. While some of those funds would undoubtedly maketheir way to Dawson in the form of Y010 initiatives & special pro-jects, control would largely return to Whitehorse.

Union dues returned to the Local are spent in the community on pro-jects decided upon by the Executive; it’s a very important compo-nent of the work they do. If you’re interested in helping guide thosedecisions, make sure you attend the next Local meeting. Dawson is a different kind of town, there is no disputing that. Oftenat the vanguard, always forging its own path and not really like anyplace else… union activity in Dawson is no different.

Dawson union activists have just done something that’s never beendone… they’ve merged two Locals from different employers intoone super-Local, and we’re excited to see the Local grow. Localmeetings take place monthly; email klondikeanton@gmail.com fordetails.

Page 8 YEU NEWS Dec. 2015

Meetings & EventsY010 Monthly Meeting: 2nd Tues., 5:30-7:30 p.m., YEU Hall Y017 Monthly Meeting: 4th Wed., 7:30 p.m., YEU Hall

StaffChristie Harper, Union Advisor; charper@yeu.caSusan Koser, Union Advisor; skoser@yeu.caSharleen Patterson, Union Advisor; spatterson@yeu.caBeckie Huston, Intake Advisor; bhuston@yeu.caTammy Olsen, Financial Officer; tolsen@yeu.ca

Shop Steward Round Table: February 17, 9am - noon, YEUYEU Monthly Exec Meeting: 2nd Thurs., 6:30-9:00 pm, YEU Hall

Roseanne Elias, Receptionist; reception@yeu.caDeborah Turner-Davis, Communications: dturner-davis@yeu.caJosh Cuppage, Executive Assistant; contact@yeu.caLaura Hureau, Executive Director; lhureau@yeu.ca

Yukon Employees’ Union Office, 2285 2nd Avenue Whitehorse YT Y1A 1C9 PH: 867-667-2331 FX: 867-667-6521 Toll Free: 1-888-YEU-2331 Email us at contact@yeu.ca Visit www.yeu.ca, follow us on Facebook & Twitter or visit our blog; www.theunionbillboard.com

Office Hours: Monday through Friday, 8:30 am - 5:00 pm.

Moving? Name Change?

Leave of Absence?Planning to be off work for

maternity or parental leave?

Away on deferred or education

leave?

You’ve moved or changed your

name?

Let us know. We’ll update your

info and help you make sure your

membership isn’t affected while

you’re off work.