CUPE Local 3260

EAP Reports

Educational Reports

Group Benefits Trust Committee Minutes|Reports

Health & Safety Minutes|Reports

Human Rights Minutes|Reports

Labour Management Committee Minutes|Reports

Negotiation Committee Minutes|Reports

Pension Committee Minutes|Reports

This was my first time attending a National Convention. It was an extremely busy week filled with lots of CUPE business, resolutions, issues, sectoral meetings and more.

As a delegate I heard from several talented speakers including Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh. This was extra special as it was during Canada’s federal election period.

There were opportunities to attend CUPE social events throughout the week as well as with members of our Local which was super fun! I thoroughly enjoyed this experience and hope to attend another convention in the future.

Submitted by Marion Hendrickson Recording Secretary CUPE Local 3260

• Constitutional Amendment C-15 to add 3 National Executive Board members to represent diversity groups - LGBT, Persons with Disabilities, Women was once again defeated at the CUPE National Convention in October 2019.


• Resolution was passed for Resources, advocacy and lobbying for LGBTQ2+ competency for CUPE members and clientele of public services.


• CUPE Human Resource Branch is conducting a joint research program with EGALE Canada HR Trust and researchers at Carleton University to improve services for LGBTQ2+ seniors - safety and access for workers and clients.


• Building safer spaces with guest speakers at events and all-gender washrooms, as well as education around pronouns at conventions and conferences.


• Changes of LGBTTI to LGBTQ2SI+ (LGBTQ2+ is an acronym that describes people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, two-spirit or who have other marginalized social locations or gender and sexuality identities and expressions)


• Creating a series of resources on gender diversity, including a three-hour workshop, info sheets and collective agreement language.​ Homophobic and transphobic harassment, violence and discrimination in 2019 continue to hurt our members and the people we serve.


• Federal government and others are proclaiming 2019 as the 50th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality.


• Bring human rights issues to the bargaining table (See CUPE.CA - Bargaining LGBTQ2+ rights: A checklist for collective agreement language).


• Given recent setbacks in Canada and the US, we need to ramp up organizing and link our struggles. On LGBTQ2+ rights alone, we are witnessing provincial governments reverse progress on curriculum and Gay-Straight Alliances.


• Change of "sexual reassignment" to "transition surgery".

Respectfully submitted
Brenda Doucette, CUPE NPTC PEI Respresentative

It has been 20 years since my last National Convention. And 20 years ago it was in Montreal as well. The CUPE membership has grown considerable since then. Mark Hannock informed us we have toppled 700,001. This makes us one strong force to reckon with. There are many passionate members that took to the mic over the week, they respectfully debated the resolutions, constitutional amendments and the document ‘Building our Strengths: Strategic Directions 2019-2021. This document focused on defending decent wages, pension plans, health & safety protections, unionizing, right to bargaining freely, fight to protect our planet, and demand resources for mental health and drug addiction. 293 resolution where put forth by unions, about 35 was debated. Our union had sent in 6. Out of those 6, two were heard and debated. One was carried: Create and implement an anti-racism strategy including anit-black racism, for the workplace and union that builds on CUPE’s 1999 policy statement on racism in the workplace.

The one defeated was to support Palestinian peoples’ right to self-determination and their demands to end military occupation etc.

Ones not brought to the floor were on Isamphobia, literacy, anti-racism and call for Canada to stop interfering with Venezuela’s democratic process.

There were 48 constitutional amendments brought forth with about 16 of them being debated. The majority were carried.

On Sunday all the Education Locals from across Canada came together and gave a brief update on what was happening in their area. A lot of time was given to the Education strike that was about to happen Monday morning in Ontario for Support Workers.

Speakers that were very impressive over the week were Sara Nelson- New York Times calls her America’s most powerful flight attendant, for her role in helping to end the 35 day government shutdown. She is a strong voice on women issues in the workplace. She was a very powerful speaker.

Jagmeet Singh leader of the NDP party was also one of our speakers. Such a passionate man and so for the people. He has a lot of great ideas. And with this minority government hopefully him and Trudeau could work together for the us the people. I even managed to get my picture taken with him.

The other speaker that amazed me was Geici Maiara Brig. She couldn’t speak English and had an interpreter. She is a young, female, lesbian, trade unionist who fights to defend quality public services, equality and opportunities for all. But does all this a great risk!! In Brazil where she is from, a lot of what she stands for and fights for goes against the government.

It was a great convention. Glad I had the opportunity to attend. Early mornings, & long days, didn’t give us much down time. But we got to do a few fun things and I am glad to have spent time with Brenda, Marion, Shelley & Karla.

Sincerely
Carolyn Vandaele

During the week of October 1st to 6th, I had the pleasure of attending CUPE National Convention 2017 Toronto, as one of the 3 delegates from CUPE Local 3260. As outgoing president this will likely be my last. It was great to share the experience with Karla as a first time delegate and Brenda as another who has had much involvement over the last few years and is continuing on. We are all at different places in our CUPE journey so I know we all will take something different from it. Please see the end of this report for additional comments from both Brenda and Karla

A total of 37 delegates attended from PEI. 29 from locals, 1 from the Health Council, 1 from CUPE PEI Division, 1 representing her National Committee and 5 alternates. Karyn Noble from our local was asked by her National Committee to assist in the Literacy booth for the week.

After Convention adjourned on the first two evenings all delegates met to elect Caucus choice for the National Executive Board. Brother Danny Legere was re- elected as General Vice President and will continue to represent us for the Maritime region. Leonard Crawford was elected as Regional Vice President for PEI. Mark Hancock was re-elected as CUPE National President and Charles Fleury was elected by acclamation as Secretary -Treasurer. Continued success to all of them as they go forward with the fight for the rights of our Labour Union.

A total of 2159 voting delegates and 193 Alternates attended the convention. The days were long and the week was very busy as many Constitutional Amendments and Resolutions were put to the floor.

40 Resolutions in all were adopted along with 6 Constitutional Amendments. Unfortunately C8 was defeated after much debate. This was asking for all Equality seeking committees to get a seat on the National Executive Board. We know the fight for this is only in the early stages and it will continue to rise again at every upcoming convention.

All the National committees were up to report on their work over the past 2 years. The Strategic Directions Document was set out for the next two years. Some of the areas in which work will be continuing includes the fight for a minimum wage of $18, to maintain our defined benefits pension plans and to fight against P3s.

Supporting and increasing our Bargaining Strength and Power is another goal in this Strategic Plan as many local across the nation are facing various concessions at the table.

Delegates were successful in getting Resolution No. 318 to the floor before the close of Convention, as this is asking CUPE National to ensure that members receive strike pay from the first day of any strike or lockout. It was previously after five days.

As always I appreciate the opportunity extended to me to represent members from Local 3260. No matter how many you attend or participate in there is always so much you can take away from it.

In solidarity;

Linda Jones

My thanks to CUPE Local 3260 for sending me to the 2017 CUPE National Convention held in Toronto Oct 2-6, 2017.

The Convention was very busy for me attending daily morning, noon and evening caucuses for LGBT, Women's, Maritime and Equity. I also attended planning meetings for support of the Constitutional Amendment to add 4 diversity seats to the NEB.

After two years of strategizing since the last convention, a very lengthy debate and numerous speeches from the floor, the amendment did not get passed. It was a close vote, it just didn't meet the required 2/3rds of delegate approval.

It was great to hear from the NDP'S newly elected leader Jagmeet Singh. He was a great speaker.

Respectfully submitted,

Brenda Doucette

A huge thank you to CUPE local 3260 for sending me to the 2017 National Convention in Toronto.

It was certainly a week of many firsts for me. Not only was it my first convention at the national level, but it was my first experience of voting on both constitutional changes and resolutions that will affect locals across Canada! It was my first experience attending a maritime caucus and apparently I witnessed quite a good one to start my career.

I cannot express how much I learned this week by listening to the debates from delegates, seeing just how many brothers and sisters were in attendance and trying to absorb all the information that was thrown at me. I hope this is just the start of my path with CUPE union and my involvement will grow during my time in local 3260. This week's experience has been so valuable and I appreciated the opportunity to see what I'm part of.

Thank you Karla Carnegie - MacDonald

The following members from our local attended the annual meeting � Carolyn Vandaele, Adele Ryan and Karyn Noble. Brenda Doucette attended as well as a CUPE PEI delegate. The meeting was held at the Charlottetown Hotel the evening of Friday October 28th, 2016 followed by a full day meeting on Saturday October 29th.

There were a total of 80 voting delegates and 2 guests from 9 CUPE locals and 9 other unions in attendance.

Some of the Speakers:

• Carl Pursey President PEI Federation of Labour and Hassan Yussuff, President Canadian Labour Congress spoke about the following issues they have been working on/ fighting during the past year :
• 
  Oppose Bill C27 (federal government act to amend the Pensions Standards Act which will allow employers to shift from good, defined benefit plans which protect workers to plans that are less secure with no benefit guarantees where all the risks are taken by the workers
• 
  Reminding the Liberal government to follow through on their election promises
  
  Supporting the expansion of the CPP
  Oppose Asbestos
  Push for a National Pharmacare program
  Support for Proportional Representation
  Push for good paying full time, permanent work and fight back the current trend of hiring contact, short term, precarious work
  Anti- Privatization and Contracting Out
  Scrap the changes to EI
• 
  There was a question and answer time with the Premier. Carolyn Vandaele talked about Bill 13 and how it has negatively impacted our members and retirees as our benefit premium costs rose 40% saying government is saving money on the backs of workers Linda Silas President, Canadian Federation of Nurses Union talked about the benefits of a National Pharmacare Program. 26-29% of Canadians are not taking their medications � can�t afford them and this leads to increased cost of health care. This program could save PEI residents $45 million/year. This money could be reinvested into the PEI health care system every year. Savings could go to home health care, increased access to primary care facilities, 55 long-term care beds could be opened and 100 new nurses could be hired.
  
  Premier Wade MacDonald talked about PEI's economy being small can be big. He outlined the challenges the province is facing in light of the 2008 economic decline and aging demographics. He said PEI�s Per Capita GDP since the 1960's to the present relative to the rest of Canada has experienced growth from 50% to 76%. He said PEI needs rebranding from the Gentle Island to the Mighty Island. He said the WCB fund is in good shape no waiting time anymore. He is happy that he maintains a positive and constructive relationship with labour.

Resolutions:

Several resolutions were adopted including � Literacy training and funding (Karyn Noble spoke to these) , Childcare system, sale of PEI bottled water, protect PEI's ground water, job classification appeal process, Proportional Representation, Treasury Board proposal for paid sick leave, mental health education, Order of PEI nomination

Constitutional Resolutions:

• Remove all current honorariums and establish a rate of a $15 000 stipend per year for the President's position is approved
  
  Per Capita rate increase to $0.85 per member starting Jan 1, 2017 (to help pay the stipend above) � approved *an increase of $0.13 per member

CUPE members who are Executive Officers:

Lori MacKay Executive Council, Donna Dingwell VP Women�s Issues, Leonard Gallant Trustee (reelected)

Elections:

Carl Pursey was reelected for President.

As there was no further business the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Karyn Noble, Carolyn VanDaele, AdeleRyan and Brenda Doucette

The convention was held at the Vancouver Convention Center November 1 � 6, 2015. 30 voting delegates + 2 alternates, from 12 locals in PEI attended. There were 2,208 voting delegates + 165 alternates from across Canada in attendance. Our Local sent 3 voting delegates: Karyn Noble, Brenda Doucette and Rose-Lune Gaulet. We all had to work the PEI Education sector booth every day.

November 1, 2015

Education Sector Sectoral Meeting: There are 55,000 CUPE education sector members across Canada. CUPE education workers across Canada attended this meeting to hear presentations from provincial representatives and international speakers. Karyn Noble made the presentation for PEI at this time. She spoke about PEI�s 2 successful campaigns � the Anti-Privatization Campaign and the Health and Safety Campaign. She also spoke about the challengers faced by education workers on PEI. (ie. upcoming school closures, bargaining and violence in schools) The overwhelming message that we heard across Canada was �Public Education is undervalued and underfunded.�

November 2-6th, 2015

Speakers Paul Moist, CUPE National President gave his last address to the delegates. We are proud public employees! We vow to defend our jobs and free collective bargaining rights!

Tom Mulcair, NDP Leader spoke to the delegates. This was his first speaking engagement since the election. He said We need to keep the Liberal's feet to the fire for the next 4 years and make sure they follow through with their election promises.

Honorable Justice Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada made an emotional speech that was very moving and heart wrenching. His focus was on the horrendous history of the abuses experienced by the children that resided in the residential school system in Canada.

Hassam Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress called on CUPE members to hold Liberals to account.

Rosa Parvanelli, general secretary of Public Services International spoke about the global labour movement. Unions all over the world are under attack. Tthe time has come for a united global labour front to resist neoliberalism.

Naomi Klein, activist and award-winning journalist emphasized Now is the time for boldness. Now is the time to leap.

Lee Saunders, ASCSME president spoke about the USA labour movement.

Mohamed Fahmy, former Al Jazeera Cairo bureau chief and award winning Canadian journalist spoke. He was imprisoned on bogus charges in Egypt for more than 400 days.

Strategic Document- Delegates added input and debated CUPE�s policy document, a blueprint for the next 2 years. This paper shows how CUPE will continue to build our collective power for positive change. Delegates spoke about the importance of organizing precarious workers, including young workers, and building a more diverse union.

Highlights

1. National Award winner for Disability Rights: Ann Ramsey! A life-changing accident in 2009 left PEI school bus driver Anne with paralysis of the lower body. Ann retrained and went back to work as a receptionist and added disability rights activism to her union work.
2. There was a beautiful tribute to retiring president Paul Moist by various speakers including his daughter Kelly. For 40 years Paul has been a CUPE member, activist, staff member and leader.
3. Karyn Noble attended the Member Facilitators breakfast.
4. Karyn Noble participated in the Labour choir that performed Friday morning.

Elections- Mark Hancock elected CUPE National President from British Columbia. Charles Fleury reelected by acclamation to a 3rd term as CUPE National Secretary Treasurer from Quebec. Lori MacKay, elected Regional Vice President by caucus choice for PEI.

Resolutions- Many, many resolutions were debated during the course of the week. Several constitutional resolutions were adopted regarding the Trial process and the handling of complaints. A few resolutions were defeated. One that was defeated was regarding the elimination of the waiting period for strike pay and to provide strike pay from the first day of the strike. The constitutional resolution that proposed to change the Diversity Vice Presidents from 2-6 to include disability, LGBTTI, women and young workers was defeated too.

We all would like to thank the local for the opportunity to attend this busy and informative convention.

Respectfully submitted by, Karyn Noble, Brenda Doucette and Rose-Lune Gaulet

October 23-24, 2014

Linkletter Hotel, Summerside

The meeting was called to order at 7 pm with 78 voting delegates from many different unions. Our Local sent 5 delegates. As well Stacy Delaney and Bill McKinnon both CUPE Servicing Representatives were in attendance. There were 89 voting delegates on Saturday.

Speakers - Barb Bayers and Alex Furlong from the Canadian Labour Congress, Paul Meinema from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union and the Honorable Wade MacLauchlan. This was the first time the Premier had ever spoken at this meeting. He made 2 announcements � a proposed amendment to Worker�s Compensation Act - elimination of the waiting period and a proposed amendment to the Employment Standards Act � special extended leaves for working parents with children in crisis. He said he looked forward to working with labour.

Elections Lori MacKay (CUPE) Board member, Donna Dingwell (CUPE) VP Womens Issues, Leonard Gallant (CUPE) Trustee, Craig Walsh Vice President, and Christina Mill Treasurer.

Resolutions: 28 Resolutions were debated with topics including Child Care, Literacy, PEI Literacy Alliance, Aid, Not War, Human Rights, Save Canada Post, Missing and murdered Aboriginal Women and Girls, Pensions, Postal Banking, the Environment, Bill C51, Bill 377, Bill C4, Bill 525, Treasury Board Proposal for Sick Leave, Mental Health Education, Food Safety, Immigration and Refugees Policy, Anti War, EI, Trade in Service Agreement. All resolutions were approved on the floor.

It was an interesting and informative meeting. I thank the local for giving me the opportunity to attend and speak to these important issues.

In Solidarity
Karyn Noble
CUPE Local 3260 VP Central West Area

October 2-3, 2015

Three members including myself from our local attended this interesting course as well as other members from other locals and sectors.

Some of the objectives for the course were:

• Learn strategies for engaging members in a different way
• Explore the issues, problems and solutions that are relevant to our local
• Learn about the changing demographics
• Explore leadership skills
• Develop an action plan for strengthening our local

We looked at:

• What is working well in our local? Why?
• What is not working well in our local? Why?
• What is a leader, a natural leader, how to identify leaders and draw them into the local.
• We looked at developing our personal, individual action plan for the next 6 months and 2 years.

I think that by attending this workshop I was given a really good opportunity to really think about our local, how we can build a stronger local and how I personally can work towards this goal of strengthening our local.

Karyn Noble VP Central West Area

The following members attended the Combatting Workplace Bullying workshop May 6-7th, 2015: Coralee Simpson, Pauline Clark, Shawna Quinn and Karyn Noble.

Pauline Clark reported:

I attended the CUPE school - Combating Bullying in the Workplace on May 6th and 7th, 2015. There were 20 CUPE members who attended. We had lots of discussion and group work. We did scenarios to help us define Bullying and Harassment.

One of the main things to do if you are a victim of Bulling or Harassment is to document all incidents, talk to a Union rep. and ask your union Rep. to go with you when you talk to your manager or supervisor. There are posters and pamphlets at the CUPE Office if you would like to get the message out that Bullying and Harassment are not acceptable in the workplace.

We also learned that on PEI we do not have legislation to stop this practice in the workplace. We need to lobby government to get legislation that will prevent bullying and harassment in the work place.

I would recommend this workshop for all CUPE members. It was very helpful and helped me to understand more about the topics. The facilitators Ron and Melissa were very knowledgeable about the topics - Great Job facilitating. Thank You CUPE for offering this school.

Shawna Quinn reported:

Combating Workplace Bullying was a very informative workshop. Over the 9hrs we learned that there is a cycle of bullying, and there is always a target the bully is looking for. Sometimes the bully doesn't even know they are bullying.

Bullying can lead to Long-term disability, quitting your job, addiction, and suicide. You should let the target know you are there to support them, and they are not alone. Always get the target to document the incidents as they happen, so the union and employer can deal with it.

There is also a difference between bullying and harassment. Bullying is a form of harassment, it is an act or verbal comments that could mentally hurt and isolate a person at a workplace. Harassment is the use of real or perceived power to abuse, devalue, or humiliate a person. As a local we have to work to lobby with CUPE PEI to develop anti-bullying legislation. I really enjoyed the workshop it was one of the best ones I've been to this year. Thanks.

Coralee Simpson reported:

What I really learned was the bully sometimes doesn't even know they are a bully and it won't stop until something is done about it. They will have a target or maybe a few and keep bullying until called out on it. But will probably continue to the next target.

I had such a hard time after this workshop and trying to figure out how I was going to deal with my workplace bully. . . Up until last week it went on and on and finally the right opportunity came up and I called her out and told her she was being very rude and to stop the complaining about this certain ongoing situation. She has been better since.

I also talked to the few staff that are hurting by this and now the other staff are documenting the issues that are ongoing. The presenters at this workshop were wonderful and understanding of all our stories. Having the support of the group there helped me deal and face a problem I have had for 3 years! Excellent 2 days. Thanks.

Karyn Noble reported:

This is what I learned: Bullying is a type of violence. Harassment is illegal. Bullying is NOT illegal. There are many different kinds of bullying behavior and they are SNEAKY and are generally related to HIDDEN AGGRESSION. It is sometimes hard to know if a certain behavior is bullying. If you are not sure an action or statement would be considered bullying, you can use the reasonable personality test. Would most people consider the action unacceptable?

Some things I took away with me from this workshop are: I will recommend to our Local's Health and Safety Committee to look into writing a joint workplace bullying policy, recommend that our members fill out the CUPE Violent Incident reports and check off the bullying bullet, and distribute Stop Harassment materials for members. We also need to lobby for anti-bullying legislation in this province.

This was a very interesting and informative workshop ïs the biggest thing I learned was that Bullying is a form of violence ïs I never thought of it that way. I urge members who are being victimized to start journaling events, witnesses and report any bullying in the workplace to our local's Health and Safety Committee. You are never alone. Bullying is not acceptable. Thanks to the Local for sending me.

On March 11 & 12, 2015 Joy Sentner, Brenda Doucette, Linda Mills, Shawna Quinn, Sylvia Carrier and Rose-Lune Goulet attended a CUPE workshop at the Delta Charlottetown. This workshop is part of the Steward Learning Series which included Literacy Awareness and Introduction to Mental Health. This workshop was very informative and interesting. Gave good information about the different perspectives of how society and the workplace see Mental Health and how to deal with these perspectives.

Respectfully submitted, Brenda Doucette, Area VP

Our Local 3260 sent 3 members to this important conference � Carolyn Vandaele, Karyn Noble and Brenda Doucette. Approximately 500 members from across Canada attended.

CUPE strives to create communities that truly reflect our values of inclusivity and equality. One of the presenters said an interesting thing - We need to consume less, produce less, share more then we will have a more humane world.

Federal and provincial governments in recent years have been imposing severe cuts and legislative changes that often affect women, people of color, Aboriginal people, people with disabilities or members of the LGBTTI community. The rise of precarious work, the attacks on pensions and the erosion of benefits disproportionately affect equity seeking groups. Systemic and discrimination face workers every day. CUPE is committed to work collectively with, and on behalf of our members. As social activists, we are working with our community allies to fight discrimination.

The focus of this conference was to explore both new and proven strategies that can reverse the cuts, reduce precarious working conditions, defend our pensions and benefits, and ensure that human rights are advanced in our workplaces and communities.

We, as workers, heard from a diverse interesting and very thought provoking group of presenters, activists with real experience and success facing these kinds of challenges. We were challenged, shared our own knowledge and ideas in small group plenaries focusing on where we as workers, have power: bargaining, mobilizing and political action.

Another presenter talked about Human Responsibilities rather than Human Rights. She noted that we are all interconnected (like a web), must all work together, because in a circular sense is what happens to me will affect everyone. Something to think about!

A presenter talked about the results gathered from the CUPE Membership Survey Results For Equality:

1. Composition of CUPE members
2. Does Inequality exist in CUPE?
3. Looking at precarious work.

Some interesting CUPE facts were presented:

1. Over 2/3 (68%) of CUPE members are women, more likely to work less than 30 hours a week with no benefits, higher likelihood of having their hours of work reduced
2. Over 2/3 earn less than $50,000/year (less than the national average)
3. 75% of CUPE members were English
4. Members in equality seeking groups are often more likely to be employed in precarious work
5. 1 in 8 members reported having more than 1 employer and are more likely to be young workers, racialized, speak another language at home, have low incomes, or identify as LGBTTI
6. 21% of members are below 35 years of age, more likely to work less than 30 hours per week, less likely to have employment benefits, workplace pensions or paid sick days

Other results:

1. The union advantages are clear:
2. Being in a union is better than no union
3. Being a member of CUPE is best
4. There is still work to be done on Equality groups

One of the best parts of this conference was the chance to visit Canada�s newest and recently opened National Museum � the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. This museum certainly encouraged all to learn from the past, and to enter a conversation about the future of our rights in the future. Our visit was all too short but well worth the visit!

Finally, it was a great honor to represent CUPE Local 3260 at this extremely interesting, thought provoking and educational conference. Thank you!

Carolyn Vandaele, VP East and Karyn Noble, VP Central West and Brenda Doucette, VP West

Thank you for allowing me to attend the 2nd CUPE National Human Rights Conference on behalf of Local 3260, CUPE PEI and our LGBTTI members.

The conference was held over four days, providing daily plenary�s focusing on human rights issues past, present and future, within all labour movements, political groups, government, and throughout Canada. CUPE has an essential role in protecting worker's rights and one of the current issues being pursued is human rights. Not all provinces within Canada have adequate language in their perspective Human Rights Codes, and CUPE is striving to change this. Every day CUPE members face human rights challenges within the workplace, at the bargaining table and many times in our own communities. Women, people of colour, aboriginals, people with disabilities and LGBTTI members are often affected the most.

As we were on traditional aboriginal lands, we were welcomed by Barbara and Clarence Nepinak of the Pine Creek Ojibway First Nation, Treaty #4. Each morning a smudging ceremony was held that all conference participants were invited to attend. During the ceremony, sage grass was burned and presented to each participant to cleanse the body and soul of negative energy. The smoke attaches itself to the negative energy and as it clears it takes the negative away to another place and regenerates it into a positive energy. It was a very spiritual awakening to start the day.

A visit to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights took place on Friday. The museum is filled with many historical references through video, artifacts, and personal reflections from individuals and families that experienced the violation of their human rights. From residential schools, the holocaust, Ukrainian wars, to education of how the future can be changed is housed within 7 floors of interactive displays. A whole day could easily be spent reliving each era of human rights issues around the world, our two hours was not nearly enough time, but it sure opened up a new vision of how so much could and can be changed.

Many great speakers were present during the conference, from local Government Ministers, Social Justice Activists, visiting MLAs, local aboriginal students, Human Rights legal counsel, visiting MPs and many other human rights activists. Each speaker provided creative ideas on how we can get involved in exchanging ideas, engaging other union members and strategizing ways to reducing human rights challenges that affect equality-seeking groups the most and on a daily basis.

In 2014, a survey was completed by CUPE to help understand the demographics and diversity of our union. It also addressed members who work in precarious employment. Nearly 3000 members were polled. If you are interested in viewing this survey it can be found online at https://cupe.ca/cupe-membership-survey-results-equality.

National Pink Triangle Committee

The NPTC met after the CUPE National Human Rights Conference for two half day sessions. During this meeting we debriefed on the Conference, stressed the importance of addressing human rights issues at the bargaining table, reading the Equality Statement at each meeting, and that human rights continue today just as it did in the past; it is an ongoing issue.

It was noted that LGBTTI speakers were not as present during the conference as other equality seeking groups speakers. There were also some access issues for participants accessing the convention centre over the weekend through the inside walkways.

Our new Sub-Committee will be seeking a resolution submission to the 2015 CUPE National Convention for a LGBTTI Diversity Vice President to the National Executive Board. This resolution has been put forth the last two conventions, although it never left the floor. It is important to ensure that each of the equality seeking groups have a voice on the National Executive Board in order to observe issues that arise and to have representation that truly understands the challenges.

A large part of our discussion revolved around support for legislative changes for human rights codes regarding gender identity and gender expression. Only Ontario, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland and more recently Saskatchewan have introduced language into the Human Rights Code for protection of transgender and transsexuals. We must encourage other CUPE Provincial Presidents to continue encouraging Provincial Governments to lobby the federal government to support Bill C-279 to add explicit protection against discrimination and hate crimes based on gender identity, to the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code of Canada (quoted directly - CUPE Manitoba President Kelly Moist, letter to Honorable Sharon Blady, MLA Minister of Health).

Other areas that we discussed were:

• Monitoring the progress of the Union Development adaptation of the LGBTTI component of the UNIFOR Human Rights Workshop;
• Member Facilitator Training;
• Promote participation in May 17, International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) Events;
• Liaising with other CUPE National Committees Womens, Political Action in regards to issues surrounding Sex Workers and the effects on youth, homeless and trans people;
• Promote viewing of Gen Silent� video documentary; LGBTTI aging issues for Seniors, lobby for reforms in senior care;
• Continued Community Outreach in Pride Events;
• Supporting the Canadian Federation of Students End the Blood Ban Campaign; and
• Suggestion to CUPE National Communications for a booklet or fact sheet on history of CUPE's work on LGBTTI issues.

Respectfully submitted by Brenda Doucette, NPTC Representative for PEI

I attended the (ATEC) Association for Teachers of Exceptional Children Conference of 2014 Terms of Engagement in October 2014. I received funding from CUPE through the assistance of Shelley Brehaut and from Sherwood Elementary School.

The actual conference set up was very impressive as it was at the Empire Theatre in Dartmouth Crossing. There were approximately twenty five workshops to choose from in the theatre complex.

The first session was presented by Tom Heirck titled Moving from Compliance to Commitment. He stressed the need to Focus on Equity, in getting kids what they need to learn and at their level and challenging the more capable students to experience struggle and stretch their thinking. He suggested that we promote a healthy culture in our schools by being positive role models in how we act, talk and treat each other.

The second session I attended was Developing a Successful Social Skills Program for Students with ASD. This was a double session and the speakers were Kym Hume and Yvonne Rafuse from Nova Scotia. The critical importance of social skills is that they are necessary for social acceptance and how beyond school to be successful there has to be positive social interactions. These positive social interactions and the connection with just one person can make a big difference for a person with Autism and possibly reduce anxiety and depression issues.

I really appreciated the opportunity to attend this conference and the support from CUPE 3260 and Sherwood Elementary School to do so

Submitted by Martha Murnaghan

I attended this CUPE School. This sure was an excellent workshop. Our two facilatators were excellent as well. The encouragement and support from all as we all gave few speeches. I really was able to gain much more believe and confidence to be able to do that. To learn about the techniques for preparing a talk was wonderful and helpful. What draws people in is you give a talk.

Submitted by Brenda Doucette

Please Read the following report. View

I attended the Retirement Planning Workshop held at the CUPE office in Charlottetown on June 17, 2014. It was a one day information shared workshop. Sisters Stacy and Karyn facilitated this generally two day workshop into one full, interesting day leaving us well informed to important preparations to our retirements as well as great resources to assist us to further define exactly what retirement may financially look like for each of us. I appreciate the opportunity to have attended this retirement planning workshop. Thank you CUPE 3260.

Submitted by Ann MacDonald

I recently took a CUPE course on Parliamentary Procedures. In this course I learned how a meeting is run properly. Louise thought us how important it is to keep a meeting running smoothly and how to keep it on time. The chair of the meeting is in charge and will recognize people from the floor who want to speak. I learned how to make a motion and how to make amendments to the motion. I also learned how to make a point of order, point of privilege and a point of information at the appropriate times during the meeting. It was a very informative course that thought me how important it is to know all the procedures when attending a meeting. I am sure I will be using the tips of the course to help me with future meetings. Thank you CUPE for giving such an informative course. I learned a lot and I always learn when I go to a CUPE school.

Submitted by Pauline Clark

Parliamentary Procedure is a way or a set of rules that must be followed to ensure that meetings are run effectively and democratically. Our Union uses the Bourinot's Rules of Order. This could be an exhaustive and comprehensive course; however, it was presented in a way that made it user friendly. We were given many companion documents that would be useful to refer to in times of need. Some of the topics we learned about were:

• How to run an effective meeting
• Understanding the way a meeting works
• Roles and responsibilities of the Chair, Executive and Members
• The structure of the locals
• Parliamentary language definitions
• Making motions and dealing with amendments to motions
• Frequently used motions and the rules that apply to them: ie when you can debate, if you can or cannot amend them, motions that require a simple majority vs motions that require a 2/3 majority, motions used to delay action on the original motion etc.
• How unions solve problems by collective bargaining, grievance/ arbitration, political action and building solidarity

This was a very good course but it parts of it was very difficult and at times confusing. I learned some basics that I might use in the future. Any member that is interested in chairing a committee, executive or business meeting, I recommend, should take this course.

Respectfully submitted Karyn Noble CUPE Local 3260 V.P West Area

J'ai eu la grande chance de pouvoir aller au 50�ime congr�s National de SCFP/CUPE � la ville de Qu�bec, la semaine du 20 au 25 octobre 2013. Nous avons eu beaucoup de plaisir avec nos fr�res et sœurs de partout au travers du pays. Nous avons pass� et discuter sur des r�solutions sur les 17 comit�s du syndicat et autre sujet d'actualit� comme le ch�mage qui nous touche beaucoup dans les maritimes. Nous sommes bien heureux que Lori Mackay soit n�tres repr�sentante � l'ex�cutif national de nouveau. Merci � Mme Karyn Nobles qui as travaill� fort sur le comit� de r�solution lors du national. Je suis revenu grandit de mon experience.

Rose-Lune Goulet

I am once again very pleased to be able to report on CUPE National Convention which I was able to attend on behalf of Local 3260 from Oct 21st - 25th in Quebec City.

One of the topics discussed at the Education Sectoral meeting was EI changes and the impact it may have on us. At an EI forum mention was made that in New Brunswick there were discussions held with EI commissioners that 10 month employee's such as ourselves might be excluded from EI. This discussion was very concerning. That was the push behind Resolution 109 coming to the floor at Convention. This calls upon CUPE to fight against the changes that are reducing benefits and are adversely affecting workers. Please keep a watchful eye on any changes that you hear or see.

Another one of the highlights this year included the 50th Anniversary celebration of CUPE as an organization. Every day of convention began with a video report on the historical events of the decades. All the delegates to convention received a copy of this DVD. Please feel free to ask any of us for this if you wish to see it.

When we review the history, the question of "what does our union do for me", is certainly answered. Health Plans, Maternity Leaves, Pensions, Retirement Pay Vacation Pay, and Wages are only a few of the gains we have made. Some of the things we take for granted today were bargained for early in the 1960's. An eye opener for me was when I learned of women not being able to wear pants to work when CUPE first began.

Another focus of Convention and CUPE"s plan for the future involves the "Unite for Fairness" Project. We are under attack as Unions. Government is trying to attack us by crippling the Labour Movement. The plan is to divide and conquer. By enacting the "Right to Work" Legislation it will make it difficult for locals to collect dues. When this happens the funds will be depleted and we will have no bargaining power to maintain or enhance any benefits we now have.

The Unite for Fairness project comes to us as a promise that we will be connecting with our members with a one to one conversation. We will be out there trying to find out from all of you what works and what is missing. What can our union do for you? We will also be asking, "what can you do for our union"? We will be asking that we join together to stop these attacks.

Finally another component of the convention this year was the CUPE Village. We as an Education Sector, Local 1145, 1770, 1775 and 3260 worked together to promote our Health and Safety Campaign that we have underway. We shared our newsletter and other materials. It was a great way to network with other school support staff across the country. While working in the booth we had ballots to a beautiful gift basket filled with Island Products. The booth was definitely a huge success.

To close this report I would like to commend Karyn Noble on her exceptional job serving as PEI representative to the National Resolutions Committee. It is a big commitment. Congratulations to Brenda Deagle as well who did a wonderful job representing PEI on the National Pink Triangle Committee. Congratulations go out to Lori Mackay of Local 3260 who was also re-elected as PEI's rep to the National Executive Board. We have very dedicated individuals who are working for us at the national level and we thank you.

I would like to thank the members for the opportunity to once again be a delegate to National Convention. I am always reminded and am grateful for the many successes we have here in our area and am always proud to represent the members of CUPE Local 3260.

In Solidarity,
Linda Jones
President Local 3260

The Convention was held at the Conference Center in Quebec City October 2st – 25th, 2013. CUPE celebrated its 50th year anniversary. Over 2200 voting delegates attended this historic meeting. When one counted voting, non- voting delegates, guests, fraternals and Staff there were approximately 3500 people attending!

Our Local sent 3 voting delegates – Linda Jones, Rose-Lune Goulet and Karyn Noble. Brenda Deagle attended through National as a PEI representative from an equity seeking committee – Pink Triangle Committee.

I was very pleased to be appointed as the PEI representative to the National Resolutions Committee that met before the conference starting Oct16th. What a busy committee! We had to go through 296 Resolutions plus Substitute Resolutions and Emergency Resolutions that were submitted to convention from locals across the country. The job was to choose about 35-40 of them which would allow debate on the most pressing issues, high priority resolutions from the various National Committees and Sectors while still bearing in mind the balance of regions, locals, gender, equality issues etc. I can say that it was very interesting to participate in the politics of choosing and lobbying for certain resolutions to hit the floor!

Over 5 days a lot of business was accomplished. The Strategic Document was debated, amended and approved. This is a key document that outlines CUPE's priority work for the next 2 years and reaffirms its core values and sets the future direction.

One big resolution that was approved was that of creating a biennial National Sector Council Conference in the off year from National Convention. This is important to increase communication and focus on information sharing for key CUPE Sectors on a national basis.

The Education Sector held a caucus meeting on Sunday October 20th. Rose-Lune and I attended. It was very interesting to hear about the issues and fights going on right across the country. A resolution calling for CUPE to lobby for a National School Food Program for kids and another resolution for CUPE to oppose the cuts to EI were debated and adopted.

The Hon. Thomas Mulcair, Official Leader of the Opposition spoke to the delegates. Speaker after speaker talked about the Conservative government's war on unions describing the many legislative Bills in various stages of government that all have a goal to oppose and limit the business and power of unions in Canada. A fight is going on to preserve unions across this country. CUPE's response is the "Unite for Fairness Project." The goal is to connect to each and every CUPE member from coast to coast to border and talk to all 627,000 CUPE members.

Brother Paul Moist was re-elected for the 6th time as National President, Charles Fleury was re-elected for the 2nd time as National Secretary Treasurer, Lori MacKay was re-elected for the 3rd time on the National Executive Board and Danny Legere from New Brunswick was re-elected as the Regional Vice President.

It was an honor to represent Local 3260 at this convention!

Respectfully Submitted by, Karyn Noble V.P. Central West Area

The Annual Meeting was held the evening of Friday November 1st and Saturday November 2nd at the Loyalist Hotel in Summerside. Our Local sent 3 delegates: Karyn Noble, Brenda Deagle and Rose-Lune Goulet. Approximately 91 delegates were in attendance

Highlights of the meeting included some excellent keynote speakers: Alana Payne, Atlantic Director UNIFOR the largest private sector union in Canada, Hon. Janice Sherry, Minister of Environment, Labour and Justice, Hassan Yussuff, CLC Secretary Treasurer and Hon. Thomas Mulcair, Leader of the Official Opposition.

The PEI Federation of Labour is in sound financial footing. UPSE has rejoined the Federation. CUPE has several members in various positions on the Board. Some of these members include Lori MacKay, Leonard Gallant, and Melissa Bruce.

$687.52 was donated from the floor, and matched by PEI Federation of Labour to support the striking Labatts' workers in Newfoundland.

Several resolutions were debated and adopted:

1. Mental heath
2. Job cuts
3. Food safety
4. 2014 celebrations
5. PEI Pride events and Pride parade
6. Equity groups
7. Homophobia
8. Labour education
9. Postal banking
10. Protective reassignment
11. Resisting the Conservative Government
12. Temporary Foreign Workers
13. Remittances
14. Elected School Board Trustees
15. PEI F of Union Retirees Affiliation

Several Emergency Resolutions were debated and adopted:

1. Pension Campaign
2. Bill C-
3. Bill c-4- Changes to the Labour Code
4. Bill C-4-Oppose the Passage of C-4
5. Labour Market Agreements

A Constitutional Resolution asking for a $.03 increase per capita tax was defeated as UPSE has once again become affiliated with the Fed and this will bring in an additional $36,000 per year in revenue.

There will be a large Pension Rally November 15th at 5 pm at Province House. This is a rally against the PEI government's proposal to cut pension benefits affecting over 13,000 public service employees and retirees. All Islanders are asked to attend

Prepared by Karyn Noble

I attended this important CUPE Workshop October 29-30 at the CUPE office in Charlottetown. The facilitators were Ron Blue and Melissa Bruce. Our Local sent several members including myself to this workshop.

The workshop objectives included:

1. To gain a better understanding of workplace violence
2. To better understand its causes
3. To discuss violence as a product of the workplace, not an individual problem
4. To realize the power of committees to carry out workplace investigations into violent hazards
5. To develop a plan of action on workplace violence

CUPE members have developed a comprehensive definition of violence:

"Violence is any incident in which an employee is abused, threatened, or assaulted during the course of his/her employment. This includes the application of force, threats with or without weapons, severe verbal abuse and persistent sexual and racial harassment."

Our Local is part of a province wide Health and Safety campaign. Eliminating Violence in the Workplace is the issue our Local will be working on. Currently there is nothing in the PEI legislation that addresses this issue. As a Local we will need to start tracking instances of violence in our workplaces. We do have a Health and Safety Committee in place. Our area representative is Trudy Moase. Our committee will continue to be pro-active on this important issue.

This was a really interesting course and it really got me thinking – what is violence, how often is it occurring, what is being done, what are the policies in place, working alone, transporting in cars violent students, making sure we have collective bargaining language regarding violence etc.

Prepared by Karyn Noble

CUPE 3260 sponsored six members attending the CUPE workshop, 'Duty to Accommodate', on June 4, 2013 at the CUPE office in Charlottetown. It was facilitated by Conni Kilfoil, Equality Representative – BC Regional Office of CUPE. She has a wealth of experience and information and facilitated an amazing workshop. The day was jam packed and supported with a detailed booklet for review and resource.

Conni defined section 13 of the PEI Human Rights Act - employment related discrimination on the basis of the following characteristic is illegal: *Age *Color *Creed *Ethnic or National Origin *Family Status *Marital Status *Disability *Political Belief *Race *Religion *Sex *Sexual Orientation *Source of income of any person with whom the individual or the class of individuals associates. Once we truly absorbed the depth of these rights, we were off and running to a full day to better educate ourselves with the complete process of Duty to Accommodate. We got a lot of�good information yet not enough time to cover it all thoroughly; it's amazing what we don't know. The materials given to use will be well read by many.

One member stated," I really enjoyed the workshop. My interest in this workshop would have been, what would I do if I was injured? What happens when you can't do the job you are hired to do? My life and what this means to me? Conni�Kilfoil gave us information and a clearer understanding of Duty to Accommodate. We broke into groups to discuss and use this information making it easier to understand what can happen in the workplace and what can be done to accommodate the average person.

We would like to thank our local for allowing us the opportunity to attend this interesting and informative workshop.

Submitted by: Ann MacDonald, Susan Gordon, Angela Gallant, Sylvia Carriere, Michelle O'Regan, and Pauline Kelly.

On April 23 and 24th we attended a pension session at the CUPE office. This is one of the many CUPE schools offered to members. This was a very informative session. We talked a lot about the link between our work pensions which is a " Defined Benefit Pension Plan" and Canada Pension Plan and Old Age security payment as well as any money saved for retirement whether RRSP's or other. A lot of information was given and one has to take all that home and digest it and plan what is best as an individual. We looked at what was available at certain age when one decides to retire and some things to look at before you decide to retire. We went through scenerios of what would be best for individuals. Although a lot of information was given out there was also lots of time for discussions. No individual work plans were discussed. Although we did go over a variety of Annual Pension Statements which helped us understand statements a bit better. All discussion of course was in general. Overall the session was very helpful to helpful and full of good information

Anne Fitzgerald and Bernice Arsenault

Linda Jones, Marlene Murphy and Karyn Noble attended the 1st National Bargaining Conference in Ottawa, Ontario. Below are their reports:

President Linda Jones: As I begin to write this report on the Free Collective Bargaining Conference it is just days after we have officially signed our new Agreement. I know some of you may ask why we felt the need to attend a conference on this subject if we were done bargaining. The answer to that is clear. We begin right away to see what we were not successful in gaining in the last round that our members truly will benefit from in the future. Although we only go every few years it is an ongoing process. The conference was set up in such a way that we were able to connect with people who work in our sector from all across the country. It was eye opening to say the least. What we discovered was that PEI overall has been and continues to be the envy of many other provinces. That is as a result of the hard work and dedication put in by many people. (more....)