Don, Bonnie and Sergio attended the CUPE National Convention this Fall. Here are a few memories. 
CUPE 2195 Supports Overdose Prevention Ottawa
On September 6th 2017 at their general membership meeting the members of CUPE 2195 proudly voted to support Overdose Prevention Ottawa by promoting their work and fundraising efforts, via our networks. CUPE 2195 Also voted to send the following letter to our elected officials. If you have a minute please take a look at the above links and support by sharing the information or donating is you are able.
Sept 6th, 2017
We, CUPE Local 2195 (workers of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa) are writing you today to voice our deep support for Overdose Prevention Ottawa’s efforts to address the overdose crisis in our city. We ask that you support Overdose Prevention Ottawa’s health measures and ensure the site can continue to operate without efforts to close it by law enforcement.
Overdose prevention sites are a harm reduction-based health service that provides people with an immediate health intervention to prevent a fatality from overdose. This harm reduction measure is proven to work to reduce the number of preventable fatalities from overdose. In
Vancouver alone, 147,705 visits, and 770 overdoses were reversed. Every day, frontline workers and community members witness the rising numbers of preventable overdoses. In 2015, more than two people died of overdose in Ontario every day. In Ottawa, the rate of death from overdose increased 32% between 2014 and 2015. Recently, Ottawa Public Health released data on emergency department visits for drug overdoses.
These public health statistics on overdoses are only the tip of the iceberg. This data considers only a portion of the overdoses experienced by people who use drugs in our city since the vast majority will not call emergency services due to fear of criminalization, stigma, and interactions with the police. Even the Federal Health Minister, Jane Philpott, acknowledges that nationally we have insufaicient data on overdose deaths.
We are proud of Overdose Prevention Ottawa for taking steps to bring this necessary harm reduction service to Ottawa. The City of Ottawa must support Overdose Prevention Ottawa and take a step to address the overdose crisis our city is facing.
Sincerely,
Members of CUPE Local 2195
(Workers of the Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa)
What longer parental leave means for CUPE members
Chandra Pasma | CUPE Research originally posted on CUPE.ca
In the fall of 2016, the federal government consulted on the idea of extending parental leave to 18 months. At the time, CUPE and our allies criticized the move for privileging wealthy parents while failing to address broader issues of fairness and access to parental leave.
We called for the government to instead broaden access for lower-income parents by lowering the eligibility threshold, extending the length of time workers have to accumulate enough hours, and increasing the benefit rate.
However, the government went ahead with its plans. In its 2017 budget, the federal government extended parental leave from 12 months to 18 months.
Legislation to change the Employment Insurance Act and the Canada Labour Code is making its way through Parliament and is expected to take effect in late 2017 or early 2018.
Under the new rules, parents will have two options. They can take 35 weeks of leave in a 12-month period at 55 per cent of their insurable earnings (up to a maximum of $543 per week), or they can take 61 weeks of leave in an 18-month period at 33 per cent of their insurable earnings (up to a maximum of $326 per week). Parents will not be able to combine the two options, and parents already on leave at the time the law comes into effect will not be able to convert their leave.
Maternity leave will remain 15 weeks at 55 per cent of insurable earnings, regardless of how parental leave is taken.
Quebec runs its own parental insurance program, so the changes will not apply to parents there.
Once the legislation takes effect, workers outside of Quebec in federally-regulated industries (such as transport, banking or communications) will have access to the new benefit and new protected leave without requiring any changes to their collective agreements. Workers in Nova Scotia, which already offers 18 months of parental leave, will also benefit immediately.
For workers in other provincially regulated jurisdictions, however, access may vary. The Employment Insurance Act applies to all Canadians, which means all workers outside of Quebec can receive the extended EI benefits as long as they have enough insurable hours to qualify. However, until changes are made to provincial labour and employment laws, depending on the language of the collective agreement, the longer leave may not be protected – and the worker may not be guaranteed their job back at the end of the leave.
The provinces are not required to harmonize their laws and they may not be in a rush to do so. For instance, Alberta recently announced reforms to their provincial Employment Standards Code to align Alberta’s leave provisions with changes made to EI Special Benefits and to the Canada Labour Code in 2012.
TOP-UPS: BARGAINING IMPLICATIONS
Nearly half of CUPE members have a collective agreement which includes a top-up, or supplemental unemployment benefit (SUB), for parental leave. These SUBs grant the employee a payment from the employer that covers the difference between the EI benefit rate and a higher percentage of the worker’s normal salary for some or all of their leave. For example, a collective agreement might give workers a SUBequal to 75 per cent of their current salary for 20 weeks of leave.
Generally, the language on SUBs does not specify an EI benefit rate or a maximum SUB amount. This means that for workers who opt for the longer parental leave at a 33 per cent benefit rate, the employer would now be responsible for paying the difference between 33 and 55 per cent, in addition to the difference between 55 per cent and the negotiated level.
Employers may try to fight this increased financial commitment.
However, the case law seems to be on the workers’ side: as long as collective agreement language is clear, employers are responsible for this additional cost. Even if employers do not fight their increased responsibility during the life of the current collective agreement, they may try to limit their responsibility in future rounds of bargaining.
Locals should speak to their staff representatives about strategies for negotiating language in response. One option is to ensure that the dollar value of the top-up remains the same for all employees, regardless of the length of their leave.
NEXT STEPS
While we wait for the new changes to come into effect, CUPE locals should review their provisions on parental leave. Here’s a parental leave checklist:
- Review the length of protected leave.
- Review the length and amount of supplemental benefits.
- Identify where changes need to be made in order to ensure workers’ access to this new benefit.
- Check if language is clear regarding the right of workers to accumulate seniority and vacation; and to receive other benefits during the period of an 18-month leave.
CUPE will continue to press the government to make these much-needed changes, so that parental leave, and indeed all EI benefits, are more accessible to all Canadians.