News - August 2011                            Previous Month         Following Month

Headlines of the current month's news items are listed immediately below. Click on the headline of your choice to see the entire text of the article.

Severance Payouts for PA and EB agreements – Deadline August 31, 2011

AAFC EG Review : Anticipating final level hearings this autumn

Kingston condemns Ritz for endangering BC consumers

by pulling federal inspection from provincial processing plants

Our ‘virtual’ coverage brings Triennial National Convention highlights to all members

Severance Payouts for PA and EB agreements – Deadline August 31, 2011

(Posted August 17, 2011)

The deadline for our members belonging to the Program and Administrative Services group (AS, CR, DA, IS, PM, and ST classifications) and the Education and Library Science group (ED & LS classifications) to submit their Payment in lieu of Severance option is fast approaching.

If your completed option form has not been received in Compensation Services by the August 31, 2011 deadline, you will be deemed to have chosen to defer the payment until your termination of employment.

Reminder: all tax waiver documents must be submitted with the option form.

AAFC EG Review : Anticipating final level hearings this autumn

(Posted August 11, 2011)

The Agriculture Union is currently assessing all AAFC EG Review grievance files. At this point, it is anticipated that the hearings, if necessary, will start in the Fall.

We want to ensure that our best arguments are presented in support of individual grievances. In light of this, grievors will be contacted to see if they have any new information to add before a decision on whether to proceed to final level is rendered.

Once an assessment has been done, we will advise individual grievors of our recommendations for the next steps. These could include proceeding to the final level hearing or withdrawing the grievance.

Kingston condemns Ritz for endangering BC consumers by pulling federal inspection from provincial processing plants

(Posted August 10, 2011)

The Agriculture Union is strongly opposed to against the Harper government’s renewed plan to abandon long-standing federal inspection of provincially-registered meat processing plants in British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

National President Bob Kingston told media at an August 10 Vancouver news conference that dozens of BC processing plants will lose federal inspection by January 2014 at the latest. The cash-strapped province currently has neither its own inspection system nor inspectors.

Kingston also released a letter he was sending to Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz asking that the ill-informed decision be reversed. Copies of both the letter and a news release issued today can be downloaded and read by clicking on the following icons:

“To save a few bucks, the federal government is creating a two-tiered food safety system in which some Canadians enjoy higher standards while others suffer higher risk,” Kingston said. “No responsible Minister should allow people to be exposed to dangerous products in this manner. Lives could depend on it.”

Kingston pointed to the recent high-profile incident at BC’s own Pitt Meadows Meats. After the company admitted to hiding evidence of dangerous E. coli O157:H7 contamination, it fled the federal regime in favour of the province’s less stringent standards.

A then minority government, the Conservatives backed off a similar attempt in the wake of the 2008 Maple Leaf Foods listeria outbreak in 2008. Now both consumers and the food inspection system will suffer. Some 65 CFIA food inspector jobs also will be eliminated at a time when it is widely acknowledged that the current inspection regime needs more human and financial resources to protect the health and safety of Canadian consumers.

Our ‘virtual’ coverage brings Triennial National Convention highlights to all members

(Posted August 8, 2011)

The Agriculture Union’s 15th Triennial National Convention kicks off next Wednesday, August 17 in Vancouver.

Our Locals have each elected delegates to this, the most important event on our union calendar. That doesn’t mean, however, that the rest of our members can’t follow Convention activities and decisions.

We’ll be posting updates with photos and capsule comments each day, so that our members across the country can stay on top of events.

So, check them out on our Web site and stay up-to-date as our National Convention unfolds!