News - December 2008          Previous Month         Following Month

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

More good works from our Nova Scotia members:

An autumn harvest for the Bedford Food Bank!

Meet your Agriculture Union National Occupational Health

and Safety Policy Committee Representatives

Membership Contest: Help us design a new Social Justice Fund logo

Help for less fortunate, both abroad and at home: Nova Scotia members show true spirit of the holiday season

AAFC EG Review: Work Description Grievances Update

More good works from our Nova Scotia members: An autumn harvest for the Bedford Food Bank!

(Posted December 28, 2008)

Maritimers have a well-deserved reputation for banding together to help one another. And, here’s yet another example of Agriculture Union members volunteering their help for a good cause.

Last October, members of Local 3 – representing AAFC and CFIA members in the Kentville, Nova Scotia area – pitched in to help the Farm Credit Corporation’s ‘Drive Away Hunger’ campaign. Local members formed a large part of the volunteers – shown in the photo below – who gathered an impressive one thousand kilograms of food to be distributed to the province’s food banks.

Local 3’s hard work was supported by a financial contribution from the Agriculture Union National Office. The photo below shows Sonya Shaw - Drive Away Hunger Co-ordinator, accepting a cheque from Fabian Murphy, Fourth National Executive Vice-President.

Meet your Agriculture Union National Occupational Health and Safety Policy Committee Representatives

(Posted December 22, 2008)

You’ll likely never really ‘meet’ the women and men who are tasked with protecting your health and safety in the workplace at the national level. But you can be thankful they are there.

At the end of the day, nothing is more important than your health and safety in the workplace. Without it, all the benefits of your collective agreements – the money, benefits and vacation time – are of questionable value.

The names of Agriculture Union National OHS Policy Committee representatives, effective as of last December 5, can be viewed by clicking HERE.

Membership Contest: Help us design a new Social Justice Fund logo

(Posted December 11, 2008)

Any budding graphic artists out there? If so, the Agriculture Union wants to hear from you!

We’re launching a membership contest to help us design a new logo for our Social Justice Fund. Delegates to last August’s National Convention voted to establish the new Fund, which is designed to assist those less fortunate than ourselves. The Fund will be officially launched by year’s end.

So, submit your design entry to the National Office to arrive no later than 4 p.m. Ottawa time, Friday, January 9, 2009. Submissions should be mailed or e-mailed to the attention of Deborah Forsythe, our First National Executive Vice-President. The National Executive will judge the entries and announce the lucky winner by January 31, 2009. The winning logo becomes the property of Agriculture Union.

The winner will receive $250 and an Agriculture Union jacket. Entries will be accepted from anyone except the members of the National Executive of Agriculture Union and their families.

Help for less fortunate, both abroad and at home: Nova Scotia members show true spirit of the holiday season

(Posted December 8, 2008)

Christmas shoeboxes, rather than stockings, have been the preoccupation of dozens of our Nova Scotia members over the past few weeks. The reason is Local 2’s annual involvement in several charitable efforts aimed at the holiday season.

The photos above show various members involved in the 2008 Shoebox Campaign, preparing shoeboxes of useful presents for overseas children. Those below show the stocking of sandwiches and soup to benefit Hope Cottage, a charity that provides meals to the less fortunate people of Halifax.

AAFC EG Review: Work Description Grievances Update

(Posted December 4, 2008)

As you are aware, the process of presenting arguments to an “employer committee” commenced in the spring. Over the summer there have been some further developments concerning how this process will go forward.

The National Office staff person who was handling these grievances left the Agriculture Union in the summer, Service Officer Sylvia Prowse has agreed to take on this project on a full-time basis.

The process for presenting the grievances has been amended, with the intent that this will expedite the committee stage, as follows:

          • Arguments will be presented to the Committee, in Ottawa, by the union;

          • Prior to the hearing the union will provide written submissions on the issues and duties that are in dispute;

          • The report of the Informal Dispute Resolution Committee for each of the grievances heard by the

                  committee will be provided to the Union;

          • The committee will provide written reasons to the grievor of their conclusion, which will be given to all

                  grievors once all grievances have been presented;

          • If the grievor is not satisfied and, with the agreement of the union, a formal final level hearing will be held

                  with the ADM, Human Resources.

Please be assured that no grievance presentation will go forward without a full discussion with the grievor.

We recognize that this process has been ongoing for some time but it is our hope that with the above changes we can move forward in a more expeditious manner. We appreciate your patience and cooperation as Sister Prowse reviews the files and consults with all the grievors.