News - September 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.

Our union exposes Conservative plan to cut federal inspection of provincial processing plants in much of Western Canada

Agriculture Union co-sponsors election lobby campaign over food safety

Reality Check: Minister Ritz and the CFIA bob and weave,

leaving Canadians in the dark

Labour Day celebration a ‘union family’ affair for London-area Locals

Our union exposes Conservative plan to cut federal inspection of provincial processing plants in much of Western Canada

(Posted September 18, 2008)

The Agriculture Union held a September 18 news conference in Winnipeg to expose plans by the Harper government to end the agreements that provide for federal inspection of provincially-regulated processing plants in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia.

National President Bob Kingston revealed that a federal Conservative government, if re-elected, plans to stop delivering provincial meat inspection programs in those provinces.

The plan is set out in a secret Treasury Board of Canada decision record, dated May 6, 2008, documenting the acceptance of a proposal concerning ‘Provincial Meat Slaughter Establishments (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia)’. The document calls for ‘elimination of federal delivery of provincial meat inspection programs.’

‘Meat produced in provincially-registered facilities in Manitoba and the other affected provinces would not be inspected by anyone under this plan, leaving local consumers exposed to the risk of unsafe meat.” said Kingston.

The federal government delivers provincial meat inspection programs in much of Western Canada, ensuring that provincially-registered slaughter facilities meet sanitation and other safety regulations. Kingston pointed out that there are more than 30 such provincially-registered meat establishments in Manitoba alone.

“As we've seen during recent weeks, the federal government should be increasing food inspection, not cutting it,” Kingston pointed out.

The full text of the campaign launch news release can be read HERE.

Agriculture Union co-sponsors election lobby campaign over food safety

(Posted September 7, 2008)

A new national campaign, supported by the Agriculture Union, is urging Canadians to make food safety a vote-determining issue in the current federal election.

National President Bob Kingston – along with representatives of our bargaining agent, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, and the union representing CFIA veterinarians –launched the ‘Food Safety First’ campaign at a Friday morning news conference held at Toronto’s busy St. Lawrence Market.

The campaign, sparked by the recent listeriosis outbreak and the refusal of the Conservative government to act on concerns shared by our CFIA inspector members and the general public, aims to see food safety become a key issue in the October 14 election.

A radio and print media campaign will draw Canadians to a specially-designed Web site – www.foodsafetyfirst.ca – that urges support for the following four-point program to restore confidence in our nation’s food monitoring system:
          • the hiring of 1000 additional inspectors and veterinarians to improve compliance;
          • the placing of an immediate moratorium on industry self-policing policies;
          • the removal of obstacles preventing CFIA inspectors and veterinarians from taking immediate action when

                  suspect food is discovered during inspection; and
          • the restoration of the system of public audit reports that were cancelled under pressure from the meat

                  industry.

The full text of the campaign launch news release can be read HERE.

Reality Check: Minister Ritz and the CFIA bob and weave, leaving Canadians in the dark

(Posted September 7, 2008)

(The Agriculture Union on August 29 isued the following public rebuttal to misleading and outright inacccurate comments made by Agrioculture Minister Gerry Ritz reagrding the listeria issue and the bona fides of our National President, Bob Kingston.)

Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz and officials from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have attempted to persuade Canadians that all is well with the food inspection system in the wake of the food borne disease outbreak.

We wish Canadians could count on their assurances that all is well. Unfortunately, we can’t.

In press briefings during the past two days, the Minister and his officials have misled Canadians with false statements that deserve correction. With the stakes so high, Canadians deserve to know the truth.

Falsehood #1: CFIA has hired 200 new inspectors, 175 of whom work in meat inspection.

Minister Ritz has repeatedly assured Canadians that the government has hired 200 new inspectors clearly stating most if not all of these new hires are supervising the meat industry. At yesterday’s media briefing, CFIA officials repeated this claim:

Paul Mayers, Acting Associate Vice-President for Programs, CFIA:

“So the issue of the staffing that’s been noted, we’ve added a significant number of new meat inspectors over the last two years.

Question: How many?

Paul Mayers: 175.

Question: In the processing plants?

Paul Mayers: In meat inspection. I can’t say that they’re all in processing because I just don’t know if they’re all in processing.

In fact, the lion’s share of new hires have been deployed to programs other than meat inspection, such as the Invasive Alien Species program to deal with a variety of problem species including: Potato Cyst Nematode, Asian Longhorn Beetle, Sudden Oak Death, Emerald Ash Borer, Light Brown Apple Moth. In addition, new hires have been deployed to Animal Feed programs. Neither of these two programs has anything to do with meat or food inspection as the Minister and his officials would have Canadians believe.

This is borne out by feedback from inspectors working in the field who know these new hires are not working in meat inspection. This e-mail was received overnight:

“In response to the 200 inspectors hired, I KNOW for a fact that 75 of them were hired this spring as summer students to soil sample for PCN in the potato fields around Edmonton.”

There is also a huge difference in the number of positions and actual number of staff. An inspector’s message addresses this issue:

“200 new inspectors? This is sure interesting as the new hires I doubt coped with the attrition rates per departures per retirements, fed up and left, and DI's. Wondering if the new hires are term. student and seasonal? How about the increase in services per 24/7 operations - 200 does not even meet the change in production and requirement for services since 2006.”

Falsehood #2: The new inspection protocols were introduced without problems or Inspector Union concerns.

On Wednesday, Minister Ritz claimed to have union support for the new inspection protocols:

The Hon. Gerry Ritz: “Actually, the HACCP system and the building on that with the compliance verification system is well embraced by the union.”

And yesterday, a CFIA official claimed there were consultations with the Inspectors Union to iron out problems with the new programs:

Paul Mayers: “...what I can say is in the process of developing and implementing the inspection approach, there was consultation with our staff, with the unions representing our staff...”

In fact, warnings about workload during the piloting of the new CVS program were ignored by CFIA and requests to discuss the inspector union’s concerns at the national level have been ignored.

Staffing concerns were raised at the local Union/Management Committee in the GTA during the pilot project in April, 2008.

Here’s an excerpt from the minutes of the Central Region (GTA) UMC meeting held on April 17, 2008:

CVS - A. Santucci (a local union official) raised a concern that CVS input at smaller plants has increased staffing requirements. Employees are now required to perform their regular job duties in addition to CVS.

At the national level an Inspection Modernization Consultative committee was established. Its first and only meeting took place in January 2008. A promised meeting scheduled for April never materialized and Agriculture Union requests for additional meetings went unanswered.

On June 11, a union official wrote to Dr. Arsenault head of CSV implementation to remind him of the promised April meeting and to request another opportunity to discuss CVS issues including staffing.

No response to the request.

On June 17, the same union official sent another request to meet. Again, Dr. Arsenault failed to respond.

Finally on August 13 on the eve of the current crisis, Dr. Arsenault offered a meeting.

Falsehood #3: Bob Kingston is not a CFIA inspector

At the news conference yesterday, Minister Ritz attacked the credibility to the Inspector’s Union President Bob Kingston:

The Hon. Gerry Ritz: “...since Mr. Kingston and I have something in common, we’ve never been an inspector. I’ll turn that question over to Garfield who has 10 years as an inspector and two years as a supervisor of inspectors.

Question: I thought he had been an inspector.

The Hon. Gerry Ritz: No.

In fact, Mr. Kingston is an Inspection Supervisor on leave from CFIA. Before going on a leave of absence to serve as an elected union officer, Kingston spent 25 years as a CFIA and Agriculture Canada inspector, including 15 years as a multi-commodity supervisor, a senior level inspector position. Mr. Kingston continues to be an employee of Mr. Ritz.

Labour Day celebration a ‘union family’ affair for London-area Locals

(Posted September 5, 2008)

It’s a small tradition, marking a big tradition.

For half-a-dozen years now, Agriculture Unions Locals 16 and17 have been avid and active participants in the PSAC London Area Council’s Labour Day festivities.

More than just another holiday Monday, Labour Day is an occasion for unions and their members to mark the tremendous contributions working men and women make to the health and wealth of this nation.

Our London Locals also see to it that those unable to attend the Labour Day BBQ in downtown London can get in on the celebration. The above photos show special cakes delivered by executive members to CFIA and AAFC workplaces in the area.