Local 2 General Meeting & Convention Elections

Date:     Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Time:     7:00pm

Location:     Room C210, NSCC – Pictou Campus, 39 Acadia Avenue, Stellarton, NS

Local 2 Monthly Meeting Notice

Dear Members of Local 2:

On behalf of your local executive officers, I am pleased to invite you to attend the next monthly meeting for NSGEU Local 2 members to be held on Wednesday, February 17 at 7:00PM in Room C210 of the NSCC Pictou Campus in Stellarton (please use rear entrance). Because we are anticipating a strong turnout, we have decided to move the meeting to this location as winter conditions can cause parking and access challenges at the Westside Community Centre.

At this meeting, members will be electing delegates to our Triennial Convention, to be held May 11-14, 2016 in Halifax. I am including relevant bylaws as they relate to convention, below:

B5.1 “Election of delegates and their alternates to the Union Convention shall take place at a special or regular meeting of the Local at least seventy (70) days prior to the Convention…..”

B5.2 “Except at the formation of a new Local, to be eligible for nomination as a delegate or alternate to convention, a member shall have attended at least forty percent (40%) of the members Local meetings in the twelve (12) month period preceding the date of nominations. Members of a Local shall be deemed to have attended the local meetings if they are unable to attend due to attending to union business or scheduled to work at the time of the Local meeting and have notified the Secretary of the Local in writing.”

B5.3 “Following election of Local delegates to Convention who have met the 40% eligibility requirements for nominations in accordance with By-law Section B5.2 above, if a Local has not elected its full complement of delegates or alternates to Convention, then a member in good standing shall be considered eligible for nomination for the remaining delegate seats or as an alternate.”

I can comfortably say that there has not, in recent memory, been a more important time to ensure members of our local are fully represented at our union’s convention. As a member of your bargaining unit negotiating committee (UNC), I have been hearing in the series of town hall calls and local meetings across the province over the last several weeks that civil service members are angry that the employer is using legislation as a means of negotiation, and many are scared for the security of their jobs. So far this employer has laid off members in the Department of Community Services in Barrington and Guysborough, closed Visitor Information Centres in Pictou and Digby, cut jobs in parks across the province, closed courthouses from Baddeck to Argyle, and cut a number of jobs in numerous other departments as part of their 2015/16 budget, including the elimination of the entire Department of Economic and Rural Development and Tourism; never before have civil servants in rural Nova Scotia been more under attack!!

We are now hearing that the upcoming budget will be no less harsh, and fear more job cuts may be coming. Currently, the government is shopping our Registries to the private sector and members who work there are worried for their futures; changes are coming to Sheriffs’ Services as a result of recommendations from the Beaton Report, and our members in rural courthouses are particularly worried about the impact to their jobs as a result. Now, more than ever, we need to work together to fight back and protect our jobs!

This convention will be one of great importance. As you are aware, President Jessome has announced she will not be re-offering, as she has decided to run for a position with our national body, NUPGE (National Union of Public and General Employees,) so the delegates you elect will be tasked with helping to choose the next slate of executive officers who will lead our union for the next three years. We need your help to ensure that the best possible delegates are selected to represent you to elect a strong new executive and to be your voice in voting on regular and constitutional resolutions.

I ask that you consider putting your name forward as a delegate, and/or encouraging co-workers that you feel would be a strong voice to consider stepping forward and accepting a nomination.

I will forward an agenda for this meeting to the Local Secretary no later than February 7 for distribution. If you have any agenda items to submit, please forward to me at tammygillis@eastlink.ca no later than noon, February 5.

I realize many of you have schedules that may keep you at work until 7:00PM, so we will hold convention elections until the latter part of the meeting to allow as many as possible to be part of the election. So please, even if you have to arrive late, feel free to join us.

I look forward to seeing you all on February 17^th,

Tammy Gillis

Local 2 President