GS CommitteeGS CommitteeI would like to take this opportunity to I would like to take this opportunity to

introduce your General Services (GS) introduce your General Services (GS) Committee Committee whichwhich is composed of members is composed of members

from every Region within UNDE.from every Region within UNDE.

Chairperson Dale Buck

BCTina Meagher

Alberta & NorthCarla Van Dyk

Man/SaskGlen Johnson

NCRJohn Irving

ONMargret Whiteley QC

Michel LangevinNS NL/NB

Kathy Morgan Joe Lawrence

Missing Pictures Dan Verreault NPFMona Simcoe Man Sask

DanDan Verreault , NPFVerreault , NPF

Mona Simcoe , Mona Simcoe , MB/SKMB/SK

General ServicesYour GS committee was mandated by the 14th National Triennial Convention in Niagara

Falls 2008 to continue the fight against contracting out of GS work and bring all issues affecting the GS membership to the forefront within our union and DND.

At our first meeting of the new mandate we committed to build a strategy that would enable members within the Locals to lead the fight in ending contracting out and bring those contracted workers back into the Public Service.

To do this we need your help in identifying all GS members, their positions and the vacant positions within your Locals. Hopefully, by working together we can end this practice of contracting out within our mandate. We also want to identify the jobs that have already been contracted out and the number of members that are with these companies.

We have committed to bringing all GS issues to the forefront and identifying common problems and areas of concern. Foremost among these is the modernization of the GS Classification standard and ensuring all GS members are classified at a fair and equitable level. Your GS Committee is willing to listen to your concerns or ideas on how to make our workplace better for all members.

Please go to our web site at: http://www.unde-uedn.com/english/info/committees/gs-index.shtml or contact UNDE national office at 1-866-594-4505 to get our contact numbers.

We are also looking for a logo for your GS committee and are running a contest for UNDE members to help design one. So put your think caps on and come up with a LOGO. Please submit all entries to the attention of Sister Bev Gallagher at the National office before the end of September 2009.

Suite 700 - 116 Albert StreetOttawa, ON

Dear Sister/BrotherK1P 5G3

We have over 18000 UNDE Members

• Of these• 1200are

• General Services Workers

In the Atlantic Region GS the numbers I have are

• Local 101 St John’s GS 13

• Local 102 Gander GS 8

• Local 103 Goose Bay GS 1

• Local 303 Gagetown GS 123

VISION STATEMENT

• The priority of your General Service (GS) Committee is to end the practice of contracting out by ensuring that all General Services work is provided by

public service employees.

MISSION STATEMENT

Your General Service Committee

• Develop and coordinate a fight back campaign to identify all forms of contracting out and bring an end to this practice;

• Lobby PSAC, through the National President, to hasten Treasury Board to modernize the GS Classification Standard;

• Ensure open lines of communication with all GS members;

• Engage the membership by seeking input on Local issues and priorities;

• Assist UNDE with the ongoing development of the Work Description (WD) library by facilitating the contribution of GS work descriptions;

• Bring positive change to the DND culture thereby ensuring that the GS members receive the proper recognition for the work they do.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

• Your GS committee was mandated by the 14th National Triennial Convention in Niagara Falls to continue the fight against contracting out of GS work and bring all issues affecting the GS group to the forefront. To accomplish this goal, the committee has established the following guidelines;

• Identify the location of all GS positions including vacant positions in the workplace and obtain information on all GS work contracted out in the regions;

• Develop a strategy that will successfully fight the privatization of GS jobs, using both pro-active and re-active mechanisms;

• Ensure visibility of the GS Committee to all members;

• Continue to engage the National and Local Executives to provide support for the GS Committee’s mandate;

TERMS OF REFERENCE

• Educate the membership on GS issues and priorities;

• Endeavour to make all GS members aware of the committee’s vision and encourage support;

• Ensure that each Local has a copy of the Human Resource plan, obtained through Labour/Management consultation at the appropriate level;

• Encourage maximum, proportionate representation, on the PSAC bargaining team;

• Meet, if necessary, twice a year, in April and October, or more if required;

• Provide to the Chairperson, two weeks prior to each meeting, a written report on the activities of the Committee members within their respective regions.

Action plans of 2 types

• Action Plan for visibility

• Action Plan for gathering information on GS positions:

Action Plan for visibility:• Contact Local President’s• Post to the website• CC the VP• Post Committee minutes• Letter to members• Create a T-shirt/hat• Face to face meeting with the VP’s• Presentation at the President’s Conference if requested• Attend AGM’s• Send emails• Posters & buttons• Article in Military newspapers• Challenge the numbers• Utilize the base banners• Pictures of the Committee• Presentation to the Regional Conferences

Action Plan for gathering information on GS positions:

• Contact Local Presidents in your Region• Ask at LMRC’s/LMCC’s for the numbers• Obtain Org charts• Get a GS contact in every Local in your Region• Request numbers from HR• Help from the VP’s• Obtain the contract’s/numbers of

employee’s/positions• Use the MUD sheets as a starting point

Steps You can take to help Stop Contracting-Out

and Begin to Contract-In

Today’s Goal

• Identify potential Contracting Out situations early in the process or even before the process begins.

• to begin to think about building business cases to bring work back into DND.

Is to help Workers:

Our greatest strengths are :

• The collective action of workers in the workplace.

• The work and imagination of members.

• Workers know their workplaces and the way that work is organized in the workplace.

• Workers know what just doesn’t make sense because of their workplace experience.

Workplace Changes that can lead to Contracting Out - The Early Signs

• Federal Budgets and Economic Updates

• Internal budget and salary wage envelope shortages

• Workforce reductions through attrition

• Big Picture privatization and Contracting Out schemes

• Re-organization of workplace structures and systems

• Lack of Training

Internal budget and salary wage envelope shortages

• Often the reason for Contracting Out is so that the employer can get work done using a different budget.

• The employer announces that they just don’t have enough money to hire any more workers, even though the workload of the organization clearly indicates that more workers are needed.

• Because the extra work needs to be done, they typically find money

in other budgets and then contract out the work.

• These costs are seldom compared against the costs that would have been expended had the internal workforce completed the work.

• Budget allocations are never inevitable. The employer is making a conscious decision that can and should be challenged.

Workforce reductions through attrition

• When workers retire, the employer doesn’t replace them, even though the work still needs to be done or is increasing.

• The Employer contracts-out bargaining unit work that retired workers used to do.

• The employer should have succession plans to replace retiring workers.

• The Employer should be asked to share their succession plans with the Union at UMCs at all levels

Big Picture Privatization and Contracting Out schemes

• New political bosses or ambitious managers operate ideologically.

• They believe that the private sector is always more efficient.

• They tend to quote books with titles like “The Lexus and the Olive Tree” or “In Search of Excellence” to back up their ideology.

• They will say that the parts they want to contract out are “non-core”, that private sector “expertise “is needed, that tax-payers will be better served.

• In most cases these are assumptions not facts. Your knowledge of your work can demonstrate that these are assumptions. You are the expert.

Re-organization of workplace structures and systems

• As soon as a manager indicates that the workplace is going to be reorganized in order to realize efficiencies workers need to be vigilant.

• Contracting out isn’t inevitable, but it is usually part of the change option being considered.

• The union and the workers need to be involved in the changes from the start to make sure that Contracting-Out doesn’t happen and to identify opportunities to Contract-In

• The most effective reorganizations - and the ones that actually benefit workers as well as the workplace - are the ones where the union is a joint partner in the reorganization.

Examples of Contracting-Out

• Contracting-out for work done by the bargaining unit

• Volunteerism

• Student Employment

• Temporary Staffing Agency Workers

• Contracting-Out as a function of Deregulation

Contracting In

• The most efficient way to provide services are to do them in-house by unionized full time workers.

• Targets may include both work that was Contracted-Out when it should not have been or they can include work that was never done in-house but could and should be done in-house.

• You need to consider if the service can or should be done in-house, how the contractor has performed and other strategic considerations

MERX

• MERX is the Canadian Public Tenders service tendering billions of dollars of goods and services annually.

• It connects buyers in the federal, provincial and Municipal, Academic, Schools and Hospital (broader public sector) to potential contractors.

• http://www.merx.com/English/nonmember.asp?WCE=Show&TAB=1&PORTAL=MERX&State=1&hcode=0oAbh0Y4HyEmQfk9GqXlQw%3d%3d

• This is an example of a potential Contracting In situation in Nova Scotia.

Basic Information on the Company

On the web,

• check out Yahoo Finance at http://finance.yahoo.com, • or Hoovers at http://www.hoovers.com/. • Corporate Information at http://corporateinformation.com is

particularly good for foreign companies

• To confirm the name or address of the company use on-line yellow pages such as Big Yellow at http://www.bigyellow.com or

• Info Space at http://search.infospace.com/ispace/ws/index .

• For European companies use Europages, the European Business Directory athttp://www.europages.com/.

Narrowing It Down

• To fully understand the operations of the target firm, it is important to get an overall sense of the employer’s products/services.

• • Sites that can help you include:

– OSHA at http://www.osha.gov/oshstats/sicser.html. – The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) at the

U.S. Census Bureau http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html. – The Thomas Register http://www.thomasregister.com/ – Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC’s) EDGAR database

http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html – For Canadian Companies SEDAR at www.sedar.com

• For European and British owned companies see Company Annual Reports On Line (CAROL) http://www.carol.co.uk/ or Kompass at http://www.kompass.com

Narrowing It Down continued

– For Corporate history Mergents on Line http://www.mergentonline.com/

– The Wall Street Transcript at www.twst.com , a compilation of interviews with corporate CEOs.

– Free Public Record Sites at www.brbpub.com/pubrecsites.asp provide massive amounts of information from public records.

– The AFL-CIO’s Executive Pay Watch at http://www.aflcio.org/corporateamerica/paywatch/ provides information on executive compensation

– SOCRATES, the corporate social ratings monitor published by KLD Research & Analytics Inc. http://web.kld.com/Socrates/CompanySearch/Home.asp.

– Corporate Information http://www.corporateinformation.com/– Strategis (Industry Canada) Online – Canadian Company Capabilities Online – Advise for Investors.com  Online

•

Some of the best search engines include:

Search Engines

• Google www.google.com• Google Uncle Sam www.google.com/unclesam • Wisenut www.wisenut.com • Hotbot www.hotbot.com • Teoma http://www.teoma.com

Meta Searches

• Vivisimo www.vivisimo.com• Ask Jeeves http://askjeeves.com• Meta crawler http://www.metacrawler.com/index.html• Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com

• Minutes of the GS Committee Meeting: 15 – 17 Jun 09• 15 Jun 09• The meeting began at 8:30 am with a brief introduction by Sister Dale Buck, Chair of

the Committee.• The agenda for the Committee meeting was adopted.• Brother John MacLennan came in and welcomed the GS Committee• The morning was devoted to training in Communication skills (UNDE Module 2),

facilitated by Brother Larry Ramsay. • After the lunch break a presentation on Contracting Out and Business Case Building

took up the rest of the morning. Brother Howie West from PSAC facilitated. This presentation will be post on the UNDE GS web page.

• Members held a round table discussion on the goals and priorities of the Committee. Work began on the Mission statement and our action plan.

• The Committee also looked at the GS numbers and locations across the regions within DND.

• 16 Jun 09• The Committee began the day with a round table discussion on GS jobs across the

regions and identifying the locations within DND that have been contracted out.

• We also looked at the work that was done before on the GS committee since it first came in affect since 2002 in Montreal.

• After the lunch break the Committee continued the round table discussion on contracting out and what we as a Committee needed to do to end this practice.

• Work continued on the Mission statement and terms of Reference and our action plan.• 17 Jun 09• The day began with a presentation on GS Work Descriptions and Classifications within DND.

Brother Paul Dagenais facilitated.• The committee discussed ways to acquire WD’s from members for contribution to the UNDE GS

Work Description Library.• After the lunch break the committee finalized the Mission statement and Terms of reference and

our action plan.• A draft letter to all GS members was created and will be finalized over the next few weeks.• The GS poster and postcard were redesigned and are awaiting final approval once a sample of

each is created.• A round table discussion was held to identify what each member, within their region, could do to

begin the work of the GS Committee.• A wrap-up discussion was held and members gave their views on the first meeting of the GS

Committee and challenges that await them in the workplace.