Strange Phenomenon At The Board

As an Executive Board Member, I have seen some strange things happen at some of the Board meeting I have attended over the many years as your Regional Board Member. Having said that, here is one I cannot figure out, but have an idea it is about setting someone up for a challenge on their credibility.

As many of you may know, there is a divide at the board for whatever reason. The divide is what it is, but the last board meeting left me a little confused.

Last November (2009) we began talks on this years budget as we normally do around that point in time. Since then, each board member has the ability to alter the budget in any way they see fit as long as they have the support of the board when the motion comes to a vote.

For roughly a little more than 4 months now. Many motions were made by your board members that were basically good ideas and passed by a majority of the Board members; in some cases by a unanimous vote.

At the March Board Meeting. the floor was open for motions on the budget. And for whatever reason, no one had any more ideas to move forward with respect to the budget itself, so the question was called to vote on the budget as a whole to either endorse or defeat it.

One would think in my opinion anyway that after all the success we had in getting the budget to this point that it would have almost been a clean sweep on the vote.

It was not.

Ten of the Board members voted against it. Against their own motions to make changes which for the most part were positive at the end of the day. After better than 4 months preparing the budget and all the opportunities to further make change, they tried to vote it down.

Not only did they vote against the budget, but when it was passed by the other 11 board members of which I am one, they further decided to file notice of a "Minority Report" as well.

This would give them the ability to speak against the majority of the board at convention 2010.

Why?

Here is a list of the 10 Board Members by Region.

Region 1 - Gino Franche & Ron Elliot
Region 2 - Mike Grimaldi, Eddy Almeida & Debbie Tungatt
Region 3 - Claire Rowet & Pete Wright
Region 5 - Nancy Pridham
Region 6 - Sue Brown & Jennifer Giroux

Each of these members made changes to the budget that were very positive. changes that would have helped the membership at the end of the day.

It will be interesting to see where they go with this at Convention and why they do, if they do.

Lets watch and see.

OPSEU Purchases Property In Thunder Bay

What a day we had today.

The Executive Board of OPSEU passed a motion to purchase a piece of land in Thunder Bay today with the intent on building a new structure in the future.

Currently OPSEU leases it's current office space which does not include a Union Hall / Membership Centre.

From here, designs for a building will be drawn up by engineers and presented to the Executive Board for approval. Something that we have talked about at the Board would be to design a structure and brand it as our own.

This would give us a structure that whenever we built in the future it would look the same regardless of what part of the Province you are in, Something similar to what Tim Horton's or McDonalds does.

The location of the property is at 470 S. HIgh Street, just off of Beverly Street. Right next door to A&W on Memorial Avenue.

To say that I am excited with our future in OPSEU in Region 7 is an understatement.

I personally want to thank the Executive Board for their support and patience throughout this process.

Words alone cannot say enough.

Thanks to Sandra Snider and Carl Thibodeau as well for putting up with me as I worked to drive this deal home.

Now the next phase will begin as we move forward from here on.

The new building when built will most likely be know as:

Ontario Public Service Employees Union

Union Hall & Regional Office

WOW... what a day... and Canada beat Russia in the Olympics as well as taking Gold and Silver in the Women's Bobsled.

Officers Meeting - Feb 11, 2010

COMMON FRONTIERS REQUESTS FINANCIAL SUPPORT

A request for $5000.00 was made to help support Common Frontiers, a coalition of unions and social justice organizations.

The motion was referred back to the Social Justice \Committee for debate as it falls more under their jurisdiction.

BOTTLE WATER FREE DAY

March 21, 2010 has been endorsed by the Officers as "Bottled Water |Free Day". The request was made to OPSEU from the Canadian federation of Students, the Sierra Youth Coalition and the Polaris Institute.

These three groups have joined forces to introduce Canada's first "Bottled Water |Free Day"

for more information, please visit their website at www.bottledwaterfreeday.ca

PUT FOOD IN THE BUDGET

The intent of the committee is set up basically to seek two things:

1.  To have Ontario raise the rates paid to the Social Assistant recipients  so that a health diet can be purchased.
2. A rational approach be taken to setting rates - to deal with rising cost of living factors

A campaign was brought forward called "Put Food In The Budget". As more information was needed before a formal decision could be made, it was referred back to the Presidents Office.

LABOUR TECH CONFERENCE

Labour Tech has requested funding to support their conference once again this year. Aimed at the communications staff and website editors, they are seeking a donation of $5000.00.

The event is scheduled to be held in Windsor from May 14-16, 2010.

The request was referred back to the Presidents office in an effort to see if it endorsed by the Windsor Labour Council.

OTTAWA ACORN - FUNDING REQUEST

The Ottawa chapter of ACORN has been extremely active over the past year and is once again looking for financial aid from OPSEU in an effort to continue their work in 2010.

A request for $5000.00 was received and passed by the offices in an effort to ensure their good work continues once again.

ACORN\s primary focus is educating and lobbying for a huge variety of local and national issues including, Living Wages, Predatory Payday Lending, Tenants Rights, Banking Reform, Provincial Childcare and even joining with OPSEU in a Good Jobs, Good Wages Campaign.

MORE TO COME........

Welcome

As the Regional Vice-President of this great Union here in Region 7, I am looking to use this format to try to keep in touch with the many of you, the Members of this Region.

As many of you know, I spend a fair amount of time in Toronto. On top of my regularly scheduled Officer and Board Meetings, I sit on a number of committees both elected and appointed from time to time by either the President "Brother Smokey Thomas", the 1st Vice-President / Treasurer "Sister Patty Rout" or both. This tends to take me out of the Region a fair amount.

I ask that you check back here from time to time to see what is new and going on around you, and send feedback through this website should you so desire.

I am also prepared to set up similar pages for any of our Committees or Caucuses that would be interested.

I truly hope this venue works for you.

In Solidarity