Union Update
Spotlight on Young Workers - July-August 2009
- Spotlight on Young Workers
- Students get organized
- Student worker profile: Ashley Petrin
- Parks Canada exploits student labour
- Federal student employment: by the numbers
- Young workers envision the future of PSAC
- Did you know?
Spotlight on Young Workers
There is no denying that workplaces are changing. As the federal public service – and many other workplaces – face an unprecedented wave of retirements, young workers are taking up leadership positions both within their workplaces and their unions. As Canada's unemployment rate continues to rise, young people are turning to public sector jobs for the security, career development and sense of public service that they offer.
As reported in the media, the pressure is mounting within the private sector to strip workers of hard fought-for pensions and benefits. We've seen a growing trend develop, where young workers are entering into a two-tiered workforce, with older workers maintaining their salaries and benefits and new workers being forced to accept lower wages and inferior pension plans.
Meanwhile, there are many challenges for young people within workplaces and unions. In Canada, student workers under federal jurisdiction – along with casual and temporary workers – are legally prevented from joining unions. This is something that PSAC is challenging in court (See below for more information).
For young workers in the federal public sector, it can be difficult to navigate a complex government bureaucracy, not to mention complicated union structures.
PSAC is working hard to welcome young workers into our union. This issue of Union Update highlights some of our union's youth-driven initiatives, including the Ontario Young Workers' Conference, the Protect Students Workers! campaign and ongoing challenges that our Parks Canada members are facing.
Are there young people in your workplace? Pass on this issue of Union Update and help them get connected to PSAC and its campaigns for young workers.
Students get organized
Student workers in the federal public sector deserve the right to join unions and bargain collectively, but the law says they're not allowed.
The Public Service Labour Relations Act, the labour legislation that applies to workers in the federal public sector, says that students, casuals and temporary employees are not allowed to join a union and enjoy the same benefits and protections of collective bargaining as other workers.
The Public Service Alliance of Canada believes that these workers should have the right to join a union and we are going to court to prove it.
PSAC recently filed a lawsuit against the Canadian government, arguing that specifically excluding students from the definition of “employee” in the Public Service Labour Relations Act violates student workers' right to freedom of association.
We are spending this summer getting our message to student workers, encouraging them to pledge their support for PSAC's lawsuit and demand the right to unionize. We've hired student organizers in many of our regional offices across the country, to make contact with student workers, garner support for PSAC's student worker campaign, and spread the message to the general public.
“Student workers deserve the same rights and protections as any other workers,” said John Gordon, National President of PSAC. “By going to court and hiring student organizers, we are showing our commitment to student workers' rights.”
Student worker profile: Ashley Petrin
Ashley Petrin, 21, is spending the summer working on PSAC's Protect Student Workers! campaign. Based in the National Capital Region, she is one of 12 summer employees working in PSAC offices across the country. She took some time last week to talk about what the student campaign means to her and how PSAC can become more welcoming to young workers.
Can you please describe any current or former involvement with PSAC?
I have been working for PSAC since early May 2008. Most of my experience is in the Montreal regional office. I have helped with a few different campaigns but the bulk of my work was on the McGill unionization campaign, which is where I attend university. We have been granted a referendum for the non-academic casual employees – this was following a long and difficult campaign. I also put a lot of work into the University of Montreal technical assistants' drive.
From now until the end of August, I'm working out of the Ottawa regional office on the “Protect Student Workers!” campaign. At the PSAC, I have always worked within the university sector where students are unionizing and I think it's about time that federal student employees join them.
What are some of the challenges that you think young workers face on the job? Can you describe a personal experience that illustrates this?
I think the biggest challenge is a lack of respect. I think a lot of working environments are very ageist. I believe that young workers should be treated equally in the workplace. They should not be used as cheap labour, which is too often the case. A few summers ago, I was hired through the Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP). I was essentially doing someone else's job. That person was on vacation and meanwhile I was getting paid $10.22/hour. I had no access to acting pay. It's frustrating when you realize that you're doing the exact same thing as someone else and you don't even have half the rights that they do.
What are the biggest challenges that young workers face when trying to integrate into or take leadership of our union?
Our voices often get lost. PSAC is accustomed to representing public service employees who are rarely young workers. The people who have long-established methods and protocols are not accustomed to new blood. The young workers' ideas and priorities are different from people who have been within the PSAC for years. Change takes a long time and this can be frustrating for young workers. I think finding our voice is really important and letting people know that we are involved and able and ready to contribute is key.
The structure at the PSAC can also be overwhelming – trying to understand components, locals, executives, etc, can be very difficult at times.
What challenges do student workers in the federal public sector face on the job? How would unionizing help solve these problems?
They lack good working conditions, period. I don't know every individual case, but I do know that many are hired through programs like FSWEP. These students have a salary scale that is subjective, at best. The manager decides where he or she feels the student should fall in the scale.
Federal student employees have no access to leave, aside from three days unpaid bereavement leave. They have no access to acting pay which is relevant for those students who fill positions during the summer. These are just a few points I could make.
In my opinion, all of this boils down to a lack of respect. Young workers are not given respect for the work that they do. If they were respected, someone would offer them proper working conditions.
I think that unionizing young workers would force the employer to give them basic rights and reasonable working conditions. I don't think young workers are asking for the world, we just want to be treated as equals.
Parks Canada exploits student labour
Every summer, thousands of Canadians meet Parks Canada workers, as they pitch their tents or explore hiking trails in national parks. But what most people don't know is that a lot of those workers are actually student employees, who are being paid less than older workers who do the very same jobs. And what's worse is that they are legally prevented from joining a union.
Student workers at Parks Canada are hired under programs like the Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP). The prime objective of FSWEP is to provide full-time students with work experience related to their field of study and to provide them with learning opportunities.
PSAC believes that students should not be hired to replace Parks workers, but rather to learn from them. We maintain that Parks Canada has been using students as cheap labour to replace our members – and this doesn't benefit students or permanent employees.
Asked to carry on the full scope of Parks workers' duties, students get only a fraction of the pay and no union protection. PSAC negotiating teams attempted to resolve this issue at the bargaining table with Parks Canada last year, but were unable to get any traction from the employer
The court case that PSAC is currently pursuing – to amend the definition of “employee” in the Public Service Labour Relations Act – will help resolve the situation at Parks Canada.
PSAC believes that students should not longer be used as cheap labour to replace Park members. They should be allowed to earn union wages and they should be offered the protection of a collective agreement. Students' rights are workers' rights.
Federal student employment: by the numbers
The Federal Student Work Experience Program (FSWEP) hires thousands of students every year – mostly in the summer. According to the federal government, the FSWEP program “seeks to enrich students' academic programs by offering work in their field of study, encourage students to complete their studies and help them develop their employability.”
- In 2008-2009, 10,031 students were hired through this program throughout Canada.
- Many of our members will have met some of these students as most of the federal departments and agencies hire though FSWEP including Agriculture Canada, Finance, Parks Canada and National Defence.
- Many students who were first hired under FSWEP go on to have careers in the federal public service: 73 per cent of first appointments under the Public Service Employment Act from 2006–2009 occurred within one year from the end of a candidate's student employment. Seventy per cent of these first appointments were made in the same organization that initially hired the student.
Young workers envision the future of PSAC
Young workers from across Ontario gathered in Kingston in June to learn more about the labour movement and to envision ways that PSAC can be more responsive to and representative of young workers.
Gathering at Queen's University – the site of an ongoing campaign to unionize graduate teaching assistants – more than 20 young workers shared their vision of what PSAC could look like in 2015.
Here are some of their hopes for the future of their union:
- A union that is easy for young workers to access and to get involved with.
- Diverse staffing in workplaces and within PSAC.
- Racism-free workplaces – this would involve addressing racism perpetrated by employees and within the union itself.
- More positive images of PSAC in the media and in our communities.
- Delegate status for more young workers at national, regional and component conventions.
- Expanded efforts to address global social justice issues – both within and beyond the Social Justice Fund.
- A widely used young workers' communication network.
- The establishment of a national young workers' conference.
- A widely used young workers' communication network.
Did you know?
PSAC represents more than 11,000 university workers across Canada. This includes graduate teaching assistants, research assistants, lecturers and post-doctoral fellows at a growing number of universities including the University of New Brunswick, the University of Montreal, Concordia University and the University of Laval.
Organizing drives are underway at many other universities right now – engaging students as organizers and members of negotiating teams. As the victories continue to pile up, university workers are seeing the benefits of protecting their working conditions and standing up for workplace justice with PSAC.
