City Council Presentation
Above is a news article about Ian's presentation to council titled: Work Continues on a Leaner Library CUPE 960 Gives back In November/December CUPE 960 has done a lot of giving. We raised over $800.00 worth of items for the family that we sponsored for the holidays!! We also raised over $200.00 towards Movember and donated $100.00 to PFLAG to help out over the holidays which is a hard time for many, especially for those in the LGBTQ community. We thank each and every one of our members who have helped out in any way. RSI Day The last day in February, Friday, February 28 2014 is RSI day. RSI DAY Every year some 2.3 million Canadian adults are crippled by repetitive strain injuries (RSIs) or musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs), seriously limiting their daily activities. The majority of these injuries are caused by work-related activity. In fact, more than 40 per cent of all lost-time injuries allowed by Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) are RSIs or MSDs. This is the single largest class of compensation claims in the province. Many more are never reported. Beyond the social, emotional and economic costs to affected individuals are the economic costs to us all, estimated at upwards of $26 billion dollars annually. To help focus attention on this growing epidemic, communities across Ontario and around the world have proclaimed the last day of February International RSI Awareness Day. On this day, special events are held to build awareness and action on RSIs or MSDs and the impact these injuries have on workers, their families and the community. What can be done? The majority of RSIs or MSDs are preventable. Critical actions that can be taken include:
Attendance Management Program There will be a new program in the new year and we are currently working with the employer and our CUPE national rep on the wording/implementation of this program to make sure it is in accordance with labour law, Human Rights and jurisprudence. We currently have a grievance over the matter, which we have requested go to arbitration, but holding it in abeyance as management has agreed to meet with us over our concerns. Compassionate Leave Do you know about Compassionate Leave with EI? You can take Compassionate leave under the Employment Standards act and EI Compassionate Care for someone you love/care for who has risk of dying in the next 26 weeks. This does not have to be a direct family member but can be close friend, other relative, even a neighbour that you care for. The application is online. You would need to wait 2 weeks before getting the EI and you'd get it for 6 weeks so it'd be a total of 8 weeks off. The employer HAS to grant it. http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/ei/types/compassionate_care.shtml http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/eng/ei/faq/faq_compassionate_care_individuals.shtml http://www.labour.gov.on.ca/english/es/pubs/guide/family.php Next General Membership Meeting January 14, 2014 5:15 PM McLaughlin Auditorium Snacks Provided - elections will be at this meeting
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CUPE 960 officers were present and watching the November 25th Oshawa City Council meeting and took the following notes:
From first delegation, School Board: 62% of housing in Durham is in Oshawa. In 2013 Oshawa had planned 223 developments to begin; however there has been a 606 developments which is a 1725 raise. This means development charges and property taxes which means there SHOULD be an increase in funding. There is a Christmas Backpack program for at-risk youth at The Refuge. A $75.00 donation will fund a backpack for these at-risk youth. According to the Durham District School Board Make a Difference presentation, most of the low income cutoff families live in oshawa. Most the parent-family literacy centres are in Oshawa. Of ages 0-12 in the low income cutoff category in Durham Region, 19.8% live in Oshawa. Next up on the agenda was the presentation by Ian Heckford, Oshawa Public Library CEO and Gil Patterson, Library Board Chair. An interesting statistic is that the library workers in Oshawa is 87% female; however this workforce is consistently represented by males and the majority of the management team is male. City council is also mostly male. Ian last met with council on February 11th and over the last nine months have been working on the following consultant's report recommendations:
So, in 9 months the library could complete some of the recommendations, some will take a few years, some Ian said they may determine 'do we even need to do this at all?' In response to the Auditor general's report, the library costs were not effectively managed and needed to reduce reliance on funding from the city. $140,000 savings were found and a 1.8% reduction. Library continues to review all reductions and spending. Shared Services In December 2008, this was first brought up and in 2009 benchmarks of other libraries were looked at. In 2010 CIty Finance recommended the sharing of services including all finance, admin, IT, H&S, to integrate with city. In 2011 there were discussions and advice on collective agreement info, according to document FA 11-04, there were impediments in 2011 and staff continue to find more efficiencies. There have been 4 task groups: IT, HR, Finance, Facilities and will also be looking at legal and purchasing. What these groups are looking at includes level units, potential legal and liability issues, integrating 3 CUPE locals, how will library's priorities be determined? Ian then reminded the council that next year we are looking at 150 years of library service and invited the board to events surrounding the 150th anniversary. Councillor John Neal asked, "What are you doing in regards to supporting young children in poverty?" Ian said, "We are doing a great deal supporting literacy, with partnerships with school boards, large number of programs, many partnerships, and a fair number of programs available.: Councillor Sanders commented that he was happy to see that many of the recommendations have been looked at including self-checkout and shared services, happy to see a reduced budget and that they are looking at a leaner management team. He asked if there will be consistent hours across the board and Ian said, "No final decisions have been made yet." Councillor Bouma reported that even though there have been a reduced number of programs, attendance has increased and the library is doing a great job with 5 1/2 less persons than previously were there (*editors note - I think this is 4.5 %) Ian said the message was clearly understood that the 2014 budget would be $300,000 less than 2012. Councillor Wood asked if the library could find any more savings to reduce the reliance of 8.4 million from the city? "Can you find more efficiencies to add?" Ian reported, "We are looking at more and have achieved more." Wood stated, "So it's safe to say there's no gravy train on your front porch?" Ian replied, "Uh, no." Councillor Marimpietri commented on programming resources and asked how the library is serving the university/college population and Ian replied that there is a plan to open longer hours for study hall primarily aimed at Durham/UoIT/ and Trent. The meeting was quite long and a councillor was even asked to leave but we are only writing on what pertained to the library workers. According to the City Council agenda, Oshawa Libraries’ Chief Executive Officer Ian Heckford and Chairman of the Board Gil Paterson to provide an update on the progress Oshawa Libraries has made concerning increasing efficiencies and cost savings.
This presentation will include information on proposed shared services with the city and specifically may impact maintenance, purchasing, finance, IT, human resources and more. If you are available at 6:30 PM, please attend this Oshawa City Council meeting at City Hall, 50 Centre Street, Oshawa. Hope to see you there! Contact our local President, Tiffany Balducci, for more details. |
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