The Victoria RWC invites all PSAC women to join us on 25 October 2005 5:30 PM to Celebrate Women’s History Month

Come out and see the new PSAC Regional Office at 210 – 1497 Admiral’s Road (in Admiral’s Walk Plaza)

Guest Speaker: Denise Blackwell
Topic:  Women and Politics

Light refreshments, Sandwiches and Beverages will be served

Please advise Sister Sharon Brine at 363-5216 or email Brine.SL@forces.gc.ca if you will be attending

Download the poster below ...

Invites_all_PSAC_women_to_join_us_on.doc

Sisters and Brothers:

Paul Martin may shuffle the Cabinet very soon. There are rumours that he may go back to the old system of having a Minister of State for Women, something women were poorly served by during the nine years when this system was in place (1995 - 2004). Appointing a Minister of State would be a clear demotion for women who now have the Honourable Lisa Frulla , Minister of Heritage and Minister Responsible for Status of Women.

The Parliamentary Committee on Status of Women has been doing excellent work and has issued four reports with important recommendations on pay equity, core funding for women's groups and dramatically improving Canada's approach to gender-based analysis. You can read their reports at the House of Commons website.

We need a full Minister of Women's Equality to make sure that these recommendations are implemented. Many political players and certainly lots of women in Ottawa agree. It appears that the Prime Minister is not convinced. Help us convince him!

Visit canadaelection.net and let Paul Martin know Women in Canada Need a Federal Minister of Women’s Equality Now!

May 11th

1.  Violence against women doesn't happen in a vacuum; it exists because women's inequality exists.  What specific actions will you and your party take to ensure women achieve economic security and have full access to their Human Rights, which are both essential and intertwined components in the struggle to end violence against women?

2.  Although the BC Liberal Government has recently promised to put $12.5 million into women's anti-violence services, mainly via women's shelters, this does not make up the $18 million that has been cut from anti-violence services, as well as funding cut from other programs necessary to prevent violence against women from happening.  Will you and your party commit to restoring full funding to essential women's services like sexual assault centres and women's centres?

3.  In March 2003, the United Nations singled out British Columbia for special criticism after reviewing Canada's compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).  This is the first time a Canadian province has been singled out by the U.N. for criticism.  What has your party done/what will your party do to meet the U.N.'s requirement that BC "analyse the negative impact on women of its recent legal and other measures and amend the measures, as necessary"?

4.  The abolition of the BC Ministry of Women's Equality and the BC Human Rights Commission within the last four years has resulted in no independent bodies existing with a mandate to protect BC's citizens from discrimination.  What measures will you and your party be taking to restore the Human Rights protection that women spent decades fighting for, and how will you ensure women's full and equal access to their Human Rights?

5.  In BC, women make up the majority of our population.  Unfortunately, we still remain under-represented in government.  What steps will you and your party take to address the gender imbalance in the Legislature in future elections?

6.  Changes in government health care policies include an increase in MSP premiums, a reduction in MSP services, restrictions on eligibility for many programs, and the closure of many residential or long term care facilities (the majority of whose residents are elderly women), the closure of thousands of hospital beds, and the loss of "good" women's jobs in the health care sector.  What ways will you and your party work to ensure a more complete approach to health care, one that takes into account women's unique needs, which understands and respects the needs of rural women and girls, which does not demand women pick up the work of providing once-funded care for free, and which restores access to the services women and their families have been denied in recent years?

7.  Women in British Columbia spent 40 years fighting for pay equity legislation in the BC Human Rights Code, only to see the BC Liberal Government repeal this legislation in their first days in office.  Will you and your party reinstate women's hard-won pay equity rights?

8.  Since 2001, more than 20,000 public sector jobs (71% of which were held by women) have been eliminated by the provincial government, and at the same time, privatization and contracting out of public sector jobs have enabled the cutting of wages by nearly half - 85% of those workers whose wages have been cut are women, and mostly women of colour.  What specific strategies has your party adopted to ensure that women's equality rights are balanced with private sector interests through public sector jobs?

9.  Changes to Employment Standards Legislation gave "flexibility" to employers and weakened safeguards for workers.  These changes disproportionately affect women, who make up most of part-time, minimum wage, seasonal, temporary, and contract workers in BC.  Will your party commit to restoring Employment Standards Legislation to pre-2001 standards, in order to ensure that women's basic rights are not being violated?

10.  Changes in BC's Employment Standards Legislation have left workers - including those who have been sexually harassed on the job - to fend for themselves when seeking enforcement of the Legislation via "self help kits" that are only available in English.  What will your party do to ensure that women, especially women who are vulnerable to violence and abuse in the workplace, have access to redress that includes direct, personal assistance?

11.  Many "new" jobs created over the past several years in BC have been part-time, temporary, or contractual jobs, which ghettoize women in an insecure labour market and increase their risk of poverty, and ultimately, their risk of violence and abuse.  Further cuts to programs and services have pushed women and their families deeper into poverty as they attempt to stretch their limited incomes to cover these costs.  What will you and your party do to ensure a truly healthy economic climate that ensures women have equal access to an affordable education, a living wage, and full-time, secure employment?

12.  In 2002, the provincial government cut 40% of funding to the Legal Services budget in BC, slashing all of poverty law and nearly all family law legal aid.  Although the government recently promised to restore 12% of what was cut, it remains that only a few women can gain access to a lawyer, and then, only under very extreme circumstances, such as in cases where a proven record of spousal violence exists.  What steps will you and your party take to ensure that women in need are not left to negotiate the justice system without legal counsel?

13.  At the BC Liberal Government was building a daycare at the Legislature for the Honourable Christy Clark, they also began drastically cut public child care system - cuts which now total over $100 million - and also raised income thresholds for daycare subsidies, leaving many women and their children at the mercy of private, unlicensed, unregulated care.  What will you and your party do to ensure that ALL of BC's women have access to safe, affordable, accessible, and publicly-funded childcare?

14.  Child care is a major source of employment for women in BC, yet child care work pays some of the lowest wages of any jobs in the workforce.  Cutbacks to childcare programs and subsidies have increased job insecurity and caused deteriorating working conditions.  What will you and your party do to ensure that the people who look after our most vulnerable citizens - our province's children - receive a living wage for their work?

15. The freeze on tuition fees has been eliminated, and there are now no limits placed on how much colleges, universities, and other post-secondary institutions can raise their fees.  How do you and your party plan on ensuring access to post-secondary education that is affordable to women and their families?

16.  The BC Liberal Government cut $581 million to the Ministry of Human Resources, resulting in a deep impact on women and their families with benefits like the Family Maintenance Allowance and the Earnings Exemption being completely cut.  Additionally, we are the first province in Canada to have instituted time limits for accessing income supports.  Will you and your party commit to restoring the principle of the right to income when in need for all British Columbians?

17.  Although the BC Government claims to have moved a large number of individuals "off the welfare rolls," the reality is that no one knows what's happened to these individuals.  In the one exit poll commissioned by the BC Government, an attempt was made only to contact one-third of former recipients, and only one-third of those with whom contact was attempted had telephones or current addresses that they could be reached at.  How will you and your party work to ensure that poor British Columbians do not continue to disappear like this?

18.  There currently exists a long and complicated process for applying for provincial disability benefits.  As many as 90% of applicants are routinely denied on the first try.  How will you and your party work to reduce the barriers people with disabilities are facing when trying to negotiate the benefits application process?

19.  Aboriginal women have the highest levels of poverty in the province.  The average annual income for non-Aboriginal women is $19,350, compared with $13,300 for Aboriginal women.  This also puts Aboriginal women at a greatly increased risk for violence, abuse, murder, and "disappearance," such as we have seen in BC in recent years.  How will you and your party work to end the shameful marginalization of Aboriginal women in BC?

20.  Cuts to programs and services have done nothing to decrease the amount of work that needs to be done.  Women are being forced to pick up the work and perform it for free in private homes and in communities, including extra child care, elder care, and health care provision, as well as volunteering to pick up the work once done by health care, social service, and other community organizations.  How will you and your government work to end the unfair and discriminatory practice of offloading the burden of cutbacks to programs and services onto the backs of unwaged women?

A notice has been mailed to all women delegates calling for nominations for the Alternate to the Women's Coordinator to the Regional Council.

Nominee must be:

• a woman
• delegate to April convention
• a representative from a duly established Regional Women's Committee

Deadline for nominations is end of business (5:00 pm) Thursday, May 28, 2005.  Nomination forms must be signed by nominee, nominator and seconder.

click for the call-out letter and for the nomination form .

Lack of Childcare Program in Canada Points to Sexism: Mothers and Childcare workers vow to march for childcare on Mother’s Day

(Vancouver, Canada) - Pointing to the decades of unfulfilled promises for a national childcare program in Canada, Grassroots Women asserts that it is the result of sexism in the Canadian government. To bring this issue to light, the organization will host a Mother’s Day March and Rally on May 8 under the banner “Universal Childcare is a Women’s Right!”

“Childcare is a working class women’s issue,” explains Marlee Oulett, a mother and an organizer with Grassroots Women. “We are overwhelmingly the ones taking care of our kids at home and those working in the childcare field.”

Studies have found that Canadian women still have the primary responsibility for childcare: in one study, over 75% of women stated they had the primary responsibility for arranging childcare and were four times more likely to stay home with a sick child than men in the study. Women also account for over 97% of those providing childcare in the public and private sectors.

“The lack of action to implement a childcare program points to a lack of genuine respect for advancing women’s equality,” asserts Rachel Rosen, childcare worker and organizer with Grassroots Women. “The lack of universal childcare contributes to stalling working class women’s development and trapping us in poverty.”

“Because I didn’t qualify for a full subsidy, I had to pay for childcare when I make little more than welfare rates working in factory. Most of my income went to childcare. It’s impossible to advance my education or save for our future,” continues Marlee, mother of three children under 12. “When I was doing seasonal work, it was the hardest. Sometimes we had to work for 25 days straight and we’d lose our jobs if we didn’t do all the shifts: try finding and affording childcare for 25 days in a row, 12 hours per day!”

While the federal government continues to speak about implementing a national childcare system, they have yet to put any guarantees in place to ensure that it will be directly towards a public, not-for-profit system or that the exploitative and defacto Canadian childcare program - the Live-in Caregiver
Progam - will be scrapped. “Since childcare programs fall under provincial jurisdiction, we need more than just a cash infusion to the provinces. In BC, we have seen increased federal funding in the past few years, yet for mothers and childcare workers there is now even less access to quality childcare.

Childcare should not be a tug of war but a basic right for women and our families!” continues Rosen.

The Mother’s Day March and Rally will begin at 2:00pm on May 8 at Woodland Park (Adanac and Woodland). Protesters will march to Grandview Park (Commercial and Charles) for a program of speakers, performers and children’s activities.

Everyone is welcome to join together under the call: “Universal childcare is a women’s right!”!

For more information, contact Rachel Rosen at Grassroots Women: (604) 682-4451 or grassrootswomen@telus.net.

posted March 9th

Gordon Campbell's Liberals have abandoned BC women and their mean-spirited cuts and policy decision have turned back the clock for women in our province, said Angela Schira, Secretary-Treasurer of the B.C. Federation of Labour on the International Women's Day release of a report entitled "Losing Ground: The Effects of Government Cutback on Women in British Columbia 2001 - 2005."

From the abolishment of the Ministry of Women's Equality and Human Rights Commission to the handcuffing of women's advocates, the BC Liberal government has not only abandoned BC women," said Schira.  "They've turned back the clock and attacked rights that women have struggled decades to build."

Read more of this news release  and the report itself  at bcfed.com.

Pat McVicar and Helga Crosby, Local 20943

March 8th : via email

Thanks to the dedication and hard work of the Women's Representative for CEIU Local 20943, Helga Crosby and to the generosity of all the staff of HRCC Coquitlam and Maple Ridge we were able to donate 12 boxes and 2 laundry baskets of clothing, towels, and bedding to Cythera House and Tri-City Women's Transition House. As well, CEIU and staff contributed a total of $90.00 worth of Safeway gift certificates.

-Pat McVicar, Local President, CEIU 20943

Visit the upcoming events page for a list of IWD events.

Do you have an event to add? Email Patrick in the Vancouver RO with the details.

March 3rd

In British Columbia, women are hurting because of cuts to health services, ever increasing health user fees, and the loss of good jobs in the health sector.

User fees, increases in user fees, and higher deductibles all disproportionately affect women, who on average earn less than men. According to Statistics Canada, women earn 73 cents for every dollar a man earns. A senior woman’s average annual income is $16,000, ten thousand dollars less than a senior man’s income. 56% of lone parent mothers and 24% of senior women live in what Statistics Canada describes as a low-income situation, more commonly referred to as living below the poverty line.

Most minimum wage workers in Canada, nearly 60%, are adults, not teenagers, and most of them are women. As well, many women working in the health sector, who made decent wages and had health benefits, have lost their jobs. All of this means that women have less money to pay the rent, buy their groceries, and meet the ever increasing costs that are being off loaded by government onto their shoulders, including ever increasing health costs.

Read the BC Health Coalition/Vancouver Women’s Health Collective fact sheet below (.pdf).

Womenfactsheet.pdf

I would like to take the opportunity to thank our regional office for sending me to my first national Women's conference. It's a bit more than the one-pager report but I wanted to also respond to
Resolution #4 and #8 after digesting the material after hearing from both camps.

Read Jennie's report (.pdf) below.

The_8th_PSAC_National__Women_Revised.pdf

February 18th : For Immediate Release

VANCOUVER - The National President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) is calling on women in the union to adopt a political agenda in order to achieve change.

Speaking at the PSAC’s national women’s conference, Nycole Turmel says that women’s leadership is important in changing the face of power within their union, their workplaces, in their communities in Canada and beyond.

“Unions are among the few organizations that have the power to take collective action,” indicates Turmel.  “We have a responsibility to challenge governments to put human rights ahead of corporate rights, to put public services ahead of profits, to make equality a priority.”

Turmel outlined three key issues which need to be addressed.  The union wants the federal government:

• To adopt a pan-Canadian child care system that is public, not-for-profit, universal and accessible, and to make governments accountable for the child care monies they receive;

• To implement the recommendations of the federal Pay Equity Task Force and to enact a mandatory, pro-active federal pay equity law; and

• To pass legislation that will give full protection to pregnant and nursing women whose work poses a risk to the health of their fetus or baby.

According to Turmel, “victories on these three issues would make a tremendous difference in the lives of women in Canada.  I believe the labour and social justice movements can take on these fights and win.”

PSAC has a track record of being active in the struggle for women’s equality.  For over twenty years, women in the union have been tenacious in their battles against the federal government, the government of the Northwest Territories and Canada Post for pay equity. 

It has been 20 years since PSAC held its first national women’s conference and great strides have been made.  About 60% of the union’s members are women.  They now make up 50% of all union officer positions.

“My hope is that in twenty years from now, we will look back and be proud of the further gains that all women have made within the PSAC, including the leadership,” says Turmel.  “I hope the face of power will be more inclusive of our racially visible sisters, our Inuit, Métis and Aboriginal sisters, our sisters with disabilities, our younger sisters and our sisters from the LGBT communities.”

Vancouver and District Labour Council's Women's Committee is holding their 2nd Annual International Women's Day Dinner.

An evening of entertainment, dancing, and dining (Indian and Western cuisine with vegetarian and non-vegetarian entrees). 

March 8, 2005, Fraserview Hall

Tickets $10 - 40 (sliding scale)

Download the poster here (.pdf)