It’s time once again for one of our favourite contests!
Family Literacy Day was established to raise awareness about how important reading and literacy-related activities are for children’s development, and how one of the best ways to get that extra education in is to participate as a family.
Date: January 6, 2022
Greetings Brothers and Sisters:
The SEIU-West members who work at Extendicare Canada’s Elmview, Preston, Moose Jaw, Parkside, and Sunset facilities have voted in favour of the tentative agreement by 85.6%.
SEIU-West and the Saskatchewan labour movement are celebrating a huge win heading into the New Year. The Government of Saskatchewan announced it will the repeal the "supervisory employee" provisions of the Saskatchewan Employment Act (SEA).
Date: December 22, 2021
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
The following are some questions and answers about the Extendicare Tentative Agreement (TA). These arose during the four information meetings held on Zoom on December 20 and 21.
Date: December 17, 2021
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
As announced in Bargaining Update No. 4 (December 9, 2021) your SEIU-West Extendicare Bargaining Committee met with the Employer on December 7 and 8, 2021. After and were able to reach a tentative agreement that we are prepared to share with the membership.
The following update provides further details about:
SEIU-West and other unions asked the following questions.
The Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) provided the responses.
This document simply communicates the responses of the SHA, and is in no way to be taken that SEIU-West agrees with or endorses the SHA responses.
SEIU-WEST GUIDANCE ON NON-SHA EMPLOYER POLICIES RE PROOF OF COVID-19 VACCINATION
November 12, 2021
On October 1, 2021, the Saskatchewan Government authorized all employers to require that their employees prove that either:
SEIU-West’s responsibility as a union is to represent our membership’s rights, in a manner free from arbitrariness, bias or unreasonableness.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic SEIU-West has worked to address our members’ pandemic-related questions, needs, and concerns. We’ve made employers, the government and the public take notice of the vital service you’ve provided throughout the pandemic. We’ve fought to ensure you have access to appropriate personal protective equipment and mental health supports.
While the healthcare sector (Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) and affiliates) has been a focus (see for example our guidance on SHA COVID vaccination policies here) we want to make clear that we also continue to represent the interests of our members in education, retirement homes, community based organizations (CBOs), light industrial and allied sectors.
The following is meant as general guidance about employer vaccination policies for SEIU-West members working for non-SHA employers. It is based on questions we have received from members, our review of employer policies, and relevant legal authorities. We will update this document if and when we receive further information. Because the details and application of an employer’s COVID vaccination policy vary from one employer to another, please contact the Member Resource Centre (MRC) at 1-888-999-7348 Ext 2298 or [email protected] if you have specific questions.
The Worker Safety Committee of SEIU-West is sponsoring up to six members to attend the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour Occupational Health and Safety Conference.
WHEN: September 15 and 16, 2021
WHERE: Virtual platform - Zoom
WHO CAN APPLY: All SEIU-West members in good standing are eligible to apply. However, preference will be given to:
HOW TO APPLY: Fill out this online Expression of Interest form or print out this printable PDF. Return the completed PDF form to the attention of the SEIU-West Worker Safety Committee at the Saskatoon office by fax (306-652-1392) or email ([email protected]) no later than August 27.
Make sure to rank which session you would most like to attend.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: SFL Conference Brochure.
*Note* If you are selected, we will complete the SFL registration form and pay the fees on your behalf.
Date: July 26, 2021
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
Here is the latest update on the SEIU-West and West Park Crossing process to bargain amendments to the Collective Agreement.
Date: July 23, 2021
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
The term of the collective agreement between SEIU-West and West Park Crossing ended on July 24, 2021. The Union served notice to the Employer to bargain amendments to the Collective Agreement on May 13, 2021.
Please take the time to fill out your bargaining survey. Let us know what you consider to be priorities in our upcoming round of negotiations. Your bargaining team is very interested in your input, so feel free to provide as much detail as you like and add more pages needed.
Date: July 12, 2021
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
The Union and the Employer commenced bargaining on June 24, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that our meetings are all done on-line through virtual meeting rooms. It’s not ideal, as it adds a lot of time to the bargaining process.
We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2021 SEIU-West Membership Survey Prizes.
SEIU-West members who work at Elmview, Moose Jaw, Parkside, Preston, and Sunset Extendicare facilities, please return your completed survey to your Unit Chairperson BY FRIDAY AUGUST 20, 2021!
Date: July 23, 2021
Greetings Sisters and Brothers,
Your Extendicare Bargaining Committee has been hard at work.
We have completed the bargaining survey and it will be available from your unit chairs next week.
Hey Moe! Respect Us Protect Us Pay Us – Campaign Launch
(Saskatchewan, Canada) – Today SEIU-West proudly formally launches its newest summer-activism campaign: Hey Moe! #RespectUsProtectUsPayUs.
“As Premier Scott Moe continues to push Saskatchewan to ‘the way it should be,’ he and his government need to remember who bore the brunt of this pandemic and helped get the province to this point – front line essential workers,” says SEIU-West President Cape. “There has been extensive damage done to our public service workforce in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that needs to be repaired.”
Accompanied by a digital and mass email campaign, billboards across Saskatchewan and other multimedia outlets, SEIU-West’s HeyMoe.ca campaign is about telling Scott Moe and his Cabinet that there is an urgent need to repair and invest in public services. Billboards across Saskatchewan are running these messages… except for Directwest billboards, owned by Scott Moe’s government, which refused to run the message, declaring it “divisive”.
There is some controversy from one advertiser about our campaign,” explains Cape. “How, exactly, does a simple request for respect, protection and fair wages for the thousands of essential workers serving Saskatchewan’s front line today offend this government-owned company’s guidelines?”
SEIU-West members, like all essential front line workers across Saskatchewan, have been providing hands-on care and in-person services since the very start of the pandemic, enduring extraordinary personal, mental, physical and financial hurdles including the absence of and/or insufficient personal protective equipment; inconsistent application of protocols; isolation and lack of mental health supports; insufficient staffing levels; and unfair, arbitrary distribution of the Government of Canada’s temporary wage supplement.
COVID-19 has gravely injured a public service that was broken prior to the pandemic’s arrival – now it needs time, money and leadership to heal.
Cape adds “We are asking everyone in Saskatchewan who supported and applauded essential workers as heroes, to please sign onto the letter at HeyMoe.ca and send a message to Premier Moe that we need to act now by investing significant funding into our public services.”
The HeyMoe.ca campaign’s hashtag, #RespectUsProtectUsPayUs, demands Saskatchewan front line workers be:
Service Employees International Union West (SEIU-West) represents over 13,000 people across Saskatchewan. They include people who work in health care, education, municipalities, community-based organizations, retirement homes and other sectors. They are joined by one colour – purple – and one union – SEIU-West. Visit PurpleWorks.ca to find out more about SEIU-West members.
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To download and print a PDF copy of this release please click here.
For more information, contact:
Christine Miller
Communications
306-477-8733
Read President Barb Cape's July 9, 2021 letter to Directwest CEO
Even though public health orders have been lifted effective July 11, 2021 in Saskatchewan, we all should remember that the pandemic is not ‘over’.
SEIU-West has made significant investments in publicly-owned Directwest, to advertise and promote issues that are important to our members and the entire province of Saskatchewan.
Imagine our surprise when SEIU-West’s latest billboards were deemed offensive to Directwest’s “guidelines”, to the extent that they rejected both our billboards and the revenue they would generate for the publicly-owned Crown Corporation.
Below you can read the letter sent to Directwest CEO Keith Jeannot by President Barb Cape, or you can download a PDF copy of the original by clicking here.
Keith Jeannot, CEO
Directwest
355 Longman Crescent, Regina, SK S4N 6G3
July 9, 2021
Dear Mr Jeannot:
I write regarding your appraisal of SEIU-West’s latest billboards as offensive to Directwest’s “guidelines”, to the extent that you have rejected both our billboards and the revenue they would generate for the publicly-owned Crown Corporation over which you preside.
In an email to our office, your representative made clear that Directwest has “…sensitivity guidelines when it comes to political or union messaging that has to be approved by our CEO…” only then to be told this is a standard applied to all advertising. It appears to be subjective as to whether you apply this to union/political advertising or all advertising. Further, you have stated your advertising guidelines won’t allow campaign messaging that is “divisive” in nature - exactly what about our campaign do you feel objectively meets this criteria?
How, exactly, does a simple request for respect, protection and fair wages for the thousands of essential workers serving Saskatchewan’s front line today offend the Directwest guidelines? Specifically, we are looking for clarification on how you determined our campaign, to properly support essential workers and by extension, the people of Saskatchewan whom they serve (as do you), could be considered problematic at all? The identical ads are in heavy rotation on your competitors’ billboards already; and yet, somehow we’ve avoided a civil war.
SEIU-West has made significant investments in publicly-owned Directwest to advertise and promote issues that are important to our members and the entire province of Saskatchewan. You’d think this would be significant and received with gratitude, yet we’re left only with questions about why you’ve suddenly made the bizarre decision to assign completely arbitrary, politically-biased guidelines to a union campaign for essential workers.
With a billboard budget alone worth over $150,000/year, we are happy to spend our advertising dollars with another firm and have committed to advising the people of Saskatchewan, including all stakeholders in our province’s labour sector, that partisan politics have infiltrated Directwest to this troubling extent. We expect that you will cancel our billboard contract in its entirety.
If Directwest’s new censorship mandate changes in the future, please let me know.
Sincerely,
Barbara Cape
President, SEIU-West
Read Directwest CEO Keith Jeannot's July 12, 2021 reply to Barb Cape's letter by clicking here.
Read Barb Cape's July 16, 2021 followup letter to Don Morgan, Minister for Labour Relations and Minister Responsible for SaskTel (of which Directwest is a subsidiary) by clicking here.
Canada is an imperfect country. This year, if you choose to celebrate Canada Day, consider celebrating the more perfect country Canada can become. To do this, we must begin by acknowledging many deeply uncomfortable truths about Canada’s past—truths that still cause harm today.
The recent discovery of the remains of hundreds of children in unmarked graves on the grounds of former residential schools is a reality that should overwhelm every Canadian to their core.
It is a stark reminder of a truth that most of us were not taught in history class: our country created a system of residential schools, the purpose and effect of which were a cultural genocide of First Nations and Metis people.
Facing this truth is incredibly uncomfortable—yet every Canadian must do it for Canada to become the truly great nation is has the potential to be.
Why not spend some of this Canada Day learning about our troubled past and taking action to reverse its painful legacy? If you haven’t yet, read the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) calls to action.
Read the Report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
Contact your Member of Parliament and your Member of the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly to demand clean drinking water for First Nations communities, a provincial bus service, affordable housing, addictions treatment centres, and increased education funding.
Celebrate what we are, but always fight for better.
Whether you moved here or were born here, we are all treaty people; that means we are responsible for living up to the legal and moral obligations of those treaties. Let’s work together and honor those that have come before us this Canada Day.
We also need to lift up and celebrate September 30, which was recently announced as National Truth and Reconciliation Day. Start thinking now of what September 30 can look like going forward - let’s build the Canada we know we can be!
“This Canada Day, as imperfect as we are, we acknowledge we have years to go before we truly have a perfect union with our First Nations brothers and sisters. We need to lift up and celebrate September 30, which was recently announced as National Truth and Reconciliation Day.” - Barb Cape, President, SEIU-West