bout de papier, Vol. 19, No. 2 (2002) — Summer/Fall 2002 // Été/Automne 2002, p. 5
bout is PAFSO’s premier publication, providing an outlet for issues of concern and interest to Foreign Service officers — the ESs. So when it was proposed that 1, as President, write an occasional column — this being the first example — I jumped at the chance. At least for this one, there is something positive to talk about: our collective effort to address a collective agreement.
The signing ceremony on August 13 was the final step in a fifteen-month process (I suppose that for most people the receipt of the cheques will really be the last step) that brought us our new contract. I believe I have thanked all those who should be thanked, but in case I forgot anyone: to the Ministers, the Deputies, the ADMs, our friends in the Retired Heads of Mission Association, the members of the fourth estate, brothers and sisters in PSAC and most especially to our spouses and families, please accept the deep and abiding thanks from all the members of PAFSO for the encouragement, the support and the understanding.
I have been asked many times: How did we do it? What made Treasury Board blink? To these and other, but similar questions, there can be no other answer than that which I have used as my mantra: unity and resolve. In good weather and bad the FSs of the two Departments stood together and demonstrated that they would do so again and again until their demands were met. If Treasury Board ever thought that PAFSO didn’t have the resolve and the grit to press its case, then they were proven wrong.
We, the members of PAFSO, must congratulate ourselves — we have never been as united as we were this summer. It didn’t matter what stream one was in nor where one was assigned, we stood shoulder-to-shoulder and were counted when it was necessary. Everyone give themselves a pat on the back! Ron Cochrane, the members of the bargaining committee and the Executive itself also deserve kudos from the members. They led the campaign that brought us our new contract.
Was there a plan? Yes, there was. Will we talk about the details? No, we won’t. (We may need to use it again — we give notice to bargain next spring!) But really all we did was apply the lessons taught to us by our employer. It you have ever taken the bargaining or advocacy courses, you would have recognized the basic principles at work: take your time, find the right buttons and push them! Thanks, CFSI.
[We’ve] never been as united as we were this summer.
But our new contract, welcome though it was, can only be seen as a first step on a long, long path. PAFSO has stood up for itself and fought for its own best interests. This cannot stop. PAFSO members, especially at the lower end, are still the most poorly paid professional group in the Canadian government. This means that compensation will again be on the table and it will again be the major issue — but this time in a more complex environment. The pay issue will be in a new context.
For too long PAFSO members have looked at compensation as something that could be dealt with only at the top – this must change. In the bargaining just ended this process began and the first application, annual steps for our lower and mid-range ESs, may yet prove to be the most important achievement of the new contract. The impact of the steps is not yet clearly understood by many, but they have gone a long way to rectifying the compensation question for our colleagues.
PAFSO will also have to focus its efforts on those issues that have always been deemed peripheral: pensions for our spouses who have given up careers to follow their partners; a more reasonable probationary period for the new recruits; opportunities for employment stability for the term FSs; and full employment benefits for those FSDPers on language training, the so-called ab initios. A final redressing of these questions may well be as monumental as the long-promised reforming/modernizing of the Foreign Service. We will have to change the way we look at some matters and we may have to accept situations that break with long-standing PAFSO policy. In the end this is nothing other than change and we, as individuals and an association, can handle this. As fully rotational staff of departments dealing with the dynamics of the modern world — change is what we do.
It would be nice to be able to say that the next year will be as exciting as the one just past, but that implies that we can see an end to the problems that face us. I believe that the future for PAFSO will be “interesting” (remember the famous Chinese curse) for years to come. We have to take on issues that are myriad and complicated. But PAFSO has over the past few years begun to mature as a bargaining agent. The employer has begun to respect PAFSO and its members. But we can’t rest on our laurels. All members of PAFSO must work to preserve and reinforce the unity and resolve that we demonstrated over the summer. We can improve our lot — but we can only do it together.
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Originally published in bout de papier, Vol. 19, No. 2 (2002) — Summer/Fall 2002 // Été/Automne 2002, p. 5. Read the rest of this issue →
