Report of the Director for Non-Treasury Board/Separate Employer Newfoundland & Labrador, Robert M. Lewis, January 2013 – September 2013

I am pleased to be able to present my Director’s report for the above period. I continue sit on both the Council’s Education and Political Action Committees.

I believe that being from a Direct Charter Local (DCL) and from the University sector while a Director on the Atlantic Council has helped educate me on the workings of the Union and in imagining how those in the university sector can construct a space within the Union. With an increasing number of DCLs and of those in the university sector, I believe that this, in itself, is an important step forward for PSAC Atlantic Regional Council.

I have been working with Cathy Murphy and Dave Shaw towards developing an education strategy and plan for the universities sector, in particular for those locals made up of contingent and/or part-time and/or limited term workers and with Union executives that change every year or two. This work is only just beginning but is a challenge that must be met if PSAC is to adequately service the needs of those workers whose work situations are very different from those found among most members whom PSAC has traditionally represented. We will be doing further work on this during a session at the DCL Conference October 12-13 in Moncton.

I will be representing the Council at the DCL Conference October 12-13. Issues for DCLs and our/their place, now and in the future, in PSAC were discussed and debated. The place of DCLs in the Union continues to be developed.

As I am on the bargaining team for LUMUN's two bargaining units negotiating our second (for the Per Course Instructors) and first (for Postdoctoral Fellows) collective agreements. We have entered the conciliation phase of the process for Per Course Instructors.

I continue to represent the PSAC on the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour Political Action and Legislative Committee though there were no meetings of this (there never are).

As President and Chief Shop Steward of my union, I have been very involved with my local Union work. Collective bargaining began for us in September and has continued since. I also have a full time job with the same employer but in another union and I will be teaching an extra course in the Master's in Employment Relations program.

In Solidarity,

Robert Lewis

Director for Non-Treasury Board/Separate Employer Newfoundland & Labrador

and President, Lecturers' Union of Memorial University of Newfoundland