Education dates- Saturday, March 23 from 9:30am – 4:30pm
- Sunday, March 24 from 9am – 1pm
Registration deadline
Location:- Hilton Meadowvale Mississauga
- 6750 Mississauga Road, Mississauga, Ontario L5N 2L3
- 905-821-1981
- Hotel Registration Deadline: Feb. 19, 2024
- Note: Hotel Registration- if you are staying at the hotel Friday (if you live over 60 km) and/or Saturday (within 60 Km) you should book your hotel room when you send in your application for the education.
- It is always best to book ASAP, then cancel if need be.
What You Need To Do- Complete the necessary forms, email to: [email protected] by Feb. 23, 2024.
- Complete the Member registration form by Feb. 23, 2024
- Only If Necessary: Human Rights Accommodation form
- Note: wages will not be paid for weekend education
Offered classes
- Advance Grievance
- Health & Safety 1
- Indigenous Journey I– Walking Together
- Let’s Start Meeting Like This
- Stewards 1
- Stewards 2
- Stewards 3
Course descriptions
Advanced Grievance Handling for Union Building
Does your local have a grievance committee? Can your experience in handling a grievance help to build the local? Can you use your knowledge of common grievance issues to raise awareness at demand setting meetings? Have you ever thought of what it is like to be on the Employer side of the table? These are some of the topics that will be explored in the NEW Advanced Grievance Handling for Union Building course.You will also get the opportunity to practice being on the Union’s team and the Employer’s Team as you work through some scenarios. Building on the Basic Grievance Handling for Union Building course, this course focuses on expanding both the steward’s and Local’s ability to process grievances from start to finish.Through active interviewing process, participants will explore how to identify grievances, practice negotiating settlements and draft realistic, enforceable grievance settlements.
Participants should bring their Collective Agreements to the course.Health and Safety: Level One
This course is designed for members and stewards who want to become more involved in health and safety activities in their workplace. There is a strong focus on health and safety legislation to enable participants to use the legislation effectively in their own workplaces.Participants work in groups to explore the legislation and to gain a better understanding of their rights and employers’ obligations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act and its regulations. Participants are introduced to the concepts of hazard identification, assessment and control and develop a greater understanding of the components of an effective health and safety system.
The Indigenous Journey: Walking Together: Part One
Would you like to learn more about Indigenous peoples? Do you know that the First Nation, Inuit and Métis peoples have differences in their traditions, beliefs, communities and cultural identities as well as some commonalities?Through activities, inspired by the teachings and traditions of Indigenous peoples, we will take you through an overview of the lives of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples as well as allow you an opportunity to share in some of their stories.You will take a journey of examining both historical and current relationships between Indigenous people and governments within Canada and the world today. If you would like to share in the rich history of Indigenous peoples and spend time understanding why being an ally is important, this course will offer that opportunity.
Let’s Start Meeting Like This! Running Meetings that Build the Union
Have you ever been confused at meetings about when you can speak and when you can’t? Perhaps you have tried to run a meeting where there was no quorum, or where people kept interrupting each other and getting off track. Maybe you’re discouraged because you’re not sure how to make meetings a good use of anyone’s time.This course examines the potential of meetings to tap into diverse members’ energy and interest, and to build union capacity. Practical, hands-on activities will help you:
- develop an interesting agenda and get members to the meeting;
- understand how to write and put forward a motion and use basic rules of parliamentary procedure effectively;
- facilitate an effective meeting discussion; d)
- deal with meeting “nightmares” who often look like members who won’t stop talking, or who can’t agree.
Materials include templates for committee reports and meeting minutes, as well as step by step guidelines on running different kinds of meetings.
Stewards 1: Making a Difference in the Workplace
This updated version (March 2015) of Stewards 1 includes a more detailed description and history of OPSEU / SEFPO’s equity-seeking groups. The course continues to support stewards through a range of tools and practical activities. The key aims are to strengthen steward skills to orient a new employee to the union, have effective one-on-one conversations with a cross-section of members, develop a communications strategy to enlist diverse member involvement, and develop approaches to everyday workplace problems.Throughout the course, participants are supported as they develop a profile of their members, clarify the tasks of the steward, find the resources and information in OPSEU / SEFPO, and understand the grievance process and their role in it. Stewards 1 is a prerequisite to Stewards 2 and must be completed before taking Stewards 2.
Participants should bring their collective agreements.Stewards 2: Facing the Employer, Building Member Involvement
Prerequisite: Stewards 1This revised follow-up to Stewards 1 focuses on investigating and writing a grievance, facing management, and involving members in worksite action. Participants will use their own collective agreements to identify grievances. They will become immersed in an evolving case study in order to interview a grievor, write up a grievance, face the employer at a step 1 and make a presentation on safety issues to the union side of the Joint Health and Safety Committee. They will examine the elements of effective mobilization and develop a campaign strategy for a local.
Participants should bring their collective agreements.Stewards 3: Dealing with Discipline (September 2015)
This is an advanced level steward course. It is suggested that participants take Stewards 1 and Stewards 2 prior to signing up for this program. Dealing with Discipline is a skills and knowledge focused workshop that will assist union activists in their duties representing members that are facing discipline up to and including dismissal.The course bridges concepts from Stewards 1 and 2, Basic and Advanced Grievance Handling and Workplace Investigations. Participants should bring their Collective Agreements to the course.
Meal Expenses
$20 for breakfast, $29 for lunch, $38 for supper
Travel Expenses
Round-trip mileage at the rate of:
- 60 cents per km. if driving alone;
- 65 cents/km. if driving with one OPSEU / SEFPO members as a passenger;
- 70 cents/km. if driving with 2 OPSEU / SEFPO members as passengers;
- 75cents/km. if driving with 3 OPSEU / SEFPO members as passengers;
- 80 cents/km. if driving with 4 OPSEU / SEFPO members as passengers.
Hotel Accommodation
Members who live beyond 60 km are entitled to room accommodation for Friday and Saturday night(s).Members who live within 60 km are entitled to room accommodation for Saturday night only.Members are reimbursed for hotel accommodation and are responsible for making their own reservations and for paying the full cost of the room at checkout.Members are also responsible to cancel their room if need be.****If you book your hotel room past the deadline, any increases to the hotel cost will be the responsibility of the member.Parking costs are reimbursed – overnight parking can be added to your hotel bill. Provide the registration desk with your license plate number.The link for booking your hotel accommodation:
https://book.passkey.com/go/OPSEURegion2Educational2023deadline–FEBRUARY 19 2024
Human Rights Accommodation
The Accommodation Fund was created to encourage and facilitate greater participation of those covered under the Ontario Human Rights Code. The fund will cover extra costs related to a member’s disability, illness or other grounds under the Code. For example, the Fund would cover the extra cost of a fridge in a hotel room for a member required to store medications at a particular temperature.Requests for accommodation can be identified on your application of the Human Rights Accommodation Request Form, included in the application form. This form can be sent directly to the Equity Unit by fax 416-448-7419 or email: equity@OPSEU / SEFPO.org
Cancellation Policy
Not Attending EventIn accordance with OPSEU/SEFPO Policy, notification by a member to cancel course attendance should be received by both the Local President and the Regional Office no later than 48 hours before commencement of the regional school (i.e. no later than 4:30 P.M. on the Wednesday prior to the weekend school).When a member does not attend and the Regional office has not been notified 48 hours prior to the school’s commencement, the member will be assessed a $50.00 penalty.Extenuating circumstances will be taken into consideration.Hotel Cancellation – Members who have booked a hotel room are responsible for cancelling their reservations at the hotel within the time limits as stated by the hotel when the booking is made.
Advance Cheques
Applicants may apply to receive an advance cheque (upon your Local’s approval) to cover accommodation, and mileage by filling out the request for an advance portion of the application form.
Family Attendant Care
Complete the attached forms for child care at the hotel, please return to
[email protected].
Allergy Alert
Scent, Peanuts and Nut-Free PolicyWorkers are becoming sensitized to chemicals, scented products and certain foods such as peanuts, peanut butter, pecans, walnuts, many chocolate bars and energy/nutrition bars.For many individuals, attending conferences, meetings etc. and being exposed to perfumes, other strong scents and certain foods can pose serious health risks such as asthma attacks, respiratory problems and/or migraine headaches.In the interest of the health and safety of the sisters and brothers whose health may suffer from any of these exposures, we ask that you refrain from wearing or using scented products, peanut and nut products at all OPSEU/SEFPO events and OPSEU/SEFPO locations.
Child/elder/dependant care
Parents must be on-site at all times when utilizing child care provided by OPSEU/SEPFO.Children who are not registered for child care may not be accommodated if brought to the eventChild care registrations must be received by March 4, 2024
Cancellations must be done within 24 hours of the event.Members must register for child care twenty one (21) days in advance of the event by completing the form and returning it to the coordinating OPSEU/SEFPO Regional Office.
When you bring children with you
Members are entitled to claim the full cost of their hotel room and meal expenses for children under the age of 13 years at 50% of OPSEU / SEFPO’s standard meal allowance rates. Children ages 13–16 are entitled to the standard rates.*Note: Children must be registered and signed in by member, in OPSEU/SEFPO’s day care for reimbursement of meal claims.
When care is provided in your home
Members will be reimbursed for Family Care at the rate of $15.00 per hour to a maximum of $220.00 within a 24 hour period, while doing union business. It is recognized that to guarantee meaningful access to union activities, child care both day and night may be necessary. Please specify hours claimed for each day.Members are entitled to reimbursement of reasonable costs of family/attendant care (child/elder/dependent) provided by someone other than their partners/spouses as a result of absences from home arising from the conduct of union business. Such allowances are not intended to reimburse members for family care expenses that they would have normally incurred as a result of employment, except where the absence exceeds the normal work day or week.Claims must be signed by the service provider and may be verified by Head Office before payment is made.
