Message from the PSAC National President on the rescheduled regional conventions

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted members and our communities across the country. This continues to be a challenging time for everyone, and I salute the dedication of our activists in continuing to serve the membership.

As we adapt to living and working in the new COVID-19 reality, we have adjusted how we conduct our union business and events. This includes our PSAC Regional Conventions, which we were forced to postpone in 2020. The PSAC National Board of Directors has endorsed that these conventions proceed as virtual events, utilizing an electronic platform to ensure members’ participation in the democratic process of our union, in a manner that protects their health and safety.

I know that members were looking forward to coming together at these conventions, to debate resolutions, elect officers, and set the future direction of their region. However, with so much uncertainty surrounding the future of the pandemic and its impacts on health, travel, and public safety, we cannot place members and their families at any additional risk. Nor can these conventions be further postponed. We are committed to recreating the convention experience as best possible, using a specially designed virtual convention platform. The work that must be accomplished at convention will get done, and members will be engaged in this process.

In conducting our Regional Conventions virtually in 2021, we shall be recreating to the extent possible the conventions that were to take place in 2020. Therefore, these are not new conventions, but a re-establishment of the 2020 Regional Conventions. The delegate entitlement calculation that was utilized for the 2020 Regional Conventions shall be maintained for the rescheduled 2021 conventions. Further details on the virtual convention platform, as well as a revised convention call-out, will be issued in the near future.

I will miss spending time with members at these conventions and I look forward to when we can all be together again in person. I recognize that virtual conventions will be a big change for our union, but I am confident that members will rise to this challenge – just as they have met the challenge of work and life during COVID-19. Our collective solidarity will power us through this pandemic and help to build a more positive future.

In solidarity,

Chris Aylward
National President