Overview
- On Oct. 21 the Public Service Alliance of Canada announced strike votes for about 120,000 members to run from Nov. 16 to Jan. 22 in an effort to break a year-and-a-half bargaining deadlock.
- The ballots cover three bargaining groups — Program and Administrative Services, Technical Services, and Education and Library Science — and include wildland firefighters, passport and benefit officers, fishery officers, teachers, librarians and administrative staff.
- PSAC says the Treasury Board has refused to negotiate on wages, job security, remote work and protections for employees from artificial intelligence and called government wage offers averaging less than 1% a year an unacceptable pay cut.
- If members approve strike mandates the union would be in a legal strike position for 60 days, a step PSAC describes as a last resort while it continues to seek a negotiated deal.
- Negotiations are constrained by a federal spending review and recent return-to-office directives, and the 2023 strike by 155,000 federal workers that won 12.6% in raises shapes members’ expectations and leverage.