Public service employees strike: here’s what you need to know

As of 12:01 am on April 19, 159,000 public sector employees went on strike across Canada, affecting the services provided to Canadians and to Calgarians.

Hundreds of strikers represented by several unions that make up the federal public service picketed the Harry Hays and Southland Park buildings, where direct services and call centre employees are based.

At issue said the Public Service Alliance of Canada, which represents the majority of those employees striking, is a lack of a contract after years of protracted negotiations, stagnant wages, lack of job security, and policies around work-from-home rules.

In Calgary, president of Local 30024 for the Union of Taxation Employees echoed these concerns in the negotiations over their own contract with the Treasury Board of Canada.

“Our members have perpetually been unable to secure a consistent contract for multiple years,” said Parris.

“I was hired myself back in 2016, and during that time, I’ve only had a valid contract for about three months. We’ve always been behind on our contracts.”

Services provided to Canadians during the waning days of the tax season are among those expected to be affected by the strike. The Government of Canada said on Thursday that many of the Canada Revenue Agency services would be either delayed or unviable.

The CRA is not extending tax deadlines as a result of the strike.

The government has created a web portal for the various agencies affected by the strikes, updating Canadians on the status of services at www.canada.ca/en/treasury-board-secretariat/services/collective-agreements/collective-bargaining/labour-disruptions.html.

The Government of Canada declared on April 19 that approximately 46,000 of the workers in a legal strike position, are deemed to be essential.

These include services surrounding Employment Insurance payments, Canada Pension Plan payments, Veteran’s Income Support payments, and Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement payments.

The government also said that 1,400 of the CRA’s employees as essential during the strike, with the Canada Child Benefit program continuing to operate.

Public service employees say they were there for Canadians during the pandemic, now need that in return

Parris said that the pandemic led to many employees going above and beyond to provide essential services to Canadians.

“During the pandemic, we worked extremely hard to ensure that benefits were delivered to Canadians. And during that time, we had people working outside their roles, because as far as we were concerned, as the union Canadians needed to come first.”

Now that the pandemic has subsided, he said, the government needs to return that care.

“The government has failed to work with us in order to find a suitable wage because inflation is rising. People are hurting.”

“I know that there are many people who may be naysayers in regards to the public service as a whole. But what I would ask those people is, where is your money being spent?

“If your money is being spent on public services, those are services that Canadians receive directly. And we need to be able to have a contract for our members to ensure that they’re being paid correctly, and that they’re being respected, and then they will work for Canadians to deliver and provide all the services and benefits that Canadians deserve.”

The Government of Canada in a release sent to the media on the eve of the strike said that they have done everything possible to reach an agreement.

“Despite some ongoing movement at the bargaining table on key issues by both sides, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) has decided to proceed with a nation-wide general strike,” said the GOC.

“The Government has presented a fair, competitive offer to the PSAC and responded to all their demands. This includes a 9% wage increase over three years, as well as proposals on other important PSAC priorities, such telework, shift premiums, improved leave with pay for family-related responsibilities, and measures to support employment equity and diversity and inclusion.”

They said that the demands made by the PSAC are economically unsustainable, and would hinder the ability to deliver services to Canadians.

Parris said that the offers made by the Government of Canada in terms of wages fall short of inflation. That change in the consumer price index reached a peak year-over-year average of 8.1 per cent nationally in June of 2022, and has been steadily rising from a low of one per cent in January2021.

The current annual change for CPI in March, for Alberta was 3.3 per cent year-over-year.

Work from home, vaccination policy also issues

Parris said that beyond inflation, workers were looking for assurances from the government on other issues.

“There’s also the consultation aspect of this. What I mean by this is, we had a work from home provision. Now I know many people will get angry at us for being able to work from home, but that does not mean we’re not working.”

“It just means that we have changed the place of work. And the way that we saw is that that allows us to save money on things like leases, buildings, all of these. And it allows us to more effectively provide services in a more agile sense.”

He said that for the federal service, which is highly centralized in Ottawa, the work from home provisions also meant better representation of workers outside of the Capital City.

“By incorporating remote work, we have allowed Albertans, people from Saskatchewan, all these people in remote communities to be able to work for headquarters which ensures representation across Canada, not just in the centralized location of Ottawa.”

“There was a unilateral decision by the [Prime Minister’s Office] and the Treasury Board in order to mandate us back into the office. The requirement is arbitrary and has nothing to do with the fundamental work requirements that we have.”

Many of the strikers on Thursday morning took direct aim at the Liberal Government and Prime Minister Trudeau.

Parris said that the mandatory vaccination policy during the pandemic was also an issue that members of his union took issue with.

“During the pandemic, our members were required to get vaccinated as well. And I’ll be clear, it’s not a partisan issue.”

“People should have the choice as to what they do with their bodies. And the fact that that choice was taken away from them in order to receive a paycheck implies that they’re basically being held prisoner in their job.”

Workers say they don’t want to have to strike, want the government to make a fair deal

PSAC’s national president Chris Aylward said on Thursday that the union had exhausted every avenue available to them to avoid a strike.

“Now more than ever, workers need fair wages, good working conditions and inclusive workplaces. And it’s clear the only way we’ll achieve that is by taking strike action to show the government that workers can’t wait.”

He said that union members had hoped to avoid a strike.

That sentiment was echoed by Parris.

“I would rather be servicing Canadians, and we have jobs to do. We understand that with the pandemic, everyone is in a bad situation,” he said.

“But what I would say is we should not all be in a race to the bottom. Many people lost their businesses, and we need to be working to provide benefits to those people, and we need to get people on track.”

The Government of Canada maintained that the offers made to the PSAC were fair, and in line with recommendations by the Federal Public Sector Labour Relations and Employment Board’s Public Interest Commission.

Photos from the start of the strike at the Harry Hays building in Calgary