PSAC represents 120,000 federal public servants and 35,000 taxation employees.
The union has focused their public demands primarily on wages, in addition to remote work rules. It said it wants to secure higher wages for its members who are falling behind the high cost of living and set a precedent for other unions.
The main issue during talks, which started in June 2021, appears to be wage increases. The union has pushed for a 13.5% retroactive increase in wages over three years, which is comparable to a 13.8% inflation rate over the same period. PSAC’s desired increase works out to 4.5 per cent over each of those three years.
“The bargaining environment has been fundamentally changed by inflation. What PSAC is asking seems high, but in the context of relatively high inflation it’s not outside the ballpark for a starting offer”, says Robert Hickey, an associate professor of industrial relations at Queen’s University.
Prices in Canada rose annually by 10 to 12 per cent in the early 1980s, which meant workers routinely negotiated wage increases in the range of eight to 10 per cent. That period of high inflation led to the creation of cost-of-living provisions (COLA), which tied worker’s wages to the consumer price index. “Cost-of-living adjustments don’t really exist anymore in contracts because we went through years of low inflation,” said Hickey. “There’s now a heightened expectation from workers for unions to fight for better economic protections against high inflation.”
Jock Climie, a management-side labour and employment lawyer with Emond Harnden, agreed that inflation is lending itself to higher militancy in unionized sectors, and that PSAC’s strike could have far-reaching effects beyond its own members. “The reality is that when the largest federal public service union goes on strike and gets what it’s asking for, say they do, it’s going to have a profound impact on every bargaining table that comes after it, not just in the public sector,” he said. If the current strike by thousands of public sector workers is successful, it could have a domino effect for unionized workers in other industries, say labour experts.
PSAC has also kept issues such as greater limits on contract work, more anti-racism training and provisions for remote work on the table.
MRSA shares these interests, supports the PSAC members and looks forward to a successful outcome for our frontline workers who deliver the public services we all rely on.
