Federal public sector workers, members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), are getting ready to say NO to their employer and YES to strike action in the face of this obvious lack of respect.

"The government is offering our 120,000 members working in federal departments and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, wage increases that do not take into account the erosion of their purchasing power over the last 10 years," declared Nycole Turmel, PSAC national president. "Moreover, as a direct result of staff reductions and the increasing complexity of federal programs and services, the workload of federal public sector workers has increased dramatically.

The federal government has adopted a double standard when it comes to compensating its workforce. "While MPs have seen their salaries and allowances increase by 24.2% over 10 years, and federal public sector executives have received salary increases of 32.8% during the same period, our members have been subjected to an average 9.8% increase over the past 10 years. During the same period, the consumer price index increased by 23.3%. This double standard is totally unfair and, despite the politicians’ proclamations about the excellence of the federal public sector, our members’ working conditions continue to be eroded and the government is doing nothing to stop this pattern," Turmel added.

In order to end the double standard, and ensure that federal public sector workers are properly compensated, some 90,000 PSAC members who work directly for Treasury Board are being asked to vote in favour of strike action. The strike vote, which continues until May 24, is designed to give our Treasury Board negotiating teams a strong mandate to support the technical arguments that they will make before Conciliation Boards later this spring. Should this last ditch bargaining process fail, the PSAC will launch, and escalate pressure tactics up to and including a general strike, in order to force the government to table an acceptable wage increase and contractual improvements.

During this strike vote, the PSAC is adding a 30-second animated message, which can be viewed on the PSAC Website or downloaded and installed as a screen saver to its normal membership information package. The animated message shows a "virtual" PSAC member, Jane Phelps, confronting Finance minister, Paul Martin. The strike vote information campaign is supported by postcards showing Phelps and Martin that are to be used in a political lobby of federal Members of Parliament. In addition, many PSAC members are receiving regular e-mail information updates on developments in their negotiations.

Negotiations for federal government workers in the administrative, technical, operational and educational services have reached the conciliation phase. Conciliation Boards will likely be scheduled to meet in late May and in June. PSAC members at the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency have already voted in favour of strike action.

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Spokespersons:       
Nycole Turmel, National President, PSAC, (613) 560-4330
John Baglow, Regional Executive Vice-President, NCR, PSAC, (613) 560-4380

Information:
Nancy Mitchell, communications officer, PSAC (613) 560-4235

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