Bargaining

At a meeting on January 17, after being pressured by national president Robyn Benson, Treasury Board finally admitted they will only complete the group structure exercise for the PA and TC groups by 2017-18 at the earliest.Work on the occupational group structure review has been at a standstill for over 18 months. There have been changes in personnel at Treasury Board responsible for the occupational group review. It also appears that there was a lack of long-term commitment of resources, given the government’s focus on deficit reduction and job cuts.

Were you affected by the government’s latest round of public sector job cuts? PSAC has been working hard to ensure that our members have access to a fair and transparent process for finding other work in the core public service.On June 15, 2012, PSAC filed a policy grievance against Treasury Board for its failure to meet it alternation obligations under the Workforce Adjustment Agreement.

The ballots have been counted and a majority of members of the Border Services (FB) group have voted in favor of the tentative agreement with Treasury Board.  After two years and a half of bargaining, PSAC and Treasury Board finally agreed to the settlement in October.The new collective agreement will be retroactive to June 21, 2011, and will expire on June 20, 2014.

Federal public sector unions are joining forces to challenge an unprecedented assault on collective bargaining and workplace health and safety by the Conservative government.The unions have agreed to pool their resources in advance of the next round of collective bargaining with Treasury Board in 2014. In order to defend the rights of their members, the unions will take joint action to challenge the constitutionality of Bill C-4, the legislation containing these dramatic changes, now being rushed through Parliament

CFIA bargaining got off to a rocky start this week, with the Employer bargaining team flatly rejecting almost every single recommendation made by the Public Interest Commission.In the first session of negotiations since the PIC released its report last July, CFIA gave a mind-numbing presentation on why it could not agree to even the most modest of the PIC’s recommendations. “This is more than disappointing,” said Bob Kingston, President of Agriculture Union.

We will soon be scheduling a strike course for PSAC members in the CFIA bargaining unit.When: dates & times TBAWhere: PSAC Vancouver Regional Office and PSAC Victoria Regional Office,Course Objectives - at the end of the course participants will have

By Jim Stanford, Ottawa Citizen November 26, 2013It might seem like ancient history, but it wasn’t long ago that Canadian governments knew how to balance their books — and then some. The collective operating surplus of Canadian governments in 2007 equalled almost $40 billion. Teachers, nurses, and other public servants did their jobs. Tax revenues were more than sufficient to pay for their valuable work (in fact, average tax rates were falling, not rising).

The Public Service Alliance of Canada is very pleased to have the opportunity to address the Committee. As the largest union in the federal public service representing over 180,000 members from coast to coast to coast, we have long advocated for changes to the legislation under which we operate in this sector.

Less than a week after reconvening Parliament, the Conservative government introduced Bill C-4, an omnibus budget bill that proposes to radically change our rights as federal public sector workers, and, by extension, is an attack against the rights of all Canadian workers.