PSAC President Warns of ‘More and More Inconvenience’ on 2nd Day of National Strike

CLC President Hassan Yussuff (R) looks on as PSAC President Chris Aylward speaks during a news conference about pay equity in Ottawa on Oct. 31, 2018. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

On the second day of the national strike for more than 155,000 workers under the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), National President Chris Aylward warned Canadians will begin to see “more and more inconvenience.”

“We’re not taking over the streets. We’re not shutting down airports or borders yet. We’re not inconveniencing the public today,” Aylward told reporters in Ottawa on Thursday.

“But the longer we’re out here, the public is going to see more and more inconvenience. We don’t want to do that. It’s up to this government how long this strike lasts.”

Two PSAC groups—a larger Treasury Board group of more than 120,000 workers across several government departments and a smaller group of more than 35,000 workers at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)—have been striking nationwide since Wednesday. Board workers set up picket lines at more than 250 locations across Canada, including eight in the Ottawa-Gatineau region.

The union is asking for a large raise because of the rising cost of living, arguing that its workers stepped up during the pandemic and deserve compensation. Also at issue is remote work, with PSAC seeking to allow employees to work from home full-time, while the Treasury Board has pushed for a “hybrid model.”

The federal government has warned that the strike will impact a number of federal services, disrupting tax season, causing slowdowns at the Canada–United States border, and interrupting employment insurance, immigration, veteran support, and passport applications.

Already because of the strike, Ottawa has paused the processing of passport and immigration applications, while the CRA is operating at a reduced capacity ahead of the tax filing deadline.

During a media availability on Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said the federal government offered the striking workers a fair deal that wouldn’t burden the treasury with necessarily high wage costs in a time of economic uncertainty.

“The budget was clear that, in order to spend money on Canadians and on our economic capacity, in order to spend money on the clean tax credit, it is important for the government to be thoughtful about our spending on ourselves, on the spending on the operations of government,” Freeland said.

The last budget called for the federal government to cut spending by about $15 billion over the next five years through cuts to professional services, consulting, and travel budgets, which Freeland called a “highly realistic, highly achievable plan,” given the size of government.