PSAC sets strike votes for 120,000 federal workers

The Public Service Alliance of Canada will hold nationwide strike votes for about 120,000 federal public service workers from Nov. 16 to Jan. 22, the union announced Wednesday, after contract talks with Treasury Board stalled.

The votes cover members of three bargaining groups: Program and Administrative Services (PA), Technical Services (TC) and Education and Library Science (EB), the union said in a statement. Those workers include wildland firefighters, passport and benefit officers, fishery officers, federal teachers and librarians, and administrative staff.

“We want to negotiate a fair deal, but by pushing pay cuts and refusing to discuss any of our key issues, Treasury Board has given us no choice but to take strike votes,” PSAC national president Sharon DeSousa said in the statement.

The union said talks have dragged on for a year and a half without agreement on wages, job security, remote work and protections against artificial intelligence. It said the government’s wage offer, tabled in April, averages less than one per cent a year, “a pay increase of just $58 per month over the life of the agreement.”

CTV News reported that, according to PSAC’s website, the union is seeking raises of 4.75 per cent a year for three years, while the government’s offer included two per cent in 2025, followed by 0.5 per cent in each of 2026, 2027 and 2028.

PSAC also said Treasury Board wants to remove workforce adjustment and the dental care plan from collective bargaining and to widen the normal daily work-hour window, letting managers schedule staff at unusual hours without extra pay.

If members vote in favour, the union would be in a legal strike position for 60 days, The Canadian Press reported. DeSousa told the news agency a strike is a last resort. “Our goal is to get a good collective agreement, and it doesn’t have to lead to a strike, but we will if required to do so,” she said.

Information and voting sessions will run between November and January, and the union said dates, locations and registration details will be shared on Oct. 28.

The vote comes as the federal workforce shrinks. The Liberals’ 2025 budget set out a plan to cut the public service by 10 per cent by the end of the 2028-29 fiscal year, and the parliamentary budget officer estimates the public service has shed more than 23,000 staff over two years, The Canadian Press reported. Thousands of public servants also began working in the office four days a week in July.

In 2023, about 155,000 PSAC members walked off the job for almost two weeks before winning raises totalling 12.6 per cent over a contract that ran from 2021 to 2024, according to The Canadian Press.

The office push has come with a cost: Ottawa is spending $18 million on offices while cutting jobs.

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Sources: Public Service Alliance of Canada, The Canadian Press, CTV News Ottawa.