PSAC Job Action Interupted

by Barry Weisleder – February, 2005

 

Last month we reported on the struggle of members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, who had embarked on a brave battle last summer against harmful government cuts to public services and jobs. The militant walk outs were cut short and a huge strike mandate was betrayed by top union officials, who talked ‘rejection’ but channelled the ranks into accepting an inferior deal.

 

In an update, Ian Shaw, president of PSAC Local 574 in Scarborough (Toronto) writes: “Over the past year, seven major federal Treasury Board and Agency bargaining units entered their final stages of negotiations. Some groups (such as Parks Canada workers who waged a 55-day strike in late summer 2004) achieved decent tentative agreements.  But the most

controversial settlement occurred at the biggest bargaining table, representing a range of federal government workers—from office clerks to immigration

officers, from parole officers to community development workers.

 

“Fully 15 weeks after sending members back to work to vote on the employer's final offer, the PSAC top leadership concluded the ballot process. This was a

process that seemed designed to wear down the resolve of members to fight a federal Liberal government offer full of labour concessions, and a wage offer not likely to keep pace with the cost of living over the next four years.

 

“The bargaining team ’recommended’ rejection. But there was a subtle ‘vote yes’ message hidden in the lack-luster NO campaign. Predictably, by the time all the votes were counted in January, members of the 80,000 strong unit had voted 72% to accept.

 

Ironically, the same percentage had voted for strike action months before in what must be one of the most stunning displays of how not to conduct bargaining by a major union in recent memory....

 

“The result is a new contract that freezes wages for 8000 customs and border services workers, destroys language that protected shift worker needs-based

leave, and eliminates marriage leave altogether. In addition, the employer refused to address job security, which will likely be under attack as the

Federal Government Program Review sets out to strip millions of dollars from departmental budgets, as the contracting-out agenda continues.

 

“Nonetheless, resistance by activists did make some inroads. Despite the bad time frames and the general demoralization amongst a membership stripped of a strike only three days old in October, PSAC members in Ontario actually voted to reject the deal.”

Related Articles

The International Food Crisis and Proposals To Overcome It

By ERIC TOUSSAINT and OMAR AZIKI
[Editor’s note: We reprint this article by the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM). In 1989, the Bastille Appeal was launched, inviting popular movements throughout the world to unite in demanding the immediate and unconditional cancellation of the debt of the so-called developing countries. This crushing debt, along with neo-liberal macro-economic reforms imposed on the global South, has led to an explosion of worldwide inequality, mass poverty, flagrant injustice and the destruction of the environment.

Summer Strike Wave Hits Britain

By ANN MONTAGUE
In Britain, the working class is experiencing a wave of strikes and “Industrial Action” from some of the largest established unions in the country, activity that disrupts the economy. These striking unions have made political demands in recent years to renationalize mail, rail and the electric grid.

Capitalism’s World Economic, Political and Social Crises and the Road to Fight Back

By JEFF MACKLER
Led by the dominant capitalist-imperialist nations, especially the U.S. and China, the system involves the capture and transfer of surplus value from workers in poorer countries to leading corporations in the advanced countries. Today, global value chain corporations that represent only 15 percent of all trading firms worldwide, capture some 80 percent of total trade.