Federal civil servants and union members of the Canada Revenue Agency will go on a general strike starting April 19 at midnight and one minute, if no agreement with the federal government is reached by Tuesday at 9 p.m. announce the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
The large pan-Canadian union represents 120,000 federal public servants working in the various departments and 35,000 union members at the Canada Revenue Agency.
In the event of a strike, essential services will be provided, including border services and correctional services, the Alliance has already indicated.
However, several services will be affected, such as passports, employment insurance, tax returns and various customer services. Similarly, the wait on the phone will be longer.
During a press conference on Monday, the PSAC said it did not want to walk off the job, but was ready to do so if there is no agreement with the federal government by Tuesday evening.
Negotiations resume Monday between the Canada Revenue Agency and the Union of Taxation Employees. The same is true for the four major groups of public servants represented by the PSAC and the Treasury Board.
“We’ve been negotiating since June 2021,” said PSAC National President Chris Aylward.
PSAC members have not had a raise since June 2020 and are “frustrated”, he reported. “We didn’t cause inflation, we shouldn’t have to pay for it. »
In the same breath, the Alliance says the parties have negotiated much more intensively in recent days. “We negotiated more in the past two weeks than in the past two years,” noted Yvon Barrière, regional executive vice-president for Quebec at the PSAC.
The PSAC is demanding increases of 4.5% per year for 2021, 2022 and 2023, or 13.5% over three years.
The federal government was offering a four-year contract, at 1.5% in 2021, 3% in 2022, 2% in 2023 and 1.75% in 2024, an average of 2.06% per year. However, “the Treasury Board has made slight progress in terms of salary offers” in recent days, said Mr. Barrière.