PSAC Announces Nationwide Strike Votes for 120,000 Federal Workers After Contract Talks Collapse
The Public Service Alliance of Canada will hold strike votes from November 16 to January 22 for approximately 120,000 federal workers after contract negotiations with the Treasury Board broke down over wages, remote work, and job security.
Approximately 120,000 federal public service workers represented by the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) will participate in nationwide strike votes scheduled from November 16 to January 22. The announcement follows the breakdown of contract negotiations between the union and the Treasury Board, which have been ongoing for a year and a half.
PSAC states that the government refused to negotiate on key issues including wages, job security, remote work, and protections against artificial intelligence. In May, the union called a government wage offer of less than one percent per year "insulting." PSAC national president Sharon DeSousa stated that the government left the union no other choice and called the move a wake-up call. DeSousa emphasized that a strike is the last resort option and the goal is to secure a good collective agreement.
Workers participating in the strike votes include wildland firefighters, passport and benefit officers, fishery officers, federal teachers, librarians, and administrative staff. If the vote passes, the union would be in a legal strike position for 60 days.
The development comes as federal public servants face significant workforce reductions and increased required office presence since the 2023 strike, when 155,000 federal public servants walked off the job for almost two weeks and won wage increases totaling 12.6 percent over the 2021-2024 agreement term. The Liberals' 2025 budget plans to cut the public service by 10 percent by the end of the 2028-29 fiscal year. According to Canada's parliamentary spending watchdog, the federal public service shed more than 23,000 staffers over the last two years. An online tool by the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer estimated 344,970 federal employees in the second quarter of this year, a 6.5 percent decrease from two years ago.
Return-to-office policies have also intensified. Thousands of federal public servants started a new schedule in July requiring four days a week on-site, while executives returned full-time in May. Thirteen federal organizations plan to spend a combined $18,720,150 to reconfigure or acquire office space for increased in-person work, according to a response to NDP MP Heather McPherson. Federal departments are set to spend more than $18 million overall to encourage employees to work in offices more often.