There is the pity-appeal aspect when striking unions — like today’s massive 155,000-member Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) walkout — go to the public with tales of how they were hard done by during negotiations, how they were given a disrespectful short shrift, and how they are now having difficult times making ends meet, let alone putting food on the table.
Today’s economic climes, with high inflation, help sell the image of the hard-done-by public servant — even if this pitch is arguably based on fiction and hyperbole.
Entering the picture now with his own take on the PSAC strike is Franco Terrazzano, federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF), a federally incorporated, not-for-profit citizen’s group dedicated to lower taxes, less waste and accountable government.
In its Labour Day reality check, which was months before the strike, the CTF laid it out that:
- During the pandemic, 312,825 federal government employees received a pay raise.
- There have been 395,900 private sector job losses vs. 149,500 new government jobs (all levels) since February 2020.
- In 2020, 74,925 federal bureaucrats made more than $100,000. That number grew by 5,918 employees during the pandemic. That’s up from 43,424 in 2015.
- The federal government has no record of its employees ever receiving a pay cut.
And then there is this:
Compensation for each full-time federal employee is $125,300 on average when pay, pension and other benefits are added up, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
“(Federal) personnel spending over the past two years increased by 30.9%,” according to the PBO. “The public service expanded by 31,227 full-time equivalents.”
“Taxpayers paid for hundreds of thousands of pay raises, hundreds of millions in bonuses and tens of thousands of new employees over the last few years and now bureaucrats are demanding billions more,” Terrazzano said.
“Enough is enough. The government must reject PSAC’s unaffordable, unsustainable and out of touch demands.”
Well, that being the case, we’re in for a long one.
PSAC is demanding a 13.5% pay increase over three years (4.5% annually). The Treasury Board Secretariat, the government department that is nominally the employer of bureaucrats, has offered 9% over three years.
PSAC also wants more flexibility in the rules on working from home. The government has demanded that public servants return to in-person work for a few days a week after years of Covid-related virtual work. That hasn’t gone over well with public sector unions.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has warned taxpayers that its services “will be delayed or unavailable” — which is bad timing given the deadline to file taxes is April 30 (or June 15 for the self-employed).
In a statement, the CRA said benefits payments will be prioritized and Canada child benefit (CCB) payments will still go out as scheduled.
Call centre operations will be limited during this job action, the CRA said.
In announcing the strike action, PSAC said Canadians can expect “a complete halt of the tax season.”
Treasury Board President Mona Fortier says mediated talks continue.
She says both sides were back at the table yesterday morning, even as union members hit the picket lines. “That is the same case as we speak” Fortier told reporters this afternoon.
She wouldn’t say how long she expects the strike to last and remains hopeful that a deal can be reached “as soon as possible.”
Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie, the critic for the Treasury Board, ducked questions about whether her party would support back-to-work legislation to force federal workers back on the job.
She said Trudeau is to blame for the job action.
“We’re calling on the prime minister and the Liberal government to get their act together and end this strike,” she said. “It’s his incompetence that has brought us to this place.”
She said the longer the strike goes on; the more Canadians will suffer.
