The Public Service Alliance of Canada
(PSAC) doesn't buy Treasury Board's recent statement that they are committed
to the bargaining process and achieving a fair settlement. Treasury Board has
called on the union to respect bargaining dates that had been tentatively
scheduled for June.
After a year at the bargaining table, PSAC is essentially in the same
place as it was going into bargaining in 2007, according to PSAC's National
President John Gordon.
"In one year of bargaining, we've spent most of our time signing off
articles in the collective agreement that are being renewed without change, or
resisting Treasury Board's attempts to reduce existing benefits," says Gordon.
"Many of the employer's demands for take-aways are finally being withdrawn,
but this only brings us back to the status quo."
Gordon says the last straw was the unacceptable wage offer Treasury Board
presented to our bargaining teams. At negotiation sessions that have been
taking place over the last two weeks, PSAC members were offered increases of
1.5%. 1.5%, 1.2% and 1.2% over a four-year agreement; increases that will see
the value of their salaries decrease as a result of inflation.
PSAC represents over 100,000 workers in five Treasury Board bargaining
units.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/a.../29/c6087.html
I mean really? An average yearly increase of 1.35%? What a deal, seeing since the inflation rate in Canada for 2007 was 2.0% and expected to be 2.4% this year. Are you kidding me? Not to mention some of these bargaining units have been reclassified and in some cases independant pay studies have shown that they are underpaid compared to the private sector by as much as 30%.
Underpaid by 30% but the treasury board is proposing a increase of 5.7% over 4 years? No wonder we get such good workers in the government.