Public Service Workers’ Strike Disrupts Life in Canada

Thousands of civil servants emptied government offices, slowed tax collection, disrupted grain exports and snarled airports Monday in one of the largest strikes in Canadian history.

The chief issues were job security and higher pay.

“It’s regretful that it’s necessary for us to take this action,” said Daryl Bean, president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada. “But we were left with no choice.”

About 110,000 of the union’s 155,000 members were eligible to strike. While Bean had no immediate figures, he said in an interview that participation exceeded expectations.

“All across the country, it is a real massive turnout,” he said.

Another 45,000 essential employees--prison guards, airport firefighters, meat inspectors--cannot legally walk off the job.

The striking workers set up pickets in cities from coast to coast to protest a government plan to freeze wages this year and raise pay by only 3% in each of the next two years.

Gilles Loiselle, president of the Treasury Board that negotiates for the government, said the wage proposal is non-negotiable. The average wage of a unionized federal civil servant in Canada is about $26,000 (U.S.).

He also threatened to seek legislation ordering employees back to work if disruptions became too severe.

Bean said: “There are several operations closed today--airports, grain elevators. There are holdups at borders and immigration. The whole revenue side, bringing in revenue through income taxes, is completely shut down.”

He added that while wages are important, the real issue is job security and the growing number of jobs that are being contracted out.

“Since Feb. 26, I have received notices in my office of 1,900 layoffs,” he said. “Job security is certainly the No. 1 issue, followed very closely, of course, with the wage aspect.”

Loiselle said that while he doesn’t expect the union to eagerly accept the government’s offering, it is the only choice in the current economic climate.

“If the government doesn’t tackle the financial problem, it won’t be a question of zero and 3%--it will be much tougher for them,” Loiselle was quoted as saying in the Toronto Star. “It will mean jobs. We won’t be able to pay them anymore.”

On Monday, flights at Canada’s busiest airport, Pearson International in Toronto, were severely disrupted when striking public servants blocked air traffic controllers from getting to their jobs.

At noon Monday, Pearson was handling only about 25 flights an hour, one-third its usual capacity. That was creating a ripple effect at Montreal’s Dorval Airport, where flights were up to an hour late.

On the west coast, federal grain inspectors, weighers and samplers established picket lines at the Vancouver terminals. Longshoremen and about 700 grain handlers have agreed not to cross the picket line, union spokesman Al Hadvick said.

“I understand there are a number of ships waiting to be loaded, so I would imagine the impact will be fairly fast,” Hadvick said.

Dale Riddell, a spokesman for the Alberta Wheat Pool grain marketing cooperative, said a prolonged strike could devastate farmers.

Managers at locks along the Rideau Canal between Ottawa and Kingston, on Lake Ontario, worked Monday to clear the waterway of boats stranded by the strike. All 24 locks in the system will remain closed during the strike by 160 lockmasters.

First to hit the streets Monday were about 200 taxation workers who demonstrated in front of the tax office in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Other picketers blocked the airport at Halifax, Nova Scotia.