IRCC Strike Latest Update: Employees Are Now Back At Work | May 1

Strike Update – April 28, 2023

IRCC strike as part of PSAC strike continues on day 10 with union members ramping up pressure on the federal government.

The federal government made a counter-offer to union today in the afternoon.

The details of new offer by the government have not been made public yet, but Mona Fortier says the offer is “comprehensive.”

PSAC also stated that it will not speak further until further notice and that it wants to continue negotiations over the weekend.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, he has been directly and intimately involved in the negotiations with PSAC.

“I have deep faith in collective bargaining as a process and we know that our negotiators are putting forward serious offers and working constructively with labourers on this” PM Trudeau said.

Talks are also ongoing for our 35,000 members at Canada Revenue Agency. We’ll be providing no other details at this time. 2/4

— PSAC-AFPC (@psac_afpc) April 28, 2023

Striking workers are moved their picket lines to major airports and Canada-U.S. border crossings to increase pressure on Canadian government.

This latest escalation from the union is perceived as a pressure tactic to get more attention from the federal government.

In response to whether back to work legislation is on cards; François-Philippe Champagne of Liberals said “No, we are not there at all.”

CBC ground level reporting states that they saw Canadians affected by this strike supporting striking workers, but not from everybody.

“One woman said she didn’t have sympathy for them, that they have pensions, that they have benefits, and that’s not something that everybody gets. So, it’s clear that the union doesn’t have unanimous support.” reports Sarah Leavitt of CBC

We're at the table today and every day to get a deal and resume normal operations as soon as possible. The government is committed to negotiating a fair, competitive and reasonable agreement.

— Mona Fortier 🇨🇦 (@MonaFortier) April 28, 2023

Strike Update – April 27, 2023

Largest strike comprising of 155,000 federal government workers enters day 9 with union and government struck in tug of war over the 3 demands out of 570.

It seems like strike will continue for rest of this week and may drag on to next week.

Today, official opposition in Canada, Conservatives Party of Canada continues to raise questions and grill federal government over Trudeau going on vacation, while biggest strike is happening in Canada.

Leader of Opposition Pierre Poilievre stated that “government is broken” citing unaffordability and doubling of the mortgages due to interest rate hike as well as the PSAC strike.

He further added that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s priority in such a time is vacation in New York. He asked when will be the PM Trudeau and his government will get back to work.

President of Treasury Board continues to reiterate that they are trying to find a reasonable deal for public servants and negotiations with union continues on the table.

Mona Fortier keeps on repeating that union demands are unreasonable as they are using recommendation of the Public Interest Commission (PIC).

	2020	2021	2022 General Economic Increase	2022 Additional as recommended by PIC	2023	2024 + (ongoing)
Individual wage increase (%)	N/A	1.5%	3.5%	1.0%	3.0%	N/A
Cumulative wage increase (%) (additive)	N/A	1.5%	5.0%	6.0%	9.0%	N/A
Cumulative wage increase (%) (compounded)	N/A	1.5%	5.1%	6.1%	9.3%	N/A
Average increase ($)	N/A	$1,010	$3,401	$4,108	$6,250	$6,250
Average Salary	$67,305	$68,315	$70,706	$71,413	$73,555	$73,555

Union members continue to be on picket lines on day 9 of the strike affirming that they will stick to their demands and government needs to do better on negotiation table.

3 Demands That Continues to Be On Negotiation Table:

PSAC	Government
Wage increase of 13.5% (union ready to lower it down, but needs better than 9%)	Still at 9% wage increase
Continuation of work from home (telework): This has been agreed upon by all the departments, except CRA. CRA has maintained that the collective bargaining agreement must not contain any provision about telework.	Proposed formal review of work from home directives, jointly with unions.
Contracting out: Government assurance of not contracting out public service jobs.	Government is willing to decrease contacting out, but not ready to lower it zero citing that it could significantly jeopardize the capacity to provide services for Canadians.

Strike Update – April 26, 2023

End of the Day 8 Strike Government of Canada is concrete on their stand as Mona Fortier again said today, “I cannot write a blank cheque” and 9% seems fair offer.

PM Trudeau said Canadians may have more difficulties accessing the services as the days come, but government trying to negotiate best deal with union because eventually the cost of increasing the wages will fall on taxpayers.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being criticized by the opposition for attending reception given by the Consul General of Canada in New York amid the ongoing strike. 

PSAC president says, “If the prime minister can turn his back on these striking members, he will turn his back on every single worker in this country.”

The union continues to affirm that they will continue the strike until their demands are reached.

However, some employees may find 9% wage hike to be genuine raise, but would like to see for few more days if union can get a better offer.

Below is the latest update from president of Treasury Board, Mona Fortier negotiating with the union.

3 key demands continues to be on negotiation table:

PSAC	Government
Wage increase of 13.5% (union ready to lower it down, but needs better than 9%)	Still at 9% wage increase
Continuation of work from home (telework): This has been agreed upon by all the departments, except CRA. CRA has maintained that the collective bargaining agreement must not contain any provision about telework.	Proposed formal review of work from home directives, jointly with unions.
Contracting out: Government assurance of not contracting out public service jobs.	Government is willing to decrease contacting out, but not ready to lower it zero citing that it could significantly jeopardize the capacity to provide services for Canadians.

The Canada Revenue Agency has confirmed that they will not extend this year’s tax deadline of May 1.

Strike Update – April 25, 2023

Reports are coming in from INC – Immigration News Canada confidential sources, that the immigration department has instructed International Network team inside Canada to prioritize temporary visa files from India, China, and Philippines.

This is to “NOT” allow the accumulation of backlog due to IRCC strike because these 3 countries usually have the highest number of applications under processing at any given time.

However, this doesn’t mean that applications from other countries are not being processed.

International Network (IN) includes temporary short-term employed staff that were hired in end of 2022 and beginning of 2023 to reduce backlogs.

These contract workers mostly deal with temporary visa applications from around the Globe, including those for visiting, work, and study visas.

Each day, they are given 80 applications for temporary visas from various nations.

However, permanent residency and citizenship applications being more complex are mostly handled by the permanent staff that is currently on IRCC strike.

Strike Update – April 24, 2023

PSAC president responding to open letter by Mona Fortier today; said they lowered the wage increase expectation.

They were demanding 13.5%, but government offered them 9% which doesn’t seem reasonable.

However, they have asked the government to provide a better offer than 9% which they are yet to hear.

He says union wants to end the strike (which includes IRCC strike) and feels the government wants to do the same as per the open letter which he see as a positive development.

Mona Fortier, President of Treasury Board responsible for negotiating the strike demands sent an open letter to all the public servants and Canadians. 👇

Public service employees strike including IRCC employees now enters 6th day, and the union that represents them is trying to block access to ports.

Around 100,000 of the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s (PSAC) members continues to be on strike, and some of them may shift their picket lines today to “strategic locations” such as ports where they can influence the federal government.

Important strike updates to watch out for today is whether Canadian PM Trudeau gets involved into negotiations as called upon by the PSAC president yesterday.

“Even if the government seems content to prolong this strike and its impact on Canadians, I know you have the collective power to get us to a fair deal in the coming days.” PSAC president

Strike Update – April 23, 2023

Union said that on Monday April 24, 2023, they will shift the picket lines to “strategic locations” in an effort to further disrupt government operations.

National president of PSAC, Chris Aylward said that pickets could target “strategic locations that are going to have an impact on the government and in particular on revenue streams as well.”

The union and Treasury Board, the official employer of public employees and led by Treasury Board President Mona Fortier, continued their discussions over the weekend.

Fortier emphasized that the negotiations should be settled at the bargaining table and that the government would be watching to make sure the picket lines are legal.

The fact that we are still at the bargaining table, she remarked, is excellent news in her opinion.

Regarding the three key issues that have driven the negotiations thus far—wages, remote work, and the issue of seniority during layoffs—both parties acknowledge that there is still gap in meeting the demands.

However, Fortier stated, “I believe there is a good deal on the table and I believe it’s time to close that deal,”

Union president Aylward said on Sunday that they want to resume work and put an end to the strike as quickly as possible, but it is upto government.

He further added that has to take the strike seriously and discuss the 3 topics in a “meaningful way.”

Employees, member of the union get $75 a day as strike pay and this translates into more than $11.62 million if multiplied to 155,000 union members.

However, Aylward has consistently maintained that strike compensation is not a concern since they have access to more than $200 million.

He said “My call is for the prime minister, for Justin Trudeau, to get back down to negotiating — to get involved personally. It seems like he’s not taking this seriously. You’ve got the largest strike on our hands in the country and the prime minister is not taking this seriously.”

Strike Update – April 22, 2023

Big Update: In a late Saturday afternoon appearance, PSAC president calls on government saying that Treasury board is incompetent in dealing with their bargaining package and has not responded to them.

According to PSAC president, they gave Canadian government a comprehensive package that they thought will end the strike and reach an agreement on Thursday night.

And on Friday morning, Feds said that they will respond to them, but just on one of the issues mentioned in the package.

TREASURY BOARD BARGAINING UPDATE pic.twitter.com/NmD2lesftb

— PSAC-AFPC (@psac_afpc) April 22, 2023

However, PSAC president pointed out that they have not received any response from the Canadian government.

He further pointed out that this reflects incompetence of the Treasury Board president, Mona Fortier.

According to PSAC, even prime minister Justin Trudeau did nothing concrete to move the negotiations forward, apart from just saying that they want to reach a deal.

Official Response by the Canadian Government

New reveal: Only 35 per cent of 120,000 striking federal workers cast ballots in the vote to strike, according to a ruling filed Thursday by the federal labour board.

Documents show only 42,421 Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) members voted, and of those, more than 80 per cent voted in favour of a strike. 

Strike continue during the weekend, but union members will not be holding any picket lines.

PSAC said workers scheduled to work weekend shifts will not report to work as they remain on strike.

Strike Update – April 21, 2023

New reports are coming in that Canadian government is messaging some federal public servants to continue to work and get paid their usual salary during the strike.

One of union’s leader says government’s this is “hypocritical” and is against the promised anti-scab legislation.

Anti-scab legislation would prohibit union employers in the federally regulated private sector from using substitute employees, often known as “scabs,” during a lockout or strike.

It seems like Canadian government has plans of exhausting the employees on strike, offering opt-out of the strike, and then reaching the final negotiation.

Major issue that government and union is not able to reach a solution is on “return to work” aspect.

Experts say that strike will not last long; either the government and union will reach an agreement or the Canadian government will have to use “back-to-work legislation” (given the extent of work being affected).

Back-to-work legislation is a special law already passed in Canada that can order the public workers to end strike and get back to work without meeting any demands or meeting partial demands.

At this time, Liberal government has clearly stated that they will not use the back-to-work legislation and allow workers to put their demands forward, offering fair chance to reach a consensus in good faith.

As of now, there are no concrete official updates, but it is expected that strike may continue beyond the weekend.

Multiple applicants are reporting that they are receiving emails stating that their citizenship ceremony is being canceled because of ongoing strike.

Currently, there is no meeting scheduled by the union or government officials and progress seems to be quite slow on resolving the strike.

“As you can imagine in negotiations it’s back and forth, working really hard to understand which side wants something and compromise, and I believe that’s the best way to reach a deal is at the table,” Fortier, President of the Treasury Board.

She further added, “We will continue today to work very hard so that we get a competitive deal for workers, a fair one, and also that will be reasonable to Canadians because we need to strike a balance for both.”

IRCC Strike Update – April 20, 2023

Minister Sean Fraser in an interview (in French) with CPAC around 6 pm EST (Toronto time), said that IRCC staff not showing up for work has caused significant impact on overall functioning of the immigration department. 

Furthermore, he added that staff in international network continues to work and there are people who are providing essential services for emergency situations to offset the effects of strike.

Additionally, he said that impact to deal with gap in department’s service is very serious for immigration and citizenship applications.

Minister said some activities for example the citizenship ceremony events will be canceled because it is very difficult to manage the situation with the networks.

Reporter pointed out to already longer than usual processing times and asked the immigration minister to provide an update on measures/steps they are taking to reduce the impacts of strike.

Fraser said offsetting the effects of strike, being his priority, they are doing as much as possible  using the international network to minimize the effect of strike on department’s operations.

He said that IRCC is maintaining services with priority to essential services such as people fleeing wars or who are under difficult circumstances.

Minister further added the impact of strike is not certain and it may take some time to understand the solution for reducing the impact of strike.

In the end, IRCC minister said he is still optimistic, but there is a lot of work to be done in negotiating with the employees union and reaching a solution for employees, especially a level consistent with terms for workers to return to the office.

Sean Fraser clearly indicated that he wants to find a solution faster and resolving the strike is the Canadian government’s top most priority.

Strike Update – April 19, 2023

IRCC employees are now officially on strike until government agrees to their demands.

Long term/indeterminate (full-time employees) are on strike beginning at 12:01 am EST Wednesday April 19, 2023 in alignment with the PSAC instructions.

Our internal sources reveal that IRCC staff managers had virtual meetings on April 18 around 2-3 pm EST, with their team members providing instructions for the strike.

These IRCC employees are NOT on Strike: IRCC employees who occupy managerial or confidential positions excluded from the bargaining unit, working in positions designated as essential while on duty, term employees hired for a period of less than 3 months, working on a casual basis, in a student employment program, or belong to a bargaining unit NOT in a legal strike position.

So, temporary short-term hired employees will continue to work as usual. Temporary short-term employees were hired to clear the backlogs and are not part of any union.

These temporary employees mostly handle the temporary visa applications such as study visa, work visa, and visitor visa.

They are assigned 80 applications per day from different countries for temporary visas.

However, immigration minister said that ongoing IRCC labour disruption will cause severe impact on processing of applications.

Permanent residency applications being more complex are handled by permanent employees, so we may see a dent in processing of such applications.

IRCC Strike New Update On 9 Service Disruptions

PSAC update on April 19

PSAC officially declared strike beginning at 12:01 am EST Wednesday April 19, 2023.

Collective bargaining agreements are now being negotiated between the Canadian government and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC).

These all sums up to around 155,000 workers who offer a variety of services to the general population in different departments.

Below is the latest response by CRA on Public Service Alliance of Canada–Union of Taxation Employees’ ongoing strike.

Previous CPAC Updates

On April 17, PSAC president set a deadline of 9 pm EST April 18, 2023. He said if no deal is reached by 9 pm EST tomorrow on April 18, 2023, then there will be a national general strike beginning at 12:01 am EST Wednesday April 19, 2023 by all the 155,000 members of CRA and Treasury Board.

PSAC president didn’t name any other department to join the strike. However, our sources confirm that IRCC employees, member of PSAC will also join the strike,.

Below is the live announcement by the union on April 17, 2023.

But government of Canada has not met or aligned with request of union, so PSAC has now officially declared strike leaving the services in limbo.

Initial Official Response By the Canadian Government

As per latest official press release, the Government of Canada says they recognize the essential contributions of public workers and will continue talks with the PSAC in order to reach a speedy agreement that will put much-needed salary increases in the hands of employees as soon as feasible.

Furthermore, they urged the PSAC to join them in building on the progress they have already achieved so that employees may return to providing the critical services on which Canadians rely.

As a result of the strike, Canadians may expect that some government services will be delayed or unavailable.

On April 16, the government tabled a wage offer of 9% as per the Public Interest Commission’s suggestions over a three-year period. As per the Canadian government, this is a reasonable and competitive offer.

Adding to this, Federal government also believes that there is still time before the start of the strike to reach an agreement with the union.

The process of implementing employee pay raises and benefits will start as soon as an agreement is achieved.

However, the PSAC is holding on to their other demands such as enshrining telework in collective agreements and are now on a strike.

As per PSAC, reaching an agreement on these additional demands will play a decisive role on deciding the strike.

However, government of Canada is inviting PSAC to cooperate in finding alternative solutions with realistic counter proposals, that fairly address the worries of public employees.

So this situation may take some time to reach an agreement and based on these statements, we believe that 155,000 PSAC members will be going on strike beginning April 19, 2023.

Below listed are the services that could get affected by the strike: