News release

May 18, 2004

CFIA must negotiate at the table, not through email to employees

Ottawa-- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) must negotiate with the PSAC at the bargaining table and not by sending email to its employees, says the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), the union representing 4,000 employees at the Agency.

“A recent email message from CFIA President, Richard Fadden, to CFIA employees is inappropriate and misleading,” said Yves Ducharme, President of the Agriculture Union of the PSAC. “Instead of trying to convince the employees how serious management is about negotiations, CFIA management should concentrate its efforts at the bargaining table in order to reach a fair collective agreement.”

Ducharme added that management is using the e-mail system to broadcast its views on bargaining while the union is barred from using the same system to call meetings for its members.

According to the union, the bargaining process at CFIA has become slower than ever in the history of the Agency. The CFIA management bargaining team has had over a year to negotiate a settlement, but to date, little progress has been made.

“The current round of bargaining has yet to produce any significant results,” said Ducharme. “The PSAC has presented comprehensive proposals on several issues including wages. Management simply said no to most of the proposals and offered a wage increase of 1%.”

For Ducharme, the timing of Fadden's email to the CFIA employees is also suspicious. PSAC members at CFIA voted 89% recently in favour of strike action should the current round of negotiations fail to produce a collective agreement.

“We ask Mr. Fadden to demonstrate his commitment to the negotiations process by mandating the employer's bargaining team to negotiate a fair and equitable collective agreement for all PSAC members working at CFIA,” Ducharme concluded.

The PSAC is currently seeking a legal opinion to determine whether Fadden's communication to the employees regarding collective bargaining constitutes an unfair labour practice under the Public Service Staff Relations Act.

To read the PSAC's response to Fadden's email, visit our website at www.psac.com .

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For information:   Alain Cossette, Communications, (613) 560-4317

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