News release

August 6, 2004                                                                                                                                                                                   

Conciliation board's report no help to PSAC negotiations with Parks

OTTAWA – The Public Service Alliance of Canada announced today that it intends to return to the bargaining table next week in an attempt to avoid a national strike of the federal Parks service scheduled to begin on Friday, August 13 th .

The union's decision comes on the heels of a conciliation board report released late yesterday. The report, which is not binding on the parties, provides recommendations on a number of outstanding issues still in dispute. It also serves to start the clock ticking for strike action – the union is in a legal strike position seven days following the release of the report.

The union is extremely disappointed that the conciliation board chose not to address the number one issue in the negotiations, namely improvements to rates of pay that would close a demonstrated wage disparity.   The absence of recommendations in this critical area calls into question the overall significance or value of the report since it doesn't offer any assistance to the parties for resolving this issue.

In the union's view, the board failed to do its work.   The union provided the conciliation board with a detailed and comprehensive data that showed a 20% wage gap between blue-collar employees at Parks and their counterparts in the private and other public sectors. In comparison, the employer arrived at the hearing without a brief and presented no information to refute the union's pay data. Surely the case was made to substantiate a significant pay improvement.

The union bargaining team will meet with representatives of Parks Canada on August 11 and 12.

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For information:   Joselito Calugay, Communications,
                             (613) 560-4235 or (613) 293-9324

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