News release

August 26, 2004

PSAC files complaint against Parks management for interference and intimidation

OTTAWA – The union representing 4,800 Parks Canada workers who are currently on strike filed a complaint against management for interfering with the bargaining process and for using intimidation tactics against picketing workers.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada charges that management has interfered with the union's processes rather than bargain.   They have done this by bargaining directly with our members who have a legal right to strike.

“This is insulting and a clear violation of the Act that governs collective bargaining in the federal public sector,” said Jeannie Baldwin, the PSAC officer in charge of bargaining with Parks Canada.   “Our union's bargaining team was democratically elected by our members at Parks, and it has the mandate to reject or call for a vote on any offer by the employer.   Parks Canada management should respect that and deal directly with the team.”

One of the examples the union cites in its complaint are memos that management distributed to workers that describe pay positions and that state that the union should call for a vote on the last offer.   This last statement was also repeated by management in the media on several occasions.

The complaint further states that the employer has used intimidation and threats to prevent workers from exercising their right to strike and to picket.   This was done through threatening and legally misleading letters to workers and through videotaping and photographing of strikers on the picket lines.

“These were all intended to undermine the union's leadership and proper role in bargaining,” says PSAC National President Nycole Turmel.   “Our members have been hitting the employer hard while minimizing the impact on the public.   In contrast, the employer has been manipulating, abusing and undermining its workforce and the public.   It's the employer who has been abusing the situation on the picket lines.”

The complaint was sent today to the Public Service Staff Relations Board, the body that oversees collective bargaining between the federal government and federal agencies and public service unions.

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For information:

Joselito Calugay, PSAC communications officer

(613) 560-4235
(613) 293-9324 (cell)