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Ottawa: Union says latest CRA offer to striking employees is a slap in the face

Ottawa: Union says latest CRA offer to striking employees is a slap in the face

By م.زهير الشاعر

Published: May 3, 2023

Union leaders representing 35,000 striking employees at the Canada Revenue Agency say the latest offer made by the government does not live up to the agreement reached on Monday with 120,000 other government employees.

They said that if the government does not present a fair wage offer, CRA striking employees will attend the Liberal conference in Ottawa today, Thursday, as enough is enough.

PSAC National Staff Union President, Chris Aylward, told reporters yesterday, Wednesday, "We want to see a fair deal on the table today.

Our members are fed up, we are fed up, and our members need to return to work and serve Canadians."

The employees have been on strike since April 19, when the Canadian Public Service Alliance began a nationwide strike on behalf of about 155,000 employees.

It is noteworthy that this strike culminated in a tentative agreement to end this strike on Monday, which included a doubled wage increase of 12.6 percent over four years.

But 35,000 employees at the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are still on strike.

They are represented by the Tax Employees Union, a branch of the PSAC staff union.
 

The union says it is still in dispute with the regulatory agency on key issues including remote work and fair wages.
 

Aylward said, "The deal they currently reached is less than the deal we reached on Monday with Treasury Board units."
 

Adding, "We don’t know why the Canada Revenue Agency is playing this game."

Explaining, "If we don’t see a fair deal on the table today, we will be at the Liberal Party conference in Ottawa on Thursday.

Mark Breer, head of UTE, said there have been several offers from both sides this week, but he described CRA’s latest offer as a "slap in the face."

He said: "Our members are really angry and tired of waiting."

The CRA regulatory agency said in a statement on Monday that the agency and the union have resumed direct negotiations aimed at reaching a new collective agreement as soon as possible, fair to employees and reasonable for taxpayers."

The union initially demanded a wage increase of 22.5 percent over three years, which it says would keep pace with inflation costs.

Aylward said the union has made concessions, but he didn’t say exactly where each side stands.

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