By Jim Selby, AFL staff

Public Service Alliance of Canada members have been hammered by the federal Liberal government this spring.

First, striking ‘blue collar’ workers were forced to reached a tentative agreement just hours before the Government ‘back-to-work’ legislation would have imposed a lower wage settlement on workers than the government had previously tabled during negotiations. According to Alliance President Daryl Bean, the workers had little choice but to accept the tentative agreement. "While this agreement for the ‘blue collar’ workers is certainly not the most desirable agreement for our members, given the provisions of the legislation, our negotiating team will be unanimously recommending acceptance to the membership."

Then on March 30th, the government ordered 4,700 correctional officers to end their legal strike and imposed terms and conditions of employment on them.

"The government has absolutely no justification for its punitive action other than a desire to impose its way with respect to a wage increase that has been clearly repudiated by the Correctional Officers and an independent third party Conciliation Board," said Alliance President Daryl Bean. Bean emphatically states that there was no public safety reason for the government to strip his members of their democratic right to free collective bargaining. "There have been no picket line incidents or occurrences within the institutions that can possibly justify ordering an end to the strike," he said.

Especially galling to the Alliance is the imposition of a third year to the forced settlement with a legislated wage increase of just 2%. "By rejecting the major recommendations of the Conciliation Board Report, by imposing a third year increase, and by misleading the Senate [the government had promised to drop a disputed increment step in its efforts to gain swift passage of the back-to-work Bill through the Senate – a promise later broken], the government has, once again, made a mockery of both the bargaining and parliamentary processes," said Bean.

Audrey Cormack, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, clearly voiced the labour movement’s rejection of the Chretien government’s tactics. "The federal government has no right to give itself the power to overturn free collective bargaining and take away workers’ fundamental right to strike," she said. "They are balancing their budget and promising tax cuts to big business by cheating their own employees," she added, "it’s a national disgrace."

Canadian Labour Congress President Bob White also condemned the government’s back-to-work legislation as "a violation of workers’ democratic rights."

"Democracy is sometimes inconvenient and sometimes it’s clumsy. But it should not be taken away by an authoritarian act of government. What’s more inconvenient than an eight-year wage freeze? Some federal workers covered by this legislation have never voted on a bargained contract – and there won’t be one here," said White.

"Earlier this decade, Liberals joined PSAC picket lines and they jeered the Tories back-to-work bill. But, this is not the only example of the Liberal’s hypocrisy on workers’ right to collective bargaining.

"In June, Canada signed the ILO’s Declaration of Fundamental Principles. The Declaration guarantees the right to collective bargaining and the right to strike – which this legislation obviously violates."