Union representing 35,000 CRA workers vote in favour of strike

The union representing 35,000 Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) service employees voted “overwhelmingly” to strike Friday, in response to a launch despatched to CTVNews.ca.

The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and the Union of Taxation Employees (UTE) made the announcement at 1 p.m. ET. The vote was held between Jan. 31 and April 7 and impacts the bulk of CRA staff.

“Our members have sent a strong message to CRA,” Chris Aylward, PSAC nationwide president, mentioned in a press launch. “Workers can’t wait, and we’re ready to show this government we won’t let workers fall behind.”

Union members who work on the CRA will likely be in a authorized strike place as of April 14. The strike may trigger delays for Canadians submitting their 2022 taxes by the May 1 deadline, Lars Jorgensen, the president of EJ Tax Service informed CTV News Kitchener.

A closing spherical of negotiations between PSAC and the CRA is about for April 17 to twenty.

The union’s collective settlement expired on Oct. 31, 2021, and employees are asking for “a fair compensation package, protections in the context of access to remote work, new protections for union jobs and new scheduling rights, including years of service protections where there is evening and weekend work.”

“Our members are falling further behind as inflation soars and wages are stuck in neutral,” Marc Brière, nationwide president of the Union of Taxation Employees, a part of PSAC, mentioned. “We’ve negotiated in good faith, but our members have had enough.”

PSAC is Canada’s largest federal public service union representing 230,000 employees throughout the nation with greater than 120,000 employed by Treasury Board. The union represents Crown Corporations, universities, casinos, airports, neighborhood service businesses and Indigenous communities.

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With recordsdata from CTV Kitchener’s Jennifer Okay. Baker and Colton Wiens.