PSAC members won an important victory today in defence of collective bargaining. The government tried but failed to circumvent the bargaining process by forcing FB members to vote on an offer that was not agreed to at the bargaining table.
On July 31, PSAC presented its case to the Federal Court of Canada and called on the court to quash the Minister's decision to force a vote. Our main objectives were to defend the collective bargaining process and to force the employer to return to the bargaining table to negotiate in good faith. The court ruled in our favour.
According to the Honourable Justice Gleason in her decision: "I have therefore concluded that the Minister's June 7th decision [to call a vote on the employer's final offer] must be set aside and, consequently, that the process now being undertaken to conduct the vote must be stopped as the decision ordering it is a nullity."
Today’s Federal Court decision means that the forced vote has been cancelled. We now need to direct our energy toward supporting our bargaining team so that we can reach a freely negotiated agreement.
Throughout this process, FB members from across the country demonstrated great unity and solidarity. Today’s victory was important for FB members and for unionized members everywhere – we should be proud of how we came together over the last few months.
As ever, we are prepared to bargain and we call on CBSA and Treasury Board to respect the bargaining process. It’s now time to get back to negotiations. Treasury Board has recently signed agreements with other public safety workers and has agreed to improvements beyond what is contained in their last offer to us. We deserve nothing less.