Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

Ottawa - The Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) welcomes into its ranks all commissionnaires working in Health Canada buildings in the National Capital Region. For PSAC, this union victory is part of an extensive recruiting campaign aimed at better defending the rights of these workers.“We had to put in a lot of hard work to unionize this group of commissionnaires” , declared PSAC Regional Executive Vice-President, Ed Cashman. “Although they are spread out geographically which makes it difficult to organize them, these workers have the same rights as all Canadians, and it is our role as a union to ensure that these rights are protected.”

During the recruiting campaign, the union ran into opposition from the employer and was confronted by attempts to intimidate the employees.

“It is totally unacceptable that, in this day and age, an employer is so fiercely opposed to organizing a group of workers,” Cashman said. “The rights to associate and have union representation are recognized everywhere in Canada, and we should not have to fight to exercise them.

“It is all the more disturbing that these commissionnaires are working in a federal department,” continued Cashman.

In his opinion, the time has come for the government to remind this employer that the right to organize is a fundamental right in this country.

Health Canada commissionnaires will be grouped together in a new PSAC local in the National Capital Region which already represents over 48,000 workers.