To ensure PIPSC remains well-positioned to support members during future bargaining rounds, the Board of Directors has resolved to make a multi-million dollar contribution to the Strike Fund. The exact amount will be finalized once year-end financial results are confirmed in August. This will build on the million dollar contribution we made last year.
“This is a serious decision. It reflects the seriousness of the moment,” said Sean O’Reilly, PIPSC president. “PIPSC will always come to the table ready to find solutions. But we will not ask our members to face this bargaining round unprepared.”
Across the federal public service, PIPSC members are facing job cuts, arbitrary return-to-office mandates, a growing reliance on private contractors, and constant pressure to do more with less. Taken together, these pressures are expected to make this one of the most challenging rounds of bargaining in recent years.
PIPSC members include scientists, researchers, IT workers, auditors, analysts, engineers, health professionals, procurement specialists, and other experts behind the systems Canadians rely on every day – from food safety and emergency preparedness to cybersecurity and disease control. Many of them will be at the bargaining table in the months ahead, including the Science and Patent Examination Group, whose members recently chose the conciliation/strike route rather than arbitration.
“No union wants to use its strike fund, but it exists for a reason: as a last-resort measure when an employer refuses to negotiate a fair agreement,” said O’Reilly. “If the federal government wants stable, reliable public services, it needs to respect the people who deliver them.”
By strengthening its strike fund now, PIPSC is sending a clear message to the government: members are ready to negotiate in good faith, but they are prepared to do what it takes to defend fair pay, respectable working conditions, and the public services Canadians depend on.
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For more information contact: media@pipsc.ca.
