It’s National Public Service Week 2024.
While the employer tries to win us over with trivial gestures this week, we all know the truth.
We're grappling with nonsensical Return to Office mandates, bad bargaining practices, rampant outsourcing, and more. Some of us still aren’t getting paid properly after almost a decade of disaster with the Phoenix Pay System.
These aren’t trivial or side issues. These are core issues that affect our pay, our benefits, our professional status, and our mental well-being.
This year, we won’t be placated by superficial acknowledgments. We demand genuine respect, fair working conditions, and a trustworthy employer, not a hot dog lunch or a pat on the back.
This is why PIPSC is boycotting National Public Service Week employer events.
A Troubling Pattern of Disrespect
We want to be clear: this isn’t about one single issue. This is about a troubling pattern of disrespect and bad employer decision-making that profoundly impacts our working conditions and directly undermines our capacity to serve Canadians.
It’s about nurses in northern communities providing life-saving services while earning a fraction of what contract staff make doing the same work in the same workplace.
It’s about workers losing their homes because their employer cannot pay them properly and on time.
It’s about a government that claims to value diversity and inclusion while implementing policies they know negatively impact equity-seeking groups the most.
Despite all this, our members still show up every day because we’re proud public service professionals, and that’s what we do.
We know that Canadians rely on us to deliver – from life-saving vaccines to crucial programs like CERB to Canadian cultural institutions like the National Film Board.
Your Union Has Your Back
Just as you show up every day for Canadians, unions show up for you, championing fair treatment, good work conditions, and a just society. Unions have historically been the force behind many of the benefits many now take for granted, such as weekends off, parental leave, and sick days.
These gains were not simply handed down. They were demanded, fought for, and won.
Unions like PIPSC play a crucial role in negotiating better wages and demanding better work-life balance, setting higher standards, and resulting in better conditions for all workers.
We can make change when we stand united because remember: your union has your back, not your boss.
Any union, including PIPSC, is only as strong as its members, who are engaged and operate from a place of principle and solidarity.
Help show that #SolidarityMatters on National Public Service Week
Join us in making a clear statement during National Public Service Week. You can:
- Boycott employer-organized NPSW events. Send them a message that we don’t want hotdogs or pats on the back unless they come with improved public service working conditions.
- Join our flyering events to take our message to the doorstep of thousands of voters in key ridings in the NCR.
- Show your support visually: Download the #SolidarityMatters Teams/Zoom background to display during meetings.
- Spread the word: Print and distribute #SolidarityMatters flyers about how our working conditions are crucial to the strength of public services Canadians count on.
- Attend a local PIPSC event if one is being organized by your branch for National Public Service Week, and let’s celebrate each other as PIPSC union members.
- Join events hosted by our friends at other unions, including this rally outside the Treasury Board on June 11 at lunch hour.
We need a future of work that works for all. Let's keep standing united and staying engaged. Let’s build this future together.