Strike by Canadian diplomats spreads worldwideBy Wojtek Gwiazda | english@rcinet.ca
Friday 7 June, 2013 , 2 Comments ↓
After weeks of sporadic and limited work actions, Canadian diplomats have started worldwide strikes after negotiations fell apart with their employer, the Canadian government.
“After nearly two years of negotiations and a four-month hiatus in talks, the Government returned to the table with the same position they presented back in the fall of 2011,” says Tim Edwards, President of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Officers (PAFSO), in a press release Thursday.
“It goes against every instinct in our body,” said Tim Edwards, president of PAFSO in an April interview with RCI. (Photo: Charles DharapakAP)
“The Government’s unwillingness to compromise is an affront to the principles of free and fair bargaining, and to the tremendous value and dedication Foreign Service Officers offer to Canadians and their elected representatives,” said Edwards.
The association started with work-to-rule tactics, no overtime, not answering e-mails after 5PM, leaving cell phones at work. That followed with information pickets in Ottawa, then Washington.
The association wants parity with public servants in Canada who do similar work to theirs. It says the diplomats make thousands of dollars less than others in the public service. This even though, postings abroad bring all kinds of extra financial challenges that public servants in Ottawa do not have to face.
A PAFSO spokesperson confirmed late Friday that all Foreign Service Officers in London, Ireland and Paris (not OECD) have withdrawn services. Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrives in London on Tuesday and goes to Paris and Dublin before a G8 summit in Ireland.
The withdrawal of services affects Canadian immigration departments in Beijing, Shanghai, Delhi, and Chandigarth.
All Foreign Service officers have withdrawn services from Tokyo, Tel Aviv, Ramallah, Washington and the EU in Brussels.