A recent survey shows the majority of Canadians support the Public Service Alliance of Canada’s demands for better wage premiums and work-from-home rights as more than 155,000 federal workers continue to strike.
The Angus Reid Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan public opinion research foundation, found that 65 per cent of those surveyed supported the union’s ask for wage premiums for night shifts and overtime hours. Fifty-five per cent support federal employees' right to work from home, the survey showed.
Members of PSAC who work at the Canada Revenue Agency, Veteran Affairs Canada, Service Canada, the Canadian Border Services Agency and other departments and agencies have been on strike since Apr. 19, as bargaining between PSAC union leaders and the federal government ground to a halt, the union said in an email to members Tuesday evening.
This week the union ramped up picket lines at the Port of Montreal and Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, Ont. PSAC members also picketed outside the Treasury Board and the Prime Minister's Office building in Ottawa on Tuesday.
The Angus Reid survey showed less support for the union’s initial push for a 4.5 per cent annual wage increase for three years, though it still polled at 48 per cent, and 44 per cent of respondents approved of more annual paid family leave.
The survey found that political affiliation had the most impact on support for PSAC members’ demands. Those who said they supported the Conservative Party in 2021 are “overwhelmingly opposed to four of the five demands, though a slim majority (52 per cent) support union calls for wage premiums,” Angus Reid said.
The majority of survey respondents who said they supported the NDP and Liberal parties were in favour of all five of the union’s demands.
Quebecers and Atlantic Canada residents showed the highest overall support, and Alberta and Saskatchewan residents showed the least. Men over 55 years old showed the least support, while men 35 and younger and women between the ages of 18 and 54 showed the highest support.
Perhaps surprisingly, Canadians who either belonged to a union or had previously been a member of one were divided on their support. Almost 70 per cent support wage premiums for night shifts and overtime, and half support more annual paid leave, but more current union members opposed the annual stipend for employees who speak an Indigenous language than supported it.
On Tuesday evening, a PSAC email said the government had “shown no movement on our key issues, especially wages and remote work.”
METHODOLOGY
The Angus Reid Institute conducted an online survey from April 20-21, 2023 among a representative randomized sample of 1,276 Canadian adults who are members of the Angus Reid Forum. For comparison purposes only, a probability sample of this size would carry a margin of error of +/- 3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Discrepancies in or between totals are due to rounding. The survey was self-commissioned and paid for by ARI.
