October 7 Deadline for PSAC Strike

VANCOUVER - Oct 5/04 - SNS -- The union representing Canada Customs, some Canadian Grain Commission employees and other federal government employees in Canada are in a position to launch a national strike one minute after midnight on October 7.

Around 80,000 public employees will be in a legal strike position on that date because the Conciliation Board has filed its report and the Treasury Board and union have failed to discuss outstanding issues.

"The basic message in the Conciliation Board's report is to urge the parties to return to the table in order to work out the outstanding issues," according to PSAC National President Nycole Turmel.

The union is not entirely happy with the conciliation report, which does not recommend "wage restructuring and wage harmonization, particularly with the integration of over 7,000 workers from the former Canada Customs and Revenue Agency," the PSAC union said in a statement.

Unless public employees picket the other unionized facilities at Canadian ports are walk off at border crossing, the strike is not expected to prevent grain, oilseed and specialty crop export movements to continue. However, interruptions should be expected.