Chris Aylward, President of Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), authorized a national general strike beginning at 12:01 am ET on Wednesday, April 19, 2023, for all 155,000 PSAC members working for the Canada Revenue Agency and Treasury Board, excluding essential workers.
This strike has impacted the Six Nations of the Grand River community including the Federal Schools, as well as, Ohsweken Public Health, who are PSAC Union members:
- Federal Schools: The teaching staff are funded and operated by Indigenous Services Canada. This includes our five (5) federally-run schools: Jamieson Elementary, J.C. Hill Elementary, Emily C. General Elementary, I.L. Thomas Elementary, and Oliver M. Smith Elementary.
- The results of this strike will affect more than 1100 Six Nations students and their families.
- Ohsweken Public Health: They are employed and operated by Health Canada. Maintenance staff can exercise their right to strike. However, most of the nursing staff are classified as essential workers and are not able to take strike action.
- The result of this strike may affect the maintenance at Ohsweken Public Health.
“The PSAC strike has impacted our Six Nations of the Grand River community and has the SNGR Elected Council concerned for all of our members, students and families,” said Chief Mark B. Hill. “We are maintaining regular contact with federal officials in hopes of alleviating as much stress as possible through this difficult time. We will continue to assert political pressure to get all those affected in our community back to their regular routines as quickly as possible.”
This decision has been made based on the federal government and PSAC not coming to an agreement on key issues such as wages, job security and remote work. To learn more about why federal workers are striking, visit https://psacunion.ca/.
There will be more updates from Six Nations of the Grand River Elected Council to come.
