It is often difficult to know the extent to which the membership base of a union favours a strike unless the union itself makes those numbers public
Only a third of Public Service Alliance of Canada members participated in their union’s strike vote, which has led to one of the largest job actions in Canadian history, according to details in a recent Federal Labour and Employment Board decision.
But part of that decision included data provided by PSAC to the Board about strike vote participation rates. Of 120,000 federal Treasury Board workers represented by the union, 42,421 exercised their right to vote.Amongst those who did vote, more than 80 per cent voted in favour of a strike. For example, in the biggest bargaining unit made up of 103,000 members – the Program and Administrative Services Group – 38,207 employees participated in the strike vote.
PSAC has, to date, declined to reveal the exact number of its members who voted for the strike. Union president Chris Aylward has repeatedly said that an “overwhelming majority” of his members were in favour of a strike. When Ontario education workers at the Canadian Union of Public Employees participated in a highly publicized job action last fall, more than 80 per cent of its 55,000 education worker members participated in the vote, which took place over 10 days. Of those, a massive majority of 97 per cent voted in favour of striking.
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